Category Archives: Live Action Movies

In This Our Life Review

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It’s time to look at another retro drama film with a lot of twists and turns as things don’t always go in favor of the main character. It’s not nearly as strong as the last two though. The characters don’t make a lot of good decisions here which results in the antagonist getting away with quite a bit. The ending’s definitely solid though and does finish the film off on a good note. It’s not quite enough to me to say that this film was solid but it’s a plot that is pretty hard to execute as is. You’ve got rebounds and weak willed characters running around all over the place here.

The movie starts by introducing us to the two sisters. They couldn’t be any more different. Roy is a proper young lady who isn’t timid or anything but she doesn’t rock the boat. She aims to have a fulfilling life with her husband Peter. Meanwhile her sister Stanley is always driving well past the speed limit and likes to take risks with her life. It’s how she really begins to feel alive! Her uncle William is super rich so he’s always able to bribe people so that it slides. Well, one day Stanley takes things to the next level and runs off with Roy’s husband. Her fiance Craig then gets depressed as well. Is it possible for Roy and Craig to move on or our their lives pretty much sunk?

Right off the bat you can tell that Peter’s a pretty weak willed character. It’s not even like in most films where he was only the boy friend and got whisked away. In this case he was actually the husband already so he really has absolutely no excuse here. Definitely a pretty bad character the whole time. Naturally the main antagonist here is Stanley. She’s definitely the kind of character who likes to openly manipulate people. Unfortunately she tends to be pretty successful at it too. The other characters just can’t seem to say anything to her and tend to back off almost immediately. You’d like to think that they could hold their own but it just doesn’t happen. She continues to spiral more and more out of control while the other characters use kid gloves for her.

The main part of the film that was going a bit too far here was Roy visiting Stanley and allowing her to come back. It’s great that she is so understanding but you’ve also got to take actual precautions in the meantime. For starters, you forgive her but afar. Allowing her back into the house just runs the risk of more controversies and trouble. While it would have been hard for the heroes to guess that a certain event would happen at the end, I’m sure Stanley would have thought of something else. Mainly she was just trying her best to see how far she could break the rules.

So Roy is a solid main character even if she can be a bit too passive at times. The film consistently portrays her as a very nice character who wants to succeed the right way. She isn’t taking any shortcuts with her career and is just a good role model. She helps Parry out quite a bit by getting him a good job and fully supporting his dream to be a Lawyer. Confidence can go a long way and by supporting him she was able to underscore that anything was possible. At the time this town seemed to be quite racist as the film makes sure to depict with how Parry is treated. The characters all treat this as matter of fact except for Roy who didn’t seem to notice that this was such an issue. I suppose in her position she wouldn’t have seen much of this happening around her but once she did, Roy took a solid stand. Roy plays a large part in helping out during the climax as well.

Then you’ve got Craig who didn’t handle Stanley leaving nearly as well. The guy gets depressed for a while and he definitely wouldn’t have recovered nearly as quick as he did if not for Roy. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of his, but at least he didn’t show up at the bar which was critical. Even if nothing happened, showing up at the bar would have been a terrible mistake. Sometimes you’ve got to resist the urge to rise to a challenge because nothing good can come out of it. You just can’t let yourself get manipulated like that. It’s simply not worth it so he got points for this. Then you’ve got Parry who is a solid supporting character. He’s a bright guy who works really hard. You can tell he put in the effort to get to where he is and that he’ll keep on doing it. Using your first check to buy materials to study is the kind of dedication that you just won’t see a lot of people with.

Unfortunately the romance is pretty weak in this film. Due to the nature of the film, the main romance here with Roy and Craig is a rebound. Roy was married and Craig was ready to be. Now they’re ready to move on with each other so quickly? It’s just hard to see this as anything but a rebound no matter how the film slices it. It doesn’t let you buy into this and the film would have been a whole lot more convincing if they had just stayed as friends. If they were supportive friends I dare say that it would have had a more effective impact on the film.

The writing is solid although Rich Uncle William ends up looking pretty gullible by the end. I like all the bluster with how he yells at everyone and brags a lot. That’s good and his confidence is probably what helped him become to obscenely rich. You have to have that attitude. That said, Stanley just defeats him way too easily. He lets her get away with everything so you can’t really take what he says seriously. She openly tries to finish him off at one point but fortunately his stomach ended up being as tough as he said. He was still the most entertaining character in the film but he didn’t end particularly strong this time.

Overall, Is This Our Life is a film with some pretty strong themes about moving on after a tragedy occurs. The film just slips up with the main premise of the romance rebound which sort of undermines everything here. I’d also argue that the scenario for Stanley coming back seemed rather forced. It’s all tragic on her end of course, but letting her come back after all of that? I don’t think so. At the very least I dare say that Roy should not have been the one to go over. She’s just a little too passive here. The film goes by pretty quick and definitely has a solid climax, but it doesn’t hold up nearly as well as the other recent retro films I’ve been watching. The guys are too weak willed and the one who has absolute confidence in William just isn’t up to the task. I’d recommend checking out the Heiress instead on how to properly defend yourself in the end and that one perfectly executes the theme of moving on.

Overall 4/10

The Heiress Review

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It’s time for an old school romance film. This one definitely serves to remind you that trust is something that needs to be earned. If you’re rich then you end up with a lot of advantages in life but also some unique disadvantages. One is that you never know if people are being straight with you anymore or if they’re just watching your pockets and trying to get some money. You need to be aware of this at all times. People say “More money more problems” which is probably a saying from someone who had a lot of money since I don’t buy into that, but being rich certainly doesn’t mean you’re problem free. Oh no, you’ll definitely have a lot of new worries so in a way it’s a trade off. You may have to live a bit more of a lonelier life if you’re rich so you’ve got to be clever and discrete. The main character was neither here.

The movie starts off by introducing us to the family of Catherine, her father Austin, and her aunt Lavinia. The three of them now live under one roof with Catherine feeling like the odd one out. Lavinia’s had a very social life and just has a lot of fun in day to day activities. Then you have Austin who has built an entire empire although he is now old and getting closer and closer to death. Catherine has an inheritance of 10,000 dollars a month and once Austin dies that will go to 30K. The only issue is that right now she has no suitors. Catherine hasn’t done a lot to really stand out in appearance or in manners. This created a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy where she has lost all confidence in herself and can’t hold up even the beginnings of a normal conversation.

