Category Archives: Live Action Movies

Father of the Bride (1991) Review

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It’s time for a remake of a very classic movie. The premise for Father of the Bride is pretty solid right away. Anyone can empathize with a father who wants to make sure that his daughter doesn’t end up marrying the wrong guy. Along the way we have a lot of crazy shenanigans going on but at its core this is an uplifting movie. I do think that the end of the movie becomes a little more mean spirited than it should have been though.

The film starts off by spoiling the ending of the movie which is always a horrible way to kick things off. George talks about how he was initially against his daughter’s wedding and it was a real tough event but he hopes to laugh about it in the future. It’s a rather long monologue that tries a bit too hard to be funny and you’re just really waiting to get to the start of the actual adventure. So from here we get a flashback where George’s daughter Nina shows up and explains that she is engaged. Moreover, she plans to marry this guy named Bryan right away. George’s wife Nina is super excited so it looks like George is the only one left to add some rational thinking to this situation. Can he do this without alienating his whole family?

Right away there is a big problem with this which is that I don’t understand why Nina was immediately on board with this. I get the whole trusting your kids judgment thing but you do need to put that into a bit of context. Annie and Bryan have not known each other for very long so you just have to be practical about this. The film could have still had Nina be supportive without being blind about everything. I’m betting they just wanted a strong contrast to George being 1 billion percent against the wedding but it does end up hurting Nina as a result.

She gets her big victory against George in the end while she forces him to make a long apology after he is arrested. After that George is still punished further by running into a string of bad luck and having to miss every important event. He also loses so much money as a result of this wedding and that’s where you just have to be rooting for him the whole time. The wedding planner is clearly a hack and is overpricing them on everything. George is the only one trying to stop him and it’s portrayed as a bad thing.

George made his share of mistakes to be sure like snooping through the in law’s checkbook, general snooping, and being a little overly mean to Bryan. The guy isn’t without fault but half the time he is saying some reasonable stuff and the film is making him out to be the bad guy. Bryan’s job definitely did sound fake and I would have assumed he was lying too. Bryan tries to say all of the right things but I can also see how it would all sound fake. Bryan didn’t make the best first impression.

At the end of the day it’s George’s job to look after Annie and I’d say that he did a good job. I also don’t see why he should have to waste so much money on such a fancy wedding. It doesn’t make sense and anyone can recognize that he was being used here. They were wrecking his house and making a true spectacle of things. Nobody was thinking about George at all during this and that’s what felt bad. He was cut out of the celebration in the end and so the film felt rather sad there.

Now while I have all this to say about how the film treats George unfairly, the film does succeed in being an entertaining experience. The dialogue tends to be really strong and I enjoyed the humor. George’s various internal monologues are handled really well. I thought they were definitely funny the whole time and the film’s absurdist style makes for a lot of funny moments throughout the wedding. The pacing is good as well and the writing is solid.

Also while some characters can annoy me, they are ultimately all still likable except for the wedding planner. Annie may seem a little overly emotional and defensive throughout the film but deep down she also knows that the whole situation is crazy and a little absurd so that makes sense. The scene where she and Bryan decide to break up was super rushed and completely unnecessary though. That made both of them look bad but mostly Annie for being the one to rush out. I get the feeling Bryan was no being aggressive or doubling down at all.

As for Bryan, well he seems nice enough. The guy is moving rather quickly which is usually a red flag but if you think that you’ve found the right person then it makes sense not to hesitate. No reason to go slowly at all from his perspective. So while it looks harsh to everyone else, it doesn’t make him a bad guy. Likewise I think Nina’s being naive here but I get that she wants to support Annie. So even the worst characters have motivations and actions that make sense from their point of view.

Overall, Father of the Bride is a pretty good film. It can be a little frustrating at times because there are several scenes and moments that could have been a whole lot better with just a little tweaking. At the very least you have to remove the opening scene because spoiling the entire movie is never a good idea. How can you feel any drama for when the wedding gets called off when you already know that it’s going to happen? This is really filmmaking 101. I would also have at least given George a small win at the end to show how he finally learned to let go and is rewarded by seeing the wedding up close. The writers had other ideas this time but either way I would recommend checking this one out. I’d give the older adaption the slight edge but this one is impressively close.

Overall 7/10

Geostorm Review

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It’s time for a good ole disaster film. This one is fairly unique by starting off with the disaster and then handling it off screen. Then in the present…the disaster is happening again. Due to the story the film wanted to tell it probably had to happen this way but I have to admit that I still found it just a little bit funny. This is a pretty good movie all around though.

The film is centered around Jake who successfully built a weather satellite station that can control the weather and prevent disasters from happening. It worked very well for a long time but then Jake got fired for talking back to the government. Several years passed and now things are going wrong. The system is creating the disasters that it swore to protect. Jake is reluctantly asked to come back and fix things but it’s awkward since his brother Max is now the new boss. Jake feels like Max betrayed him by taking the position and not fighting harder to get Jake back into the mix earlier. Can they get past their sibling drama to save the world?

So right away I will say that the weakest part here is definitely the brother drama. Neither character looks great by the end of this. Jake should be taking responsibility for how he was acting towards the government and should realize that there was nothing Max could have done to save his job. Jake very thoroughly burned every bridge that he could and so the end was inevitable.