Time after time she is taken to parties but nobody wishes to dance with her or anything like that. Then one day she meets a man named Morris who is incredibly interested in her. He claims this to be love at first sight and wants to marry her that same week. He quickly pressures her into agreeing to engage and then get married a few days later. Catherine’s father Austin is not thrilled at this. He claims that Morris is a bounty hunter just looking to take her money. He decides to try and prove this to Catherine but she simply won’t believe him. Is it really true that Morris is just using her or is he actually a good guy? The stakes are quite here as she might lose her one true love or prepare for a loveless life.

There’s definitely a lot to say on this matter. For starters, this is why you can’t just fall for someone so instantly. I’ve never believed in love at first sight. I believe people mix that up with infatuation or a crush. Those things can happen in an instant since it’s purely superficial attraction. Love is something you build up as you hang out with such a person and begin to admire their other traits. There’s a world of difference between a crush and love. So even if Morris is on the level with his feelings, they come across as quite shallow here. The only reason he has so much sway over Catherine is because she is so desperate for love after being turned down for so long. She is quite desperate to be in a relationship.

It’s why you have to be content with yourself first. If you’re not having a good time then getting into a relationship is hardly going to change things. At most it’ll just tide you over for a little while but you need internal happiness as well, you can’t just be happy when someone else is around. It’s also a fair point that Catherine didn’t put in a lot of effort if she really wanted to impress the men around. There’s a whole lot you can do with your appearance to try and catch someone’s eye. Assuming that she simply preferred this look which is fair, she could have learned some talents. Dance for example is something she could have definitely studied and I also question why she was so slow on the uptake with everything. Catherine never seems to understand what is going on even if it’s being done right in front of her face.

While the film sometimes uses this as dark humor, it doesn’t really hurt her case. Either way you’ll feel bad for Catherine regardless. The film can be quite tragic and even if she should have picked up on some of the things everyone was saying, you can’t help but empathize with her plight. It may not be all that relatable but she does get crushed quite a few times in this film. That’s not to say that other characters don’t make mistakes though. I liked Lavinia quite a bit and for a while she was the best character in the film. Then she starts to get played as a sucker towards the end which really hurts her. I suppose you could make the case that she knows how this will end but still feels like Catherine will be happier. I don’t see why she would believe that though. It’s just not a good look there. I did appreciate the energy and spunk she gave the film though.

The best character in the end would be Austin. Austin was looking at things scientifically right from the start. He may come across as rather cold and aggressive but at the end of the day he was still looking out for Catherine. He figures it’s better to stop things now even if it hurts her a bit rather than letting them go too far and then having her realize what is going on. As a result he has to play the bad guy for most of the film. He does go a bit far at times like not being able to see any qualities in Catherine. If she doesn’t currently possess any skills then it’s his job to help her acquire them. We know that he has made a reasonable attempt at this but he could surely do more. Even in terms of looks he has wealth and means so he could take her to beauty salons and such. If he were more helpful to her during all of this that would have been nice as well.

Finally we have Morris who certainly gets a pretty big role in the film. He’s certainly bold if nothing else like his final scenes. You’d have to be living under a rock to really accept what’s going on at the end there. If anything I’m not sure the jewels were needed, but I guess to build up the anticipation further so there’s a bigger fall to rock bottom. I get the concept at least. I can’t say that I was a big fan of Morris from the start though. You really should never come across as too desperate and he seemed desperate from the start.

The writing here is pretty solid. The movie does a good job of keeping a sad tone afloat the whole time for Catherine without going over the edge with it. You’ll definitely feel bad for her the whole time and you don’t even need a lot of sad music tunes to get that across. There’s one section in the film where she wears the Sith Lord cloak from Star Wars and that was pretty intense. Her character definitely started to change towards the end and it made for a very interesting character shift. I wouldn’t have minded if that had been her regular attire for more of the film. It has aged pretty well.

Overall, This film definitely reminds you to play things close to the vest. If someone tries to rush you into something then you should think twice about it. The film has a pretty satisfying conclusion so it makes this a very complete experience. At times you’ll definitely wish Catherine would be more active or at least a little smarter but it is what it is. If you like a good romance drama film then I’d recommend checking this one out. The pacing is good and quite a lot happens here. You also get a few verbal debates with solid back and forths like the scene with Austin vs Morris in the dining room. Now that’s the kind of scene I would definitely like to see more of.

Overall 7/10

To Each His Own Review

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It’s time to look at an old school drama film. It shows how keeping secrets and making elaborate plans can really end up backfiring for you. Of course, it also sounds like being in a small town like this would backfire as well. I feel like there are many better ways Jody could have handled things. Still, it’s a pretty entertaining film and while it may be a pretty sad one for most of its run, it does have a happy ending at least to balance things out. Always good to end on a solid note.

The movie starts with Jody spending New Year’s Eve by herself once more. It definitely hasn’t been the best year for her but she’s used to being alone anyway. She ends up saving the life of another fellow by the name of Desham and he lays the situation out for her. They’re both rather old right now and don’t have anybody to live for which is why they are so lonely. They wasted their youth but at least now they can be friends. Jody reluctantly has to admit that he has a point but she’s too busy for that. She heads to the train station and then gets a flashback to explain how things got this far which ends up being most of the film.

Jody grew up in a small town where all of the guys were always after her. Particularly Mac and Alex who asked her out many times but she always refused. She just didn’t think she was actually in love with them. Well, eventually she met a pilot named Bart and had a connection with him. The guy got murdered shortly afterwards but Jody did end up having the kid. The problem is that having a kid without being married was a big taboo in this town so she arranged for the baby to be brought to her friend’s house and since they were so packed she would inevitably get to keep the baby right? Wrong, the lady gave the baby over to Jody’s “friend” Corrinne instead. Corinne refuses to give the baby back so now Jody needs to figure out a ways to reunite with Griggsy before it’s too late.

There’s a point where the film is really just an endless string of tragedies for Jody. Nothing goes right for her at all and of course growing up without her own kid is pretty haunting. She at least gets to hang out with him a lot at Corrinne’s place, but as the “aunt” so it’s just not quite the same. She wanted to have that true mother son relationship but Corrinne eventually forced her to stop visiting. I can’t say I really blame Corrinne in this respect as Jody was starting to go a little far in bonding with the kid. Of course from Jody’s perspective this makes sense but why would Corrinne want to put up with this right?

Jody has some pretty decent plans for getting control of Griggsy though. You have to give her a lot of points for determination and will power. She never quite gives up during the film. No matter how things keep on backfiring she gets right back on the saddle again and again. She’s a pretty solid character for sure. She didn’t give up on finding true love as opposed to settling and also didn’t rebound afterwards. Jody’s a solid main character who sacrifices quite a lot again and again. It’d be hard to find a nicer character here.

The best character would have to be Desham though. The guy is a really quick thinker and definitely comes up with a really solid plan to try and get everyone back together by the end. Without him Jody would definitely have been pretty doomed the whole time. The guy just comes across as a true gentleman and one who sees the big picture. He also does respect Jody’s wishes even if he thinks she is incorrect in at least one decision. For a while there I was wondering if we would get back to the present timeline but we do and it all makes for a complete ending. The film is rather long so there’s a lot of time for all of the plots to get a good amount of screen time.

Griggsy doesn’t get to appear a whole lot but at the same time he is a huge focus of the story. I can’t say he was very likable as a kid but at least he tried being nice during the scene when they went to the rodeo. As an adult he’s a whole lot more reasonable. He may change plans quite often on the spur of the moment but he does tend to mean well. He has 0 context on what’s going on around him so he’s just going about business as usual. He certainly seems like he’ll be a much more dependable guy than his peers from the older generation. Alex turned out to not be very good as he admitted to loving Jody more than his own wife. Not a great look even if everyone suspected this by how quickly he rebounded. I liked Mac, but dependable wouldn’t be the right word for him. He started out as a swindler but Jody helped show him the error of his ways and from there he only got better. Now he’s an upstanding businessman who is actually quite solid.

Then you’ve got Corrinne who is okay. She was a bit rude during her first scenes like questioning if Jody was actually happy but the scenes with Griggsy are much more understandable. No matter the origin of how the baby got there, Corrinne is the mother now so of course she wasn’t about to surrender the kid up without a fight. There’s no way anyone would do that so it just all makes sense. In general the writing here was pretty realistic with the characters. I do think Jody just overthought things with the plan though. The town would gossip either way so just come up with a shorter story and that could work pretty well.

As mentioned, there’s a lot going on here. It’s easy to forget that most of the adventure is a flashback at that because it’s so long before the present timeline shows itself up again. The present makes all the more sense thanks to this extra development though so it all works out quite nicely. That said, spending the holidays by yourself isn’t so bad if you go and grab some food. I think part of why Jody wasn’t too happy was because she wasn’t doing much of anything so she had too much time to think. Instead she should have made some kind of goal like visiting every diner and that would give her a great opportunity to stay distracted all the while.

Overall, To Each His Own is a pretty solid film. I’d say that it is a good one in all aspects. The writing is solid and the characters are on point. The pacing is good and since the ending is satisfying that goes a long way as well. The film can be quite sad for most of its run so how much you enjoy it will likely depend on how much you think the ending ultimately ends up canceling this out. The ending is really what you remember the most though so I would say it works out. All’s well that ends well right?

Overall 7/10

Fail Safe Review

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It’s time to look at another film about possible nuclear war. It’s certainly a fun topic to take a look at and definitely makes for a pretty intense film. I love seeing governments talk about this stuff in movies like this, especially while it’s happening all around them. A whole film about this is pretty ideal. The only thing that holds this movie back is the ending which….is pretty bad. Oof. Definitely not an ending you want to see but otherwise this one is pretty solid.

The film starts with the Air Force giving a tour to some of the funders. It’s all pretty routine as they explain how we have counter measures set up for if someone starts triggering World War III. They run these drills every month or so. During this test there is a UFO which the army is unable to identify. It turns out to be a false alarm but unfortunately due to a system malfunction the bombers get orders to blow up Moscow and there is no way to call them back. The President will have to think of something quickly in order to stop this from happening. The only option now appears to have the rest of our troops actually shoot them down ourselves. Is it really worth shooting our own soldiers down to prevent the bombs from dropping?

A big part of the film is really about what lengths we are willing to go in order to prevent this tragedy. Blasting our own men is just the tip of the iceberg as we also order our soldiers to effectively commit suicide and then tell the Russians how to completely destroy our planes and missiles. This means that in any future battles we will be at a massive disadvantage. Effectively the more we do to avert this current crisis, the more likely we are to lose the next one. This begins causing some dissent among the officials as they all have different ideas on how to play this. You’ve got the President, The Vice President, A professor, the General at the scene, and then the board room. Everyone’s got an opinion and they’re all willing to share it.

My favorite character was definitely the Professor. The guy is definitely on the extreme side but is certainly quick on his feet and makes for a lot of entertaining banter. He’s been heavily interested in death since day 1 and so getting put into a position like this is quite interesting for him. He believes that since the attack has already begun we should press our advantage and send in an attack squad. This would then force Russia to surrender and we’ll have won the war without firing a shot after the bombs. While there is nothing necessarily underhanded about doing so if we presume that there is no way to stop the bombs, it does turn an accident into a full war offensive.

So while he may be extreme there and we don’t need to follow up the attack, I find the president to be too extreme in the other side. He wants to avert a diplomatic disaster so he agrees to bomb New York to appease the Russians. Wait a minute…that’s a horrible idea. Not only was our sending the bomb a mistake but we find out that it is partially the Russian’s fault as they intentionally jammed our communications and then kept on jamming it as our fighter plane approached their territory which is why we couldn’t call them back. You can’t answer an accident by intentionally destroying 5 million of our own people. It’s an eye for an eye only it’s worse in this case since we’re delivering both blows. I feel like the President wouldn’t live much longer after people find out what he did here.

He tries to justify this as making everything even but it’s just not so. As the leader of your station you have the utmost duty to protect your people. Whatever happens that’s the job. I’d say his first mistake was trying to shoot down our own pilots, the second was giving the enemy the tech to take us down, the last and biggest was in blowing up New York. I wouldn’t say that the film glorifies this and it’s still a well made movie so I consider it a character error as opposed to a film error. The President made his call even if it was the wrong one so this is a solid film to check out. That said, it’s still just pretty bad. put it this way, once our nukes are going to hit Moscow only two things can happen. One is that they will retaliate and then that will force the U.S. to blow up the planet. The other is that they don’t retaliate and while this will be a diplomatic nightmare, things will go on as usual.

You have to accept those as the two outcomes of this action. Blowing ourselves up just isn’t a factor. It’s far better for us all to die together as one planet than for the country to turn on itself. That’s just not a good idea. It would have made for a good twist if one of the pilots had hijacked the final plane to prevent it from dropping the bomb or for the interpreter to have taken the President out. Certainly would have been very unexpected but it would have been a good move for justice to have prevailed. Of course you never know how you will really react in such a situation but I like to think we wouldn’t do this.