The drama would have been better if Jake had acknowledged this more but it never really comes up. I don’t think Jake’s attitude of not really wanting to be a people person is inherently bad but it does come with its share of weaknesses. Particularly in jobs where you do have to answer to other people while staying calm. Jake knows what he is doing but just being the best at what you do is really not always going to be enough in these situations. Also Jake loses a fight after having the element of surprise and two free shots which was incredibly embarrassing.

As for Max, well I still blame him for going out of his way to be a jerk about things at times. He seemed to really resent Jake for a large part of the movie and does lie to his face on different occasions. I imagine that over time the rift between them just kept on growing so it made for negative feelings on both sides but one of them needed to be the bigger man. So they both just end up looking rough.

Also I wouldn’t say that he handled the romance with Sarah particularly well. He acts shocked when she has to go on last second assignments but that is the life of the secret service which is fairly similar to his line of work. Most of their dialogue just tends to be banter otherwise which is fine but that was the one moment where you definitely look at him sideways. Sarah is a much better character than either of the main two.

She is very quick to use her elite skills to fight off the villains and actually takes down a whole squad. That helped to put some more action into the film and without her they would have all been doomed without a doubt. I’ll also give the President a thumbs up here for being on the ball real quick and not just having a shocked face the whole time. He had to endure some pretty big twists with no warning and handled them well.

Geostorm is at its best when it just embraces the crazy setup here. It was nice looking at all the big disaster scenes and the film is very fast paced. Something is always happening whether it is Jake’s investigation in space or Max’s on the ground. There is a good amount of conspiracy here to keep the tension and intrigue high at all times. The action scenes are also fun and having a human opponent helps a lot as opposed to it just being humanity against a bunch of natural disasters.

Realistically if we ever made a giant weather machine over the globe, it makes sense that someone would try to use it for nefarious purposes. Whether that means destroying it outright or just sabotaging it, that would only be a matter of time. Even as the film ends, things are going to be really rough for humanity for a while. The body count was rather huge by the end of the film so it feels like they only put of the disaster by a bit. Ultimately humanity cold not fight back against nature.

If the film wanted to fix the brother plot I think they would have needed both of them to be on the space station. Have them be forced to work together and slowly becoming close again. I would cut Jake’s kid out entirely because there’s just no way to fit that plot in and it makes the film over crowded. She didn’t end up having much of a point in the film. Then when Jake and Max save the days, you’ve got a pretty complete ending right there. Of course you don’t even need that drama in the first place. You could have easily just made Max another one of the government bureaucrats that Jake doesn’t like and he’s forced to learn how to play nice by the end. With how this film ends, you could make the strong argument that Jake didn’t learn any lessons and will blow up at Congress during his next meeting.

Overall, Geostorm is a pretty good movie and I would recommend checking it out. It covers all the bases you would expect from a thriller film and executes the plot well. Whether you haven’t seen many disaster films before or if you’ve seen them all; Geostorm holds up. I’d be ready for a sequel to this one. It’s also got just enough high tech elements where you could really have any number of plots within it.

Overall 7/10

Manhattan Murder Mystery Review

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It’s time for an old fashioned murder mystery. The film is a comedy first and foremost but does still manage to have a body count here. The writing could use a lot of work though and the film suffers from all the usual issues of a Woody Allen film. Namely that the dialogue is laughable at best and the characters are quite weak but at least the case itself is pretty interesting.

The film starts off with Larry and Carol returning home and chatting with their neighbors. Larry finds the whole experience to be painful but Carol doesn’t want to be rude. It turns out that would be the last time they see one neighbor as she died of a heart attack. The husband is taking this as well as can be expected…perhaps too well. Carol believes that he murdered his wife and now she wants to investigate the whole thing. Larry doesn’t really want to entertain this but has no way of stopping Carol. Meanwhile both of them are being pursued by would be suitors who don’t care about their married status. Can Larry and Carol stay strong here?

So right away the film does lose out on the technical elements. The writing only succeeds in making the characters as annoying as possible. The general plot about the murder mystery is solid enough but technically tends to be more of a backdrop. I do appreciate that it gives the film more of a plot in general though as a lot of the other Allen films just tend to be rather aimless. This one also does deliver with a pretty solid climax.

The strongest part of the film is the climax which homages the James Bond film with the Golden Gun. The shootout is solid and definitely more action packed than you may have expected. There is also no real cop out at the end so it’s not like the adventure was a bad dream or anything like that. I was half expecting the film to have some crazy explanation to distance itself from the story. Not a dream but something along those lines that would have resulted in a ton of misunderstandings. After all the film is always trying to go for a certain kind of realism that I ironically think makes it end up being less realistic because most people don’t act like these characters.

As for the characters, well lets start with the most desperate ones first. Marcia and Ted. So Marcia basically just wants some action so she tries to seduce Larry but is never able to get tough to him and settles for making Carol jealous by helping out with the murder mystery. While Larry never really faltered, I do think he needed to put more space between them. Keeping yourself in a tricky situation is always a recipe for disaster.

Then we have Ted who is far worse than Marcia with how direct he is. He basically confesses to Carol in the film aside from all the obvious hintings. This guy just has no class and honestly she needed to remove him as a friend. It’s one thing to have a friend who may like you deep down but one who is this upfront about it? That’s trouble and for that reason all of the scenes make Carol look extra bad as well.

Carol even goes as far as to try and make Larry jealous about this with how she keeps comparing his lack of enthusiasm in the mystery to how Ted is jumping at every opportunity. That basically forces Larry to have to get more involved when he knows that this is a bad idea. Also since the lady is dead, the situation is different than if they thought he had kidnapped someone. In that case then you have to act even without evidence.