Overall, Fail Safe is definitely a pretty interesting film. I like all of the discussions and plans of how to handle this situation. It’s a film that inherently doesn’t have a lot of replay value since most of the fun is in seeing how things will play out. It’s like a mystery, once you know all of the answers then it won’t be quite as interesting to check out the next time around. At least a mystery allows you to see if any hints were dropped while this movie doesn’t have such an advantage. Still, if you haven’t seen this movie before then I would definitely recommend changing that. It’s one of the better political thrillers to check out even if you’ll shake your head on the ending.

Overall 6/10

Battle Angel Alita Review

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Now it’s time to take a look at a big thriller film that came out a while back. The trailers for Alita always looked like a lot of fun. It definitely had a solid budget behind it and the story looked to be on point as well. You just couldn’t go wrong with this one or so I thought. As I watched the film I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The movie was easily at the level of an 8 star movie and it’s safe to say that this would automatically put it as one of the greatest Sci-Fi films of all time. Unfortunately then the film jumped the shark with one critical scene that shot itself right in the foot. It’s a shame but at least I can still have a lot of hype for the sequel now since it’s unlikely that it would do the same plot point again. I mean…it better not because that would just be terrible writing!

So the film starts off with a scientist named Dyson finding a broken robot in the junkyard. He repairs her and names the girl Alita. She doesn’t know where she came from or anything like that but she seems to have a talent for fighting. Dyson warns her not to get into trouble but in this corrupt future that’s a tall order. She meets up with a guy named Hugo who quickly takes her to the rowdier spots in town and she also notices Dyson heading off on one of his bounty hunter missions. The more Alita finds out, the less content she is with just observing. She aims to fix this future if it’s the last thing she does.

Lets quickly get some background on this future. There are two main areas of society. Those who live in the air and are considered high class, and then you’ve got the guys on the ground who struggle to survive. The only change you have of ever getting to the rich zone is through Motorball. If you become the grand champion then you will be elevated. Everyone else makes money however they can. It’s a brutal world where you can be murdered just about anywhere. There are no cops anymore and the black market is right out on the open. You’ve got gangs who go around ripping people up and seeing off their mechanical parts. So, no place is really safe which is why I have issues with Dyson not helping Alita get combat ready. Even if he didn’t want her to get in danger, wouldn’t he feel better if she was at least in a super safe body with extra durability?

So lets talk about all of the things the film does right first. The special effects here are quite solid. The battle scenes are all excellent. Right when Alita takes down the thugs in the alleyway you know the rest of the film is going to be a blast. There’s a lot of great choreography here. I also think a good amount of it was probably borrowed from Spider-Man with the poses and landing techniques as well. It all moves very quick with a solid back and forth during each battle. These feel like battles inspired by a manga and definitely hold their own as some of the best live action fights I’ve seen in a long time. You don’t really see this kind of action outside of CBM’s usually so you’ve always got to savor the genre while you can. If we get more manga adaptions like this it shouldn’t even be such a rare thing. This is what a DBZ fight could turn into down the road.

The graphics are so good that a lot of scenes from the film look like they’re straight out of a CGI film. During the whole movie Alita always looked CG although I suppose to an extent that’s because of the edits they did to the face. It reminds me of those phone apps where you take a picture of yourself and get an anime look. The main character looks like that process was done to her throughout the whole film. Mix that in with the interesting sci-fi backdrops and I wouldn’t have been surprised if you told me that the whole film was real locations that were digitized and this was low key a CGI film all along. It’s all pretty surreal and unique which works out quite well here.

Battle Angel Alita also makes the most of the sci-fi backdrop. This may be a pretty grim future but at least we kept the tech this time around as opposed to those futures where everything is back to the wild west for some reason. I also liked the Motorball sport. My only question though is if you’re fast enough to get to the lead, once you have the ball shouldn’t you be able to just race to the finish? It seems like whenever someone would grab the ball then the others would suddenly catch up. All I can think of is the ball is that heavy or when you grab it you feel a lot of pressure so you go a lot slower. Regardless, it’s a pretty fun sport. Definitely high stakes since you can get wrecked at any point but I suppose that’s part of the point.

I wouldn’t say I can recall many of the tunes here but I remember them being solid while watching the film. Then we’ve also got a very strong main character in Alita. What I like about Alita is that she’s very quick to jump into action. She doesn’t back down when it gets dangerous and also doesn’t hesitate. Her scene in the alley was pretty powerful as she took down the 3 enemies who stood in her way. When you consider that she had no memories at the time and this was her first fight after being rebuilt, it was pretty courageous of her. You can tell that she makes for a dependable ally. My favorite scene for her was in the bar though when she challenges everyone to stand up or to stay as cowards. She delivered quite a lot of damage to all of them there and I liked this confident portrayal of her character. She started out strong and ended strong. Alita’s not a main heroine you’ll be forgetting anytime soon.

It’s not surprising that the film had such great positives. As I mentioned, it was on track for an easy 8. So where did it falter? Well, there’s one scene where a dog shows up and the instant that happened I had a lot of warning bells go off. Unfortunately the villain decides to target him and the heroes all sit on their hands and just allow it to happen. The film tries to minimize the damage by having the dog murdered off screen but it’s still a rather vicious scene and one that was undeserved. We didn’t need this to happen and it also doesn’t make any sense in context since Alita should have been able to block the attack. It’s not like she needed any extra motivation either. No matter how you slice it, this was just for shock value and it completely destroyed the film’s score with a massive 3 point swing.

The writing is pretty good otherwise though. The film decides to go edgy with one line Alita has, but otherwise there’s a good script here. One scene that was unintentionally funny though was the big villain meeting. So you’ve got Grewishka, Chiren, and Vector all in the same room. Up to now we can assume Vector is the leader. Well, he comes in talking really tough and intimidating Chiren so Grewishka threatens Victor…by saying that Chiren shouldn’t be messed with. Vector then feels the fear as Chiren threatens him and hit the ground…then he gets up and threatens Chiren so she backs off. The whole thing had me doing a double take because then who is the boss? Well, once Vector’s eyes started to light up then it all made sense so the scene quickly has more context since this happens right after that but otherwise it was worth a good chuckle.

There’s a little more detail to this at the end of the film. I wouldn’t say that either Chiren or Vector made for particularly solid villains though. Chiren made her choices but ultimately couldn’t live with them which doesn’t make a lot of sense. Then you have Vector who’s not exactly the smartest villain around. His plans weren’t terrible I suppose but you’d think that he could have acted a lot sooner once he knew where Alita was. He basically gave her complete freedom until it was too late. I did like Grewishka and Zapan as villains though. Grewishka was definitely determined and managed to put up a solid fight multiple times. While he was critical in destroying the film, as an antagonist he was pretty fierce.