Larry does still tend to get the funniest scenes of the film but his jokes still miss more than they land. I just enjoy the nervous, fast talking kind of humor that he has. With good writing then the film would probably be in a pretty good spot. Larry’s take on the situation is certainly more rational than the others. He has a point that heart attacks can happen for any number of reasons and jumping to murder feels a bit drastic. Even the lying could easily be explained by the neighbor just not being comfortable enough around the main characters to spill his beans.

Now granted, everyone seems to love giving way too much information to each other in these films but this could have been an exception. A neighbor is far from being a friend or a member of the family after all. Perhaps I’m just being anti social here but I wouldn’t want my neighbors barging in with snacks and drinks to randomly start talking. Especially in the evening I’d be relaxing and playing video games by that point.

It sort of goes without saying that all of the “romance” in the film is pretty weak. I’m not even sure if you could call any of it romance. The main leads are married here even if they seem to just love taking pot shots at each other the whole time. The side characters seem to just want to claim victory but I couldn’t detect any true passion there at all. Finally with the neighbors things obviously didn’t turn out well by the end and there was some extra drama after a twist or two.

The characters end up being too easy and just try to enjoy the moment without thinking of the ramifications. These are characters who might be fun to hang out with in a very limited time frame but you could not trust them as friends at all. They will always be putting themselves into dicey situations that are absolutely going to lead to dangerous habits and tempting arenas for cheating. If you were to stick with them then you’d be doomed. In some ways I could see these films being interesting watches for people who are stuck in areas outside of civilization like posts in the Arctic. It would give you a really interesting view of society if you didn’t live in it.

Overall, This is definitely not going to be a winning film. Even though it has a bit more of a plot going on than some of the other Allen films it still ends up being more noise than anything else. The kind of film that you might have on in the background while you’re doing chores or something. The film still needs more of a central focus for me to ever even begin to start calling it a solid title. Throw in some good writing as well and then we have a chance. If you really love the Woody Allen films then this one is worth watching. At the very least it does try to have a serious climax and to the film’s credit it really does play this straight. That’s the only real piece of credit I can give to the movie though because otherwise there’s just a lot of nothing going around. You are really better off with many other slice of life type titles.

Overall 3/10

Baby Boom Review

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It’s time for one of those films that tries to explain why you don’t want to be team corporate. Unfortunately, it does not make a strong argument and the film doesn’t live up to its full potential. The ending comes across as more tragic than wholesome and you will have a hard time rooting for the characters by the end. That’s just how it goes sometimes I suppose but you do feel like the movie could have really gone for a bolder ending that would have landed a better message for the film.

The film follows JC who has had a very solid career so far. She works for one of the biggest companies in the market and is getting close to being promoted as a partner within the firm. Her personal life is going well too and so JC feels like she has conquered life. Unfortunately a distant relative dies and now JC is inheriting a baby girl. Her boyfriend says that JC should give the baby away to an orphanage but she can’t bring herself to do this. Unfortunately this baby is quickly destroying her career and everything JC has spent her life building is being knocked to the ground. Her boyfriend runs off as well and so JC realizes that she may have to restart her life in a small town. Fortunately there’s a rebound guy here but can JC really be happy away from the rat race?

Unfortunately I am going to have to start this review by defending corporate here. Her boss actually seemed like a decent guy but of course he had to cut her off from the big projects. JC completely stopped being reliable after the baby entered the picture. JC would end up being late to meetings, forgetting deadlines, etc. At first the incidents weren’t major but they kept getting worse and worse so the boss had to give JC’s junior the position instead. Now it’s clear that this junior had been waiting for the day to get all the jobs over JC but at least he wasn’t cheating or anything.

He evidently still did the work and did it correctly. So JC just needed a better balance here. It makes sense that it would be tough to deal with a kid when she has absolutely no experience but that wasn’t the company’s fault. I won’t fault JC for wanting to take care of the kid so in this case there wasn’t really a villain. Things just went the way that they were bound to in a situation like this.

The small town plot tends to fall a bit flat though and in general the second half of the film is a bit weak. So JC heads into this town but unfortunately the house that she bought was a complete dump. Nothing works and so she has to spend an enormous amount of money to fix it. Then the local vet falls for her and they hook up rather quickly. I guess the relationship with the old boyfriend wasn’t all that strong eh? JC just goes a bit too quickly here and same for the vet.

He basically says that nobody else in the town is within his age range which is probably meant to make JC feel better but it sounds to me like he’s just desperate. JC is somehow able to make her own business in this town to start getting money again and that was good. It showed that she was still a creative genius who could continue to succeed in any environment.

Now where the next issue of the film comes in is when corporate calls her over and makes an incredible offer. JC basically turns it down to prove that she doesn’t need anyone’s help and this feels like a really bad decision. Striking out on her own like this just doesn’t make any sense. In the film it is portrayed like she made the right move and that would have only worked if the offer was more narrow. The problem here is that the company went above and beyond in making an incredible offer so it just makes her look bad for rejecting it.

JC just makes it a bit hard to root for her. She’s too quick to act like a victim in all of this when she gave corporate no choice but to sack her. The romance is really weak in general but only makes her look worse when she protests a whole lot only to quickly come over to Jeff’s side. (The vet) If that’s how it was always going to be, then maybe she shouldn’t have been so antagonistic the whole time.

Then while she may have made the right move in looking after the kid, the kid was not very likable here. She was constantly getting JC into trouble like with all of the crying and throwing the toys around. JC gets more of the blame for not being able to control a toddler but there is enough blame to go around here. It was just one of those very unfortunate things. The baby may not be the main character as that would be even worse but she gets enough screentime to be annoying. The film was at its best during all of the work scenes.

Ironically I would also just say that the movie makes small towns look bad. Sure, it worked out to get together with the vet but before that we see how the whole town is super unhelpful. Nobody is too bothered by the fact that JC bought a scam house where nothing works. They all just leave her alone to her own devices and barely even offer any sympathy. I would have ditched that town so fast because it just seems like an absolute nightmare. The whole point of a small town is the strong community and I didn’t see any of that here.

Overall, Baby Boom is not really my kind of film. It is going for the classic Hallmark feel to an extent but with a bit less of an upbeat attitude. It is going for more of the “realism” angle which can work sometimes but not in this case. I also have to admit that the baby brings things down at times too. She’s just too messy and causes too many problems for JC. If the baby had just been a bit older then maybe that could have been different but as it stands she just ends up being an obstacle the whole time. Check this one out if you want to convince yourself that working for corporate is a super terrible thing. Otherwise you can do better with any of the Hallmark Christmas movies.

Overall 4/10

Annie Hall Review

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Woody Allen films are consistently about a whole lot of rambling and characters talking in a way that just doesn’t make sense. They fill the air but none of the lines have any real substance behind them. They’re just creating more and more problems where no character ends up being likable by the end. There’s not a whole lot of plot going on here either so the story is forced to throw in a bunch of flashbacks and third wall breaks. You’re definitely in for an adventure of some kind here.

The movie starts with Alvy reflecting on when he used to have a strong relationship with Annie before things fell apart. He has already been married twice but in both of these relationships things did not go well. Annie was someone who actually understood him and they had some fun but it seemed to be very surface level. After some time had passed, they would grow further and further apart. Wait…so we already know the ending? Yes, this is one of those films that spoils the ending immediately so the movie is about the events that take you there. I never liked that cinematic plot device but what are you going to do right?

From the start you can see why it would be hard to stay with Alvy though. He is constantly depressed and complains about everything. He tends to be a complete doomer and you can barely even tell when he is having fun because he is still finding time to complain. That’s not the kind of attitude that is really going to get him far. Alvy’s a comedian but one who lacks in confidence so he gets stage fright and panics about every little thing.

For some movies there may be a bit of a mystery on why the big romance falls apart but it’s obvious from the start here. They are just way too different. Annie is more sociable and wants to hang out while Alvy’s idea of a good time is staying cooped up indoors. While some modern couples think it makes their relationship stronger to be able to still flirt around with other people to make the partner jealous, it’s just a terrible strategy in reality. They were both friends with people who were definitely the type to mess around and that increases the chances of it happening to them as well. You become the kinds of people that you hang around after all.

Towards the end they can’t even be intimate without Annie having to get high the whole time. They just have to casually use drugs and there doesn’t seem to be anything romantic about the relationship. They satisfy their physical desires and that’s it. You’re never going to have a meaningful relationship that way. None of the side romances are any better in this film.

As for Annie, well I can’t really give her any props either. The way she and Woody meet just makes her look a bit desperate. She clearly has ambition and drive in her life so staying with someone like Woody who has already given up on his future is not a smart play. Annie also tends to be a little too scattered like how she starts seeing a psychiatrist because Woody recommended one and then takes all of the advice in without thinking about it. She starts attending school classes because Woody suggested them and that leads to meeting with the teacher and starting more drama. She kept on starting new tasks because Woody would recommend them without really thinking about it.

Needless to say, it’s hard to picture either character being a reliable friend here. They would both just be annoying you to bits the whole time. You could also rest assured that they would be talking about you behind your back right away. That’s just how they operate and again that’s not the healthiest kind of personality to be associated with. I’m sure there are people like this but these are the kinds of social circles that you want to avoid. Everyone is two faced and fake with no real sincerity anywhere.

Now that isn’t to say that the film is devoid of humor. I actually think that Woody’s fast way of talking has some appeal to it. It certainly tends to miss a lot more than it hits but there will be some fun moments in the dialogue. A few jokes that will hit or a wisecrack that feels good. I tend to like fast, snappy kind of dialogue for humor and that is what this film is going for. With a stronger writer then this could have been a good recipe for success. To be really funny you should be hitting on around half of your jokes though, not 10%.

Also the film really needed more of a plot. To me this feels like an Abbott and Costello setup. Woody Allen films I mean. They all have him being really nervous and panicking the whole time but so far without much of a plot to back it up. Abbot and Costello would be about two guys joking around with some light plot in the background but it works because they are really funny. Additionally they would also tie the plot into something throughout the movie even if it was slight. I’ve got a mystery review coming up which addresses this to an extent at least.

So if you had some cool hook like the main two were stuck on a boat or travelling to space then you would have something there. You could keep the same tone but at least there is a real story to sink your teeth into. It’s not like this would have totally saved the film or anything like that but it would absolutely be a whole lot more watchable. As it stands, the film just doesn’t have any reason to make you watch it and you are desperately waiting for the characters to get more likable but it never happens.

Overall, Annie Hall is not a film that I would recommend. It’s a bit of a dreary watch with no real end point in mind. There can be a kind of humor in the way the dialogue goes but for every laugh you will have a number of groan worthy moments. This kind of film desperately needs direction and an end point. Without that or a good romance, there is no reason to get really invested in the film. I would definitely advise staying away from this one, it’s just too mindless the whole time with a lot writing standard. I’m still waiting for Woody to deliver on making a really good film.