Then you have Zapan who is rather weak to be honest but he was really solid in the scene where Alita beats the guy up. Look, he’s super petty but that’s part of what makes him a fun villain to have around. He gets off extremely easy all things considered though. I just don’t get it. Alita should have taken him out a whole lot sooner so what happened to Hugo was really her fault to an extent. She needed to be more decisive even if he was terrible at explaining things himself. I also liked the lady villain who fought Alita in the android because she had a good amount of confidence but she didn’t exactly last very long.

I had some problems with Dyson though. Again, the guy didn’t do much to protect Alita in this crazy world. He should have prepared her with the new armor right away and taught her more. Why be surprised when she starts rebelling with how restrictive he was right? Then there’s Hugo who is one of the weakest characters in the film. He’s a total villain for a large chunk of it and the romance is pretty weak. Hugo and Alita shouldn’t have connected and even by the end it’s hard to really sympathize with the guy. He always makes the wrong calls again and again. He was definitely holding her back.

Battle Angel had quite the body count though. You may be surprised at how many people get sliced apart. The film’s not super violent or anything as they’re robots a lot of the time and even when a human gets sliced in half the camera quickly cuts away. Still, the deaths tend to happen very quickly and without warning so it can catch you off guard if you’re not ready. It really shows how this world is so dangerous and why you need to be careful. If you don’t have cool robot abilities then you probably should hide at home because it seems like going outside is pretty much rolling the dice. There are just so many crazy abilities to watch out for and a human stands no chance. In a way you want to turn into a cyborg as soon as possible because then at least you have a chance to defend yourself.

Overall, Battle Angel Alita is a very fun movie. You’ll have a blast for about 95% of it. I can’t stress enough how unfortunate the whole dog thing was. It was just not needed but it is what it is. I’d recommend checking this film out if you like Sci-Fi action. There’s a lot of that to be had here and all of the technicals are at a super high level. This is a film with masterful pacing and you are unlikely to find a better Sci-Fi around right now. That said, I have a lot of confidence that the sequel will be just as good. After seeing the hype ending to Tokyo Drift I wasn’t expecting another ending to be quite on that level for a while but this one is also very good. Definitely gets you hyped the right way.

Overall 5/10

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Review

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It’s time to finally take a look at the third installment in the Fast and the Furious film. Unfortunately this one just isn’t very good. It has a lot of fanservice and the characters aren’t particularly likable. This makes for an experience that’s more of a miss than it ever should have been. That being said, it has its strengths. I enjoyed the visuals and the music this movie had to offer. At the end of the day those factors are never going to be enough to make you a very good film in general, but I suppose it’s a good start so we take those.

The movie begins with Sean getting goaded into yet another race. He simply couldn’t let the bully go after having a rock thrown through the window and decides to mix things up with him in this race. Unfortunately, while Sean won the race he was still picked up by the cops. The bullies get away of course but Sean’s been caught one too many times. His Mom arranges for him to be bailed out and sent to his father in Tokyo. His father only has 2 main rules, go straight home, and no underground racing. That’s not Sean’s style though so he gets his new friend that he’s known for 2 hours to take him to the local scene. Sean gets demolished in this race and since he broke the car he now has to work for Han until he pays it back. Sean wants to pay him back but he also wants Neela to be with him and to do that he needs to humiliate DK in a race. Can he really surpass the Drift King?

When the film started the first thing I could think of was that this film seemed like more of a Need for Speed adaption than the actual film. Sean references racing for Pink Slips which is all that you do in the big boss levels of those games. Then we’ve got the whole Drifting focus here which is huge in Need for Speed. So those were just pretty fun things to note. Then you have the cops nabbing him right away too which is what usually goes down there. So, the racing scenes here are quite solid. I definitely have no problems with them. I suppose Drifting may be a little less exciting to watch than a straight race, but we get plenty of those here too so no matter which style you like, there’s plenty of fun to be had here. If you don’t like driving at all….then I can’t help you here.

Meanwhile the visuals are also really nice. The nighttime races in particular look good and it meshes well with the Tokyo environment. Tokyo is sort of like New York in how it’s always open and active with things going on 24/7. The most intense race was probably the 4 way free for all with the heroes trying to escape and being pursued by DK. It was nice because they were all just racing through the streets. There was no map, you had to drive on instinct. The final race on the mountain is also pretty solid though. As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to action this film couldn’t be beat.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack quite a bit. It’s quite different from most soundtracks that I’ve heard. I can’t speak to the lyrics as you’re more focused on the beat. At the very least the main theme really gets you set for some hype races. It’s got a bit of an ominous feel to it where there’s danger all around. If this counts as rap, then it’s probably one of the few rap songs that I found to actually be rather good. It’s definitely not my genre in general but any genre can have a good tune if you try hard enough. This song just really set the stage every time it was played. So I think we’ve got most of the positives out of the way now. I’ll also say that I enjoyed the ending stinger. I imagine it’ll be pretty annoying for people who saw this day 1 wondering when this lead would show up again though. It does feel like this was just a little tribute for the fans but it was the perfect way to end things off.

All right, so here’s where the film falters. Lets get the obvious things out of the way. First is the obnoxious amount of fanservice here. The camera zooms in quite a bit, Sean goes to various clubs and Discos that are pretty edgy. All of his teammates seem morally dubious as well. Even Han who is the most charismatic member of the crew doesn’t actually seem like a good guy if you think about it. All of the heroes here live free and loose. By that I mean that I wouldn’t trust any of them in a serious relationship for a second much less to have your back in a fight. They would turn at the first sign of danger. The romance in the movie is also handled pretty poorly. It’s hard to see why Neela would fall for Sean after everything that goes on. I suppose getting rescued in a sense by the villain helps since people can mistake gratitude for love, but then you recall that Sean gets distracted by every girl he meets and you know this relationship can’t possibly end well.

As for Sean, he’s just not a good character. I tend to like the rebellious character type but this guy takes it way too far. You’ve always got to try and hit the right amount of edge for these characters since they should still feel like a good character in general who wants to do the right thing. You never get that feeling with Sean. As I mentioned, he ignores his father and immediately goes into underground racing. It’s not like he was pressured into it or someone was in trouble. He chose to get back into the game and didn’t care about the consequences. I already mentioned how he seems to be quite flighty and goes after girls. The guy also stood around as someone got bullied. I think the film was trying to say that he would have stepped in if the hazing was more intense. He put down the wrench once he saw they were “just” spray painting him. You could also interpret it as he saw the numbers and decided he couldn’t win.