Overall 2/10

Interiors Review

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It’s time for one of those dreary films where all of the characters are unlikable so there isn’t anyone to really root for. This film was really doomed on arrival as a result because I can’t really see any way that it could have turned out to be good in the longrun. There are definitely ways that it could have been a little better than the end product but not too many ways where it could have landed in the green. You at least need some humor or positive story beats other than the drama. This one didn’t really have any of that and your only chance of enjoying it is either ironically or if you also think that people are super annoying so the film wins back the realism points that it loses very quickly otherwise.

The film introduces us to Arthur and Eve who have had a very rocky marriage for a long time. Eve appears to have gone completely crazy and Arthur seems to want a fresh start. Well, it turns out that they are getting a divorce so now it is time for the three sisters to see how they can handle the situation. I can tell you that it won’t be easy because none of them are really having satisfying lives of their own either. The situation only seems to grow worse and worse so without even the possibility of a happy ending here, what can be done?

First off even though this is about the 3 daughters, the youngest one doesn’t get much of a role. It takes a long while for Flyn to even show up into the main story and nothing goes right for her there as well. She is attacked in her van by Frederick, one of the drunk villains who had a lot of red flags from the start. Aside from this being a needless scene that hurried to keep dragging the film lower and lower, it doesn’t make sense that nothing ever came of this. While the characters are all in toxic situations and seem so worldly that they may let such an attack go, the film ought to have at least addressed it.

Flyn never really gets any wins in the film and ultimately it seems like her decision to be far away from the others was probably for the best. In general if she had not come home, that would have ended up working out way better for her. There’s nothing much more to say about Frederick since being a villain is really his only role. He likes to insult everyone constantly without taking any responsibility for his own actions. He just keeps on getting more and more drunk as the film goes on and you wonder what Renata ever saw in him.

Renata is the oldest of the 3 daughters and constantly fight with her younger sister Joey. There’s always been a one sided competition here as their father only ever wants Joey’s opinion and Renata can never really seem to match her. No matter how much success Renata gets, it is ultimately used against her. Now she is in a toxic marriage of her own and so things are not looking any better. Her way of coping with these constant issues is to essentially encourage her mother in the delusions that the parents may get back together again. Not a good idea but in general no response would be very helpful there.

Joey gets the biggest role out of all the characters but does end up being one of the most annoying characters as a result. She has done her best to get close to her mother over the years but all of the attempts have been futile. She is stabbed in the back every single time so her problem is essentially the flip side of Renata’s. Clearly everybody is just in a tough situation here.

Joey’s problems are largely self inflicted though. She tends to get bored of all her jobs and so she jumps around a whole lot. Joey seems to have a lot of confidence issues and also doesn’t want to start a family with her boyfriend so that starts up a lot of fights as well. Joey just allows her mother to call the shots at all times even when it means wasting a whole lot of money. She then takes her frustrations out on the new step mom. There’s just nothing likable about Joey. You understand her actions during the story and see why she is upset but Joey always manages to handle these situations in the worst possible way.

Mike tries to be the most reasonable one around. He isn’t a pushover like Joey and the others but at the same time he does want their relationship to last so he does his best to make her happy. He just can’t seem to do enough as she always has a bunch of complaints around. I don’t see how they can possibly be happy long term but he’s trying so I have to give him some credit there. It’s definitely not an easy circumstance.

As for Eve, well I’m afraid she loses the sympathy points rather early on. She is going through a lot and that is sad but she just never stops complaining. You can see where Joey gets it from. Eve is never happy and will always find the negative in a situation. She’s the kind of character where if you helped her out 99 times but couldn’t do so once, she would always bring up that one time. She’s the kind of person you would generally try to avoid or at least make sure you weren’t in the same social circles with. So it’s no wonder that Arthur wanted to get away from her, although he is far from blameless. Ultimately Eve makes the wrong decisions all the way to the end.

As for Arthur, well the guy got tired of Eve and decided to split up. That’s always going to be the wrong decision there. I can only defend that if there is serious abuse going on, whether physical or verbal. Then to compound the issue he immediately gets married to his rebound pick and brings her over to show off. It all makes him look quite selfish. If he was going to rebound then at the very least he needs to be more discreet about it. I’m afraid the time to show her off to the family may never come but he has to accept that. For what it’s worth, she seemed fine. A lot of red flags with how Arthur would be her third husband but that’s his business.

It’s not as though the relationship seemed any weaker than the others. All of the romances in the film were quite dreadful. Meanwhile the writing is pretty bad as the characters talk a lot but don’t have a great deal to say. The whole film is just so jaded like this is how you imagine people are talking behind closed doors. There are probably some who are like this but they would be far from the majority. The film was also way too determined to be a sad drama the whole time. I get not wanting to have some humor but just a few jokes could have gone a long way.

For any film the main goal is going to be to entertain the audience. You’re not going to be entertained with this one and the pacing is much too slow. It’s also hard to feel bad for anyone because it’s hard to imagine being friends with any of the characters in this film. They would all be talking behind your back constantly and slipping insults into every sentence. The film’s ending doesn’t help matters either as it is an extremely weak one. The film just fumbled everything from start to finish. One little thing the film could have done at least as a fun little easter egg would be to have mentioned there were 4 sisters but the 4th one decided not to show up. I could have at least written a paragraph about how that was the smartest character in the movie.