I don’t think it matters much what reasoning you chose. It’s still horrible that he let the guy get bullied like that. Physical damage isn’t the only kind of bullying there is. Being held down and spray painted all over would be an incredibly traumatizing experience. From that point it would be extremely difficult for Sean to become a likable character and he didn’t even come close to pull it off. His best friend Twinkie is a lot better in that respect. I do think it was a bit much for him to get upset when Sean came to his rescue but otherwise he’s consistently helpful. He takes a lot of risks to help Sean as well so it’s not like he’s just giving moral support. Sean would have been in trouble without him.

DK made for an intimidating villain. The guy definitely didn’t mess around and wasn’t afraid to make the fight physical instead of waiting for the race to begin. He got some good shots on both Sean and Han prior to the races. His skills were also pretty good. He may not be a real mafia member but he had the act down. As for Neela, she was a solid heroine who definitely got herself wrapped up in the wrong crowd. I suppose she underestimated how possessive DK was based on how she was acting at the start. She can apparently drive pretty well but sadly we don’t get to see her race much at all. In general she isn’t given a ton to do here but I liked her character. She had a lot of depth going for her and by default destroys most of the cast in that respect. The film doesn’t go overboard in explaining her backstory either. You understand the crux of it with the context we get.

Then you have Han who really just wants to mess everyone up. He’s fairly laid back, always eating snacks and such. The guy doesn’t really fear anything and stays smug even when he is being beaten up. You have to respect that level of dedication. He was a highlight from the start just with how he would stand up to DK and got Sean into the race. He gives the film a sense of humor as well. Again, when you think about it he’s not a great guy or anything but since he’s on Sean’s side I suppose you see him in more of a positive light than you would for the others. He’s certainly not malicious the way someone like DK is. To Han this is all just a game.

Overall, Tokyo Drift definitely takes the series in a different direction. It’s not even a bad one to be honest, the execution just wasn’t on point. I liked Tokyo as a backdrop, it’s always pretty interesting to see a different locale like that. It must be incredibly hard to transfer to a high school there when you don’t know any Japanese. That’s one area where I can understand why Sean was having such a tough time even though he didn’t exactly try very hard anyway. There are other interesting background elements as well like Sean’s father who seems like he may have had a racing background. He doesn’t get a lot of development here but has one pivotal moment with a gun that I thought was executed really well. I also like the idea of focusing the film around Drifting since it’s something unique. So many good ideas and opportunities but the film just kept on taking the worst choices and limiting its potential. I’d like to see these characters come back some day though and give this another shot. If you really love racing films then it may be worth checking out but otherwise there are certainly better ones out there.

Overall 4/10

Bringing Up Baby Review

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It’s time to look at another crazy comedy with Grant at the helm. It’s a bit weaker than his other ones mainly due to how slow on the uptake the main character is and the heroine not being very likable but it does still have that crazy charm which keeps it in the green. If you’re up for a lot of madness and watching a guy wreck his life throughout all of this, you’ll need to check this one out.

The movie starts with David working on a giant dinosaur. His life has been going pretty well lately. He is slated to finally marry his fiancé tomorrow and the final bone for the skeleton arrived after 4 years of excavating. Now the only thing left to do is to convince the rich millionaire’s lawyer to donate another 1 million dollars to the museum and everything will be peachy. There is just one obstacle in his path, a lady named Susan.

Susan shows up while David is golfing with Mr. Peabody (the Lawyer) and steals his ball. David chases her down but then she steals his car as well. She keeps on messing with him to great effect and it’s looking more and more like the guy doesn’t have any real chance left for the grant. Can David make a comeback or should he escape now while he still can? The longer he hangs out with this girl the more likely he is to keep on ruining his life.

I should also mention that we have a tiger running around and a dog who loves to bark at everything. David was already not very good at trying to finish a conversation and now he really has no shot. While he can be a fun lead, it’s hard to sympathize with him all that
Much because he makes a mistake on just about everything he does. A whole lot of his problems would have been solved if he had explained things better or taken charge. Instead he often finds himself wrapped in the craziness and unable to get back out. He should have went back to resume the golf game once he got his ball back and sued for damages on the car afterwards. Even right through the film’s ending you can’t help but feel like things did not go very well for him. The ending also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense with him hiding even though right after he acts like he’s happy that this is happening. Maybe he did go crazy by the end. I don’t really think he knows what he is getting into here.

As for Susan, I didn’t care for her either. Here’s the deal, you can be a bit of an oblivious character who gets in people’s way and stay likable. There are a lot of solid characters like that. The issue is that she is a little too over the top with how she misinterprets things. In the second half of the film she is intentionally sabotaging David so that she can pair up with him but in the first half there is no indication of this. She really thinks she is in the right car and that the golf ball is hers. It can be tough to take these scenes at face value because it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Either way her doubling down on all of this doesn’t help matters either. She wouldn’t even let David try to explain what was really going on. Of course this is for humor but it doesn’t land as well as it could have. Had she been an antagonistic character messing with him from the start I dare say it would have worked a little better.

It’s fun to see the little dog and leopard running around. I’m not actually a big fan of having real animals in film since you hear all the stories of them not being treated very well back in the day. The scene with the two of them fighting definitely didn’t seem very pleasant. Since I’ll never know one way or the other I’ll at least try to assume that it was okay on the back-end though. Gotta focus on the on-screen action. For the story plot, it was nice to have the dog troll the main characters in the backyard for a while. Digging’s a pretty fun sport even if my Sonic never does a whole lot of this.

We’ve also got some supporting characters thrown in near the end once David is taken to Susan’s aunt’s place for dinner. We meet a big game hunter who tries his best to make friends with the others. He was a pretty reasonable character. His animal calls were on point even if he ended up getting trolled a lot. The drunk guy was definitely out of his league here though. Having all of these characters around did help for the prison scene later on which is probably the highlight of the film. The cops show up to start dishing out arrests and manage to nab almost the whole main cast. You also can’t blame them here because the heroes were acting awfully suspicious. It gives us some back and forth and these were humor scenes that really landed. All of the scenes during the prison subplot were excellent and I wouldn’t have minded spending more time there to be honest. It was a nice change of scenery and really made the main characters focus.

As for the main plot about getting the funding, if I were the aunt I certainly wouldn’t give David the money after all that. Are you kidding me? He wouldn’t get a dime! While the circumstances did attribute to how crazy David got near the end, you can’t get past the first impression. It’s not one she would be likely to forget and then you have the rock getting thrown at Mr. Peabody and actually landing. David doesn’t even refute the charge since at this point he’s long since given up. Since nobody actually clears up the misunderstanding, most of the characters here must not have a particularly high opinion of David here.