Overall, Interiors is a film that I would definitely avoid. It’s much too dreary and the characters are so bad. Usually they’d just be bad in a super unlikable way but then you have Frederick who becomes an actual villain and this is never addressed. He should have been in prison by the end at the very least. There were simply no chances to enjoy the film as every moment that would even hint at being light hearted was immediately slammed down. A movie just can’t survive on those kinds of negative vibes. The characters are all written to be as unlikable as possible and that’s already a hard enough issue to get past without all of the other problems.

Overall 1/10

Mercy Review

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Mercy is one of those films that has an amazing concept right out of the gate. People finally had enough of the crazy crime rates and so an A.I. was created to serve as judge, jury, and executioner. All criminals are presumed guilty unless proven of innocence. This is a film that feels like it could have been a Twilight Zone episode. I’ve also been playing a lot of Ace Attorney lately so this was really timely. Generally I tend to be on the side of the prosecution and this film is really no different. Can the main character actually prove his innocence?

The film starts off with Chris being strapped into his seat at the A.I. Mercy courtroom. He is accused of murdering his wife a few hours ago. The trial would have been even sooner but they had to wait for his alcohol levels to drop off. Things are not looking good for Chris, footage at the scene of the crime shows him having a fight with his wife and being the last one to leave her place. Their marriage was not in a good place and Chris was known to have severe anger issues. He was also an alcoholic. Judge Maddox seems to have an ironclad case against him. Can Chris stop panicking long enough to prove his innocence or is it curtains for him?

One thing I have to say right away is that Chris is super annoying the whole time. You really have a hard time rooting for him. The first 5-10 minutes are basically him trying to break out of the chair and yelling a lot. This just isn’t the time to panic like that and it gets worse when you find out that he is one of the main guys who pushed for the Mercy system. He even helped capture the first person to be put to death by the system. That means Chris should understand more about what’s going on than the average person and so I would also expect a certain amount of composure.

You don’t really get any of that here though. Then as we learn more about the case, we see that he really wasn’t a good guy. Now it is always important to separate the person from the crime. Just because you’re not a good person, that doesn’t mean that you are guilty. I think it is also why I tend to be more on the prosecution’s side though. They are always fighting for the guilty plea and the evidence is going to be on their side. The defense has to try and save their client even when they know that they are guilty. That’s always been much tougher for me to square in my head.

Neither side is ever always on the side of justice but I’d say that the prosecutors have a higher batting average. Additionally, Judge Maddox just does a terrific job. She calmly analyzes the facts and constantly makes sure that things are going the way that they should be. It’s a giant contrast to what is going on with Chris as he just panics and panics. He throws a whole lot of personal attacks her way while she doesn’t stoop to his level.

I will say that the film does go in a bit of a cheesy direction with her character though. I would have liked for her to have stayed far more decisive and calculating than how it actually went down. I don’t understand her getting so emotional within such a small time frame. I would have liked for her to have stayed fully neutral. Still helpful depending on the circumstances but never giving you the vibe that she was on someone’s side. she was still the best character in the film though.

As for Chris, well you’ll just have to see if he is guilty or not. One thing we can say for sure though is that he messes up a lot. We find out how he was trying to drink in secret without his wife knowing and then he went totally crazy when she found out. He tried fighting off a whole group of police officers which was a terrible look for him. At one point he even pretended to give up, only to grab a chair and start swinging at them. That’s a really underhanded move even in the best of times but for here it’s another demerit against him.

You are meant to feel sympathetic for Chris by the end but I can’t say that I ever really got to that point. The film just went a little too far in making him as unlikable as possible. Of course this still doesn’t excuse the subplot where his wife is fooling around with someone else. You get a divorce first and then you can hit the market again. Doing that while married is just as bad and so the supporting characters quickly get annoying here. The rebound guy is real smug and likes to hear himself talk but you don’t want to really hear what he has to say either. He’s not a good guy either.

The film did already explain that there was a huge crime wave so in some ways it does make sense why everyone is so unlikable. It doesn’t make them any better but the film did lay some groundwork there. I do think the film had to stretch its own logic a bit for the final plot twist though. Given how much power Maddox has with A.I. and all, I don’t see how she would have missed some of the evidence here. I guess you could say that she just won’t look into things as much unless the accused is fighting back but that doesn’t totally track for me. So the final twist felt a bit forced and could have used more of an explanation. In general I’d say that’s true even for the main case to an extent but a lot more time was spent on that one so there aren’t any true plot holes there. Still some parts I’d be skeptical of but nothing absolutely insane.

The general action climax tends to run into some of these issues because it feels like this shouldn’t be so easy in the future. Shoot out the wheels for the truck at least right? Felt like there wasn’t enough security and then all of the officers kept crashing their cars into the truck. Not saying it should be super easy or anything like that but that was absolutely a skeptical moment for me. The villain’s plan seemed to rely on way too many things going right in too many different directions. Realistically I feel like his plan should have been doomed way before he got to the point he was in during the climax. Maybe I’m overestimating the surveillance I guess.

Overall, I thought this movie would be pretty good as soon as I saw the trailers for it and this one did not disappoint. Generally I always tend to enjoy court room films. This one may have a different setup than usual but still follows the main beats. There is a good amount of suspense here and you will definitely be eagerly awaiting each and every twist. The pacing is good and the concept is also a really good one that just makes you think. Would you be able to use the A.I. tools to prove your own innocence in such a situation? Chris had to get real creative here in order to find an angle and that’s really how it always is for using these tools. Some plot developments may get a bit weaker as you watch them but that’s the nature of a thriller. I would definitely watch a sequel if that ever came out and I’d recommend this film.

Overall 7/10

Tron: Ares Review

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Tron has returned for a new adventure! It’s definitely good to see the franchise make a comeback because it’s been way too long since the last film. While this one isn’t quite able to match that legend, this is a very good movie with a good amount of action. We finally get to see the cyber world enter the real one and for once the army actually looks rather decent. I was glad that they didn’t just go down immediately. I’d like to see more films after this one but unfortunately it sounds like another long gap is going to appear instead.

The film starts off by explaining that ENCOM no longer owns the monopoly on the digital world. Dillinger Systems is closing in fast and now both of them are competing to take the decisive advantage. The only way to do this is to find a way to finally allow the cyber world to enter the real one. Both of them are able to pull this off for 30 minutes, but they need the permanence code to pull this off. Julian Dillinger creates a master program named Ares who aims to use to find the code or to break into ENCOM and steal it from them. His hunch was correct as the head of ENCOM, Eve, has found this code. She must try to escape from Ares long enough to pull it off but does she have the strength to stay alive?

In a way the first part is a bit like Terminator here as you have the powerful cyber fighters trying to assassinate this one human. At first they need her alive in order to get the code but that’s not always the gameplan. Additionally since they can stay in the real world for 30 minutes and can be respawned as many times as needed, the humans are at a disadvantage. Eve may know how to keep these digital people in the real world indefinitely but it’s a very small comfort when she has no fighters on her side.

The film doesn’t go in this direction but it would have been nice to have seen her summon Tron or something like that. He would have been a powerful asset for the hero side. Eve means well though and does want to make the world a better place. She just doesn’t want this breakthrough to be used for evil. After all if you can create infinite guns, bombs, and robotic soldiers then this will be desired by all kinds of bad actors. The good effects are that you can now have infinite food to solve world hunger, ways to revolutionize medicine, etc.

So the effects of this film will greatly change the world no matter who wins. The film doesn’t really focus on the ramifications of this though. There’s just not really enough time and that would be more for a sequel. Eve is a solid heroine though. She may have taken a little time to really take Julian’s ambitions seriously, but she was able to outsmart Eve during their first fight and did well to keep on staying alive.

As for Julian, well he’s your classic corporate villain. The guy is super cocky and arrogant when he is in control but really starts to panic once the shoe is on the other foot. The guy wants to win at any cost and so he will break as many rules as he feels is necessary to make things go his way. This ends up being rather easy for him in general since Ares gives him a huge leg up over all of the other programs. He never ends up being all that interesting though and the computer villains are definitely more fun. Julian’s also the kind of villain who is creating his own problems since Ares would have absolutely been more loyal if Julian wasn’t transparently antagonizing him throughout the whole film.

Ares is a fun character who takes decisive action right away. He realizes that Julian sees him as expendable and decides to do something about it. He was introduced as being a really strong fighter and he proves that quite a few times during the film. I would have liked for there to have been more of a focus on fight scenes as opposed to general action ones but in either case Ares is always at the top of the class.

I’d say his character arc ends up going a little fast. I would have liked for him to have kept a bit of an edge but at the end of the day I suppose he was just more heroic than Julian would have predicted. I also think the way the film ends leaves a lot of room for his character to go in any direction. You can’t really stop technological progress though and so I fully expect him to have a big role in the next film. If there aren’t a bunch of other programs in the real world by that point then something went wrong.

Eve is really the main villain here. She always had dreams of grandeur and was certainly not going to settle for being 2nd best for long. Her confidence tends to outweigh her skill though. The only times she is winning is when the heroes are at a huge disadvantage. She had the right idea in summoning everyone for the climax though. At that point there isn’t really anything to lose. I also think it would be a really interesting to have an army of extremely powerful fighters who can only exist for 30 minutes going up against the armies of the world. They are strong enough to make a dent but the time limit and constant respawning is a big weakness.

The old characters get a cameo here and there but you shouldn’t expect anything more than that. It would have been really cool to see the characters from the second film show up but I do get how they would probably end up stealing the whole film. The guy from the first film is around but I feel like those scenes don’t have as much of an impact at this point. Maybe it was just the timing though, I wanted to go back to the real world instead of hearing a quick music debate.

The soundtrack for the film is really good as you would expect. A lot of really solid electronic themes going on and they absolutely fit the atmosphere that the film is going for. The end themes actually sounded like something out of Stranger Things but for the midway point and action scenes it would be the Tron that you’ve come to expect. This is a soundtrack that is very loud and unique so I appreciate that. It’s very memorable and that’s part of the Tron experience.

The special effects in general are really good. There is always a lot going on and I love the way that the digital world looks. We also get the classic Lightcycle battle which is a staple for the series. It does make you wish there was more of it though. I think that will always be the hard balance trying to have some human scenes while also giving more time to the Grid. Legacy was more about the Grid so this one’s more about the human parts.

Overall, Tron: Ares is at its best when it is showing off all of the cool digital effects. I always like seeing the battles there and the concepts are also interesting. In this case the members of the Grid are clearly able to feel and emote so they even mourn their fallen allies. If they all start to be sentient, then that’s definitely going to lead to problems in the real world. You may not be as engaged in the company vs company stuff but the film has really quick pacing so there are no points where any of this is dragging on. The whole adventure really ends before you know it with constant danger around every corner. Even if you haven’t seen a Tron film before you should be able to get into this one without any issues. I’d say that it’s very new viewer friendly.