Overall, Bringing Up Baby is a fun film that maybe overstays its welcome a bit. It probably could have been a been shorter and they would have kept the film more focused with solid jokes layered into it. The main two characters aren’t nearly as solid as some other other duos in films like this. Still, there are enough fun scenes here to keep your attention and throwing in the dinosaur bone was a good plot device. It’s the kind of film that has some solid replay value built into it with how quickly things happen. You more or less know how things are going to go down so it’s about the experience along the way. Although, I was expecting a twist where Susan was the lady giving the money away so the film threw me a curveball there. I’d recommend checking it out if this sounds like it’s up your alley.

Overall 6/10

On Golden Pond Review

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It’s time to look at a drama film about an old couple who are trying to keep moving forward. The cast here is very small so the film will live or die based on its dialogue. Unfortunately the film isn’t able to keep it up so it ultimately loses out. There are some good ideas to be found here but they are not enough to keep the film in the running. It’s hard to say exactly what it should have done, but I’ll go into some ideas later on.

The movie starts by introducing us to Ethel and Norman who have very different personalities. Ethel may be old but she still has a lot of life about her and tries to make every day exciting. She sings, dances, and just really loves life to the point where it seems like nothing can get her down. Meanwhile her husband Norman is pretty obsessed with death and is always talking about how he’s just one foot away. He doesn’t seem to enjoy much of anything and has sharp comebacks for everything. Well, their daughter Chelsea is coming home for a visit and she’s bringing yet another boyfriend along for the ride. Her last boyfriend and then her last husband didn’t work out so we’ll see if third time’s the charm. Unfortunately there is quite the rift between her and Norman as the two just couldn’t get along. Can they reconnect now while there is still time left? Making things more complicated is that her boyfriend’s son Billy will need to stay with Ethel and Norman for a month.

I do feel like Chelsea bringing Billy Jr here to spend a month is a bit irresponsible at best. These two are quite old and have absolutely no advance notice on this. It doesn’t seem very polite to suddenly saddle them with this task. Of course they would say yes since they are being polite but it’s not a good position to put anyone in. Unfortunately Billy also doesn’t make for a good character and doesn’t do the film any favors. The guy’s got a sailor’s mouth and is an ingrate for most of the film. Eventually he finally turns around but it certainly takes him a while and this doesn’t keep him from being my least favorite character in the film.

His father is portrayed as a guy who’s super scared of everything. At least he tried to be nice to Norman so I wouldn’t say he is a bad character. Being so scared of bears that he would leave Chelsea alone though? I dunno about that one. Put it this way, it’s okay to be afraid and to hide at home if you’re on your own. If your fiance is going outside, then you better accompany her. If you’re not going then what you’re acknowledging is that there is something dangerous outside yet you’re going to let your fiance brave this alone? Yeah, that’s definitely not a good look. It’s played for laughs and all but the guy should have just manned up and gone with her.

As for Norman, he’s a pretty entertaining character. He’s definitely a downer for sure but it’s not like he does anything crazy either. He just constantly throws insults around and at 80 I suppose he’s just fed up with everything. A lot of senior citizens are pretty nice even if a good amount of them paint a negative stereotype. Fortunately he has Ethel here to balance things out. She’s by far the best character in the film because of how cheerful she is. Any scene with her in it is bound to be enjoyable. It’s not like she’s over the top with it either, she’s just having a lot of fun and isn’t afraid to show it. Why have a summer cottage if you’re not going to enjoy it right? Without her the film wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining.

Still, she isn’t able to salvage the film’s writing which was the critical blow. There’s quite a bit of language here and that’s what ultimately holds the film back. There’s only so much you can do when the film is constantly throwing swear words at you. Mainly this is Billy’s fault although Norman contributes as well. The movie definitely could have done without that and it would have benefited quite a bit. I’d also say that the Chelsea subplot was one of the weaker aspects of the film as well. We get a positive resolution there but it didn’t seem like we really needed that plot involved. Ethel definitely set her straight by the end though.

I gotta say, I’m not sure this would be one of Norman’s best birthdays. While he’s in a cranky mood when he says that he doesn’t want a ton of people running in on his birthday, I agree with the notion. Chelsea bringing a boyfriend they’ve never met on Norman’s birthday? I wouldn’t be a fan of that personally. My ideal birthday is eating a lot of pizza and just lounging around all day playing video games. Entertaining isn’t on my list of activities I want to do on any day, much less my birthday.

If the film has any other faults, it can just be that it’s not very eventful. The movie’s a slow burner but not one like Jaws or Godzilla where there’s a big payoff at the end. This film isn’t meant to be like that. The payoff at the end is the characters growing closer and finally coming to terms with things in a lot of different ways. So it makes for a solid emotional film in that sense, but also one that might not be the most thrilling experience. If we had more characters like Ethel the that might have worked of course, but the rest of the cast couldn’t cut it. You’ll also feel bad for the mailman since he clearly still likes Chelsea and she’s practically flirting with him in front of the guy she marries two days later. Yeah….that guy’s probably not having a great day either. I’m sure he enjoyed letting the guy fall in the water though.

Overall, On Golden Pond isn’t one of the better films out there. The writing could use some work but otherwise the film is consistent. We do get some danger scenes like the heroes going to the cliffs. They were warned quite a bit though. We get a scene of the heroes gutting a fish though which could have definitely been cut out. I feel bad for Billy having to deal with that but he definitely didn’t seem to care all that much. I guess some kids are better at handling that than others. If you want to watch a film about an old couple trying to still have fun then this could be a fun one to check out. Otherwise I’d say just checkout a comedy for a more lively experience.

Overall 4/10

Birdman of Alcatraz

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It’s time to look at a film from quite a long while ago. This one’s based on a true story about someone who managed to become quite the expert from prison. It’s pretty interesting thinking about how that would be possible while in prison. I’m inclined to think there must have been some things that the film didn’t show to help him with that since it would just be so difficult otherwise. Of course, the fact that it is difficult is why it was so impressive so when you put it into that perspective then it makes sense that they would make a movie out of this.

The basic plot is that Robert was taken to prison after murdering someone. He’s definitely not happy to be here and shows it as he is quite antagonistic to everyone he meets without any remorse. The only person he is nice to happens to be his mother who visits him once a month. One day he grabs a guard for no good reason which means he will have to miss the visit. He ends up murdering this guard too and is scheduled to be hanged. His mother pleads his case and gets them to reduce the charges to just a life sentence at prison. At least he’ll be alive now but he’s awfully bored. He takes the time to look after a bird. One thing leads to another and soon he is looking after a whole flock of them and becomes an expert in bird biology and things of that nature. Unfortunately no matter how much he learns the guy just can’t seem to get out of prison.

While at times the jail may look a little too cold with how they never let Robert out, it makes sense if you remember the context. I fully expect they would have eventually let him go after the original murder. The issue was that he murdered a second person, an officer at that. You can’t just murder someone a second time and expect to be let go. No matter how much he changed after that I think the fact that it was 2 in a row is what ultimately set him off on the road to ruin. Still, at least he was productive in his spare time. The cures he thought of were quite impressive and I’m always up for making advances in medicine that will help the little feathered friends. Those guys can definitely have it rough out there in the wild. The jail was also quite tolerant to allow him to have this many bird.

Robert’s not portrayed as a nice guy for the majority of the film. After being called out by his guard Robert eventually does start to turn over a new leaf. It may have taken a little while for that to happen but better late than never right? The best character in the film was probably the guard. He had to look after Robert for around 10 years and was very polite to him the whole time even when Robert was being a jerk the whole time. The guard always took the high road and that was good. By the end of the film they even ended up being friends. Then you have Robert’s rival Harvey. That guy absolutely did not get along with Robert and that makes sense since they are polar opposites. Robert likes to cause a fuss and for nobody to order him around. Harvey’s the guy who does the ordering and likes to steer everything by the books. If something’s against the rules then you can be sure that he is not going to like it one bit. The banter between these characters is definitely the highlight of the movie.

How much you enjoy the film will probably be based upon how interesting you find the birds. Also you do have to go in prepared for the fact that not all of the birds are going to make it. It’s not like this is a super happy film or anything like that. This one’s here to partially show how he became a bird expert and success never happens immediately. You don’t see the dead birds for very long but it’s still not the most pleasant thing to watch. A lot of insects also get smashed which may get gross for some as well. I would have been cool with seeing more of the adventures in Alcatraz as well. I feel like that would have been a very interesting backdrop but maybe in real life he never got to do much there either so it would have been a pretty dull part of the experience.

Overall, Birdman of Alcatraz is a pretty interesting story. I wasn’t really aware of it myself before checking out the film so it made for an interesting story. The movie is a bit on the long side though. It’s over 2.5 hours and this is one of those films where you can feel the length. It allows the movie to really go in depth here so to an extent that’s good but at the same time some things could have been trimmed a little. Ultimately the length would probably work better if the main character had been portrayed as a little more sympathetic rather than always being so mean to everyone. I feel like that just doesn’t work nearly as well when you don’t have a character to really root for. Robert seems to be conditionally nice as opposed to just being a nice guy. The ending’s not exactly the happiest though so the film was never going for a Cloud 9 kind of feel.

Creature with the Atom Brain Review

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It’s time to look at a film that gets pretty emotional for a lot of characters because the body count is quite high. Characters are going down left and right before the heroes find a way to stop these guys. The Creature with the Atom Brain is a film that’s written pretty well and makes for a compelling movie. It’s one of those films you just don’t see nowadays. I say that a lot for these older films but that’s because it’s simply the case. You just don’t have writing like this anymore which is always a tragedy. The film is a lot of fun from start to finish.

The film starts with one guy swearing revenge on the gang that didn’t help him out when the going got tough. He gets a scientist over and they quickly use this sci-fi thunder formula to reanimate the dead. These bodies now have super strength and since they feel no pain they are bullet proof as well. They aim to take down all of these guys one by one until none remain. Pretty good plan eh? Things hit a snag when Chet shows up and figures out the plot. It’s hard to get people to believe him at first, but he does a good job of explaining and it’s hard to deny the facts after a while. Well, the cops and the army are ready now but can they really stop the zombies?

I always feel like the fighters are slow on the uptake here though. We’ve established that these guys are dead so why even bother shooting them in the chest? Realistically you should be aiming for the legs so they can’t stand well. Even if they can’t feel pain it’s not like they can block out the injuries entirely so if you ask me that would do a lot of good very quickly. Also, engaging in hand to hand with them seems like a bad idea as well. The climax is fun as we actually get a fairly big action scene but they didn’t play the matchup very well at all.

There’s also a higher body count than expected. The entire gang gets wasted and then you also have a ton of innocents taken out. The villains blow up trains, planes, and whole factories. It’s crazy how far it goes before the heroes are able to track them down. In fairness, there’s not much you can do once they’re right next to you with the bomb. People were always slow to figure out they were fake though. I guess they somehow don’t see that the head has been stitched back together? The only thing I can think of is that it’s for the viewer’s benefit and in the actual movie you can’t see any kind of stitching. Otherwise that would make the characters look really bad. In that case I can blame them a little less although the robotic movements + voice would still be a giveaway if you ask me. Hey, I can only cut them so much slack!

Chet makes for a pretty solid main character. He has a lot of good plans and does think things through more than most of the other characters. The only part of his character that doesn’t age well is how he wants to keep the family in the dark the whole time. Even when his wife tries to get in on the conversation he basically tells her to go away. She’s not handled particularly well in the film as we get a random scene where she chokes on a martini. Not sure how that helps anything. I think the writers were struggling with how to write a home scene at this point but not a whole lot of time is spent there anyway. For the most part Chet is always on the case with his partner.

It’s also nice to see everyone teaming up here. There’s no bickering or characters trying to one up each other. The community is in trouble so they all band together and get ready to face off against the villains. That’s exactly how this should go down so it ends up working quite well if you ask me. Part of the fun of the film is how things are always happening. There is quite a lot of action here as you might have guessed. Nobody is really safe and the film adds some tension when the villain breaks into Chet’s house as well.

While the main villain is pretty solid, the scientist is definitely very wishy washy. The guy’s creations have already murdered countless people and now he’s starting to want to back out of this? It’s far too late for this and he should have known that it wasn’t going to end well. Look, if you are going to betray the evil organization at least do so when you are holding the controls. The guy had the power over the zombies so he literally could have had them grab the other villain first and then surrender to the heroes. The problem is that the scientist still wanted to escape so he was probably hoping the other guy would have some ideas. Well, you can’t have it both ways and ultimately that’s why he was doomed from the start.

Overall, The Creature with the Atom Brain is a pretty interesting movie. Zombies can definitely be tricky to deal with, especially when the town was not ready for them in the slightest. It just goes to show that you’ve always got to expect the unexpected. Only by doing this can you really be prepared for the big villains that are to come. I’d be down with a sequel to this. So, if you are in the mood for a solid thriller with some sci-fi elements then this is definitely a movie that I would recommend checking out. While you may be hard pressed to remember any names by the end, the characters themselves are very solid. There is even a bit of a mystery factor here as the heroes try to figure out who is behind this.

Overall 7/10