Overall 7/10

Godsend Review

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This is one of those films where the characters are constantly making a bunch of mistakes. You are going to need to suspend a good amount of disbelief in this adventure because otherwise you’ll be questioning everything. Unfortunately this movie doesn’t really succeed at any of the genres it is trying to hit. It’s not super suspenseful as a thriller and it’s definitely not very scary. I guess you can’t win them all.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Paul and Jessie who are happily married and raising their kid Adam. Adam is your average boy who likes sports and games. Unfortunately he gets hit by a car one day and dies. This causes Jessie’s old professor Richard to show up. The guy explains that he can clone Adam so in a way they will have their kid back. They will have to leave town and get new identities though. None of their relatives or old friends can know about this. Paul thinks this is a dumb idea but Jessie is desperate to have a version of Adam back. Paul relents and so they do the cloning. 8 years later, the clone is now as old as Adam was but he begins to act very oddly. Have the main characters made an oopsie here?

There are so many reasons why agreeing to clone your dead kid is a bad idea but of course we wouldn’t have a movie if they had just said no. So for the most part I’m just going to go ahead and skip all of my reservations about that. This is still a bad idea aside from that though. Why would you actually break off contact with all of your friends and family? I understand why you would tell Richard that so that he can give you the clone but you could absolutely reach out to them afterwards. There wouldn’t be much that Richard could do at that point.

Also the instant Adam started acting weird, Paul needed to do something. Unfortunately Jessie was already under Richard’s sway early on so she wasn’t going to do anything but Paul should have gotten the second opinion sooner. It’s not like Adam was subtle either. One of his first scenes is telling Paul that he doesn’t like him anymore. Weird thing to say to your father right? Then he starts zoning out more, having strange visions, etc. You can’t just listen to Richard when he says that everything will be okay.

Odds are that the other doctors couldn’t have done anything but that’s more of a hindsight argument. You should still do something. Unfortunately this is part of why none of the characters are likable here. Jessie is annoying from the start with how easily Richard is able to manipulate her. She just puts up no resistance and also seems to have no survival skills. At one point during what is supposed to be a horror scene, she follows Adam into the camera room. It’s naturally very dark since the light would ruin the photos.

So then Adam vanishes into the darkness and….Jessie follows him instead of just opening the door. That would have been the easiest solution and there is no reason to worry about a few photos at that point. Instead she fumbles around in the darkness so we can get some more jump scares. It just didn’t really make sense. If Jessie had at least turned against Richard early on that would have helped but instead she chooses him every time.

As for Paul, he is better but still looks bad throughout. He knew that cloning was a bad idea but still allowed himself to be convinced otherwise. Then when it comes to Richard, Paul lets his guard down and is easily defeated. It’s a rather humiliating scene for him because that should have never happened. You shouldn’t be turning your back to a dangerous threat like that. So he was really lacking in survival skills as well.

Finally for Richard, his end goal didn’t really make sense. For how long was he going to just try and stall the characters by saying that things would work out? It felt like he had absolutely no plan. I also think his whole cloning project relied on some pretty huge assumptions like the clone looking like the original no matter what DNA was used. That part seems really odd, especially with the spirit realm bodies fighting it out. The film couldn’t really decide if it was leaning more on supernatural or science based. I’d argue that this doesn’t make total sense in either case. The clone should have looked a bit different in retrospect after one of the twists.

As for Adam, well the first kid seemed okay. Then the clone seems to mainly be evil for its own sake. There’s just not a whole lot to him as a villain and so he will not be keeping your interest at any point. Far from it, you’ll prefer the passive aggressive meetings of Richard and Paul since those are a lot more interesting. There isn’t much that Adam can actually do in a fight unless the victim turns around and becomes hard of hearing. That does happen but it’s still unrealistic.

In the meanwhile Adam does murder another kid which was a shame. You were definitely hoping that someone could have intervened in time. Yes the kid was a bully but the bullying was not all that drastic and either way should not be a death sentence. We see enough of the villain’s origin story to see the casualties there as well and even then it doesn’t feel like Adam should have lasted as long as he did. There was a lot of plot armor behind every strike. The film isn’t exactly dreary but it’s also not trying to be a lot of fun. It’s very dramatic and emotional the whole time. Without really strong characters to counteract that, the movie can feel like a bit of a slog at times.

You’re not as interested in ignoring the jarring questions of how nobody realized where the family went to track them down. They wouldn’t need to explain the kid looking similar part because that absolutely could happen. The family running off and trying to start new lives is what would be more suspicious. Did they really get new social security numbers and IDs? I know Richard is great with science but I don’t see how that translates into this CIA type of access.

Overall, This is just not a very good film. It takes a while for the plot to really start as we get a whole lot of build up. Once the story does start in earnest, Adam just isn’t able to hold his own as the film’s main antagonist. Throughout the adventure you can’t help but feel like the movie should have a lot more meat to it. Either go full on supernatural and explore the interesting idea of souls running around waiting for clone bodies to be born or go full on science with the souls residing inside of the DNA. This one tries to do a lot and ends up not being able to accomplish much of anything. Even the twist ending feels more obligatory than interesting. There just isn’t much you can do with the evil kid genre. As it stands, this film is fairly low and still beats its average competitor.

Overall 3/10

Greenland 2: Migration Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10