Category Archives: Live Action Movies

Hard Times Review

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It’s time for a film about boxing that is not Rocky. Rocky will always be the definitive film of this kind of genre but of course there are others that also throw their hat into the ring. Hard Times is definitely more of an underground kind of fighting film though and so it doesn’t have the classic glamour and sportsmanship of the tournament battles. In these fights, you can always expect things to get ugly.

The film starts off with Speed hoping his fighter will win a match but the guy is crushed again. That’s when a man named Chaney shows up and declares that he can win a few fights. Speed watches him demolish his first opponent and realizes that this guy is the real deal. So they make a deal to be partners and Chaney gets Speed to agree to his terms of 50/50. Things are going well at first as they win some fights but Speed quickly gets greedy and starts betting more and more money. He takes loans from some dangerous sources and also keeps up his gambling habits. It will all catch up to him soon, but will he bring Chaney down with him?

Now of course gambling is a serious addiction and not something that is easy to turn away from. So I’m not saying it would have been easy but Speed definitely needed to have had some level of restraint. He was already in a rough spot before the event started and then after that he should have been feeling really lucky that Chaney won the super high bet. Instead by wasting it, he has a run in with the mafia and things only get worse from there.

I wouldn’t have blamed Chaney if had just left Speed to the mess that he created and skipped town. It was absolutely not Chaney’s fault that things went that way but of course Speed would have been murdered and it’s hard to just leave knowing that is going to happen. So Chaney takes the high road and risks his life once again. Fighting is never a joke, things can escalate in an instant and so you don’t want to do it unless you had to. Chaney is good at what he does and fight in order to make some money to get to his next destination but he’s not just fighting anybody.

Also he got very fortunate that his opponent was a class act and refused to cheat. In a battle with the mafia present, that is certainly far from a guarantee. So I give his final opponent some respect there, I don’t think any of the other villains would have held back in the same circumstance. They would cheat as much as they could in order to win any fight.

Outside of the fights, it’s not like Chaney was a super good guy though. He has an affair with a lady named Lucy for a good chunk of the film and the whole romance is as shallow as possible. Definitely not the kind where you’re rooting for the pairing. There’s no love there, only convenience on both sides and hopefully Chaney can go a bit slower when he starts fresh in the next town.

I get the feeling that Speed and his doctor Poe are going to be continuing to get into more and more trouble on their side though. Poe never kicked his drinking problems and Speed is still gambling. Chaney has given them a true fighting chance though so hopefully they can keep themselves on track. The underground circuit will always exist but you definitely don’t have to be a part of it once you have all of the money.

The fights themselves are pretty solid as well. You definitely feel the power in some of those blows and it’s not like Chaney was blowing through his opponents. He was clearly the best fighter in the movie but still had to use a lot of good strategy to win. It’s always more impressive that way as opposed to coming in and winning with a single punch which feels less realistic when you’re battling other pros.

The dialogue and writing as also pretty solid. It’s one of those films where there are certainly a lot of threats being flung around but they generally still have the villains putting on the pretense of being polite. I also liked that while Chaney may not be as book smart as some of the others, he is extremely street smart and wasn’t being pushed around by anyone. The scene where he is ready to walk away from the deal when Speed is immediately trying to scam was a good moment for example.

I think to boost the film up a little, I would have either made Chaney more likable or the doctor. So instead of all 3 characters having their vices and not making the best decisions, have one of them actually be a true professional. That character would walk away midway through the film while the other two get greedy. For Chaney you could also just get rid of the romance angle or for Poe, not introducing him as an alcoholic from the start. I think it would have worked to have made the film not quite as grim since all of the leads ere gray at best.

Overall, Hard Times does a good job of showing how dangerous boxing can be. It’s definitely not a profession that most people choose for the joy of it. You’re either poor enough where you have to take a gamble, or one of the rare few who just enjoys fighting to such an extent that the risk is worth it. Chaney likes his lifestyle of travelling the country and not having to work a standard job so to him it makes sense. Win a few fights, then leave and restart. Still not something I’d advise, but to each their own. It’s a good film and doesn’t make any big mistakes but I’d also say it’s just not the most fun title out there. It’s a bit on the dreary side even if the ending does lean as positive as it can be.

Overall 6/10

Like Father Like Son Review

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It’s time for a classic body swap comedy. There aren’t a ton of films with this kind of premise but they usually turn out to be pretty fun. Who hasn’t thought about stepping into someone else’s shoes for a few minutes right? I don’t think the film ends up being quite as good as it could have been though and could have used more likable characters. As always the kid can definitely be annoying but the father can also be a little slow on the uptake at times.

The movie starts with some intense music as a guy runs through the dessert and is badly injured. He is treated by a nearby tribe and temporarily switches bodies with someone before going to normal. Pretty interesting “science” they got over there. We then cut to the actual main characters Chris and his father Jack. Jack is a very serious guy who works hard and is nearing a big promotion. He wishes his son could take things a little more seriously. Chris is still going through his teenager journey of crushing hard on a girl and flunking on his classes. Well, that’s when his friend Trigger’s uncle shows up with the body swap serum. Trigger messes around and through a series of comedic shenanigans, ends up switching Chris and Jack. Can the two characters get through a full day or two without completely wrecking each other’s lives?

You’re mainly going to be feeling bad for Jack here because he was actually doing well with his life. He was nearing that promotion and skillfully swerving the advances being made to him by the wife of his boss. Jack is not planning on messing around and he is well respected within the industry. His main flaw is presented by the fact that he follows the rules really closely so he doesn’t make exceptions when people don’t have money or insurance to pay for the treatment.

Perhaps he is a bit cold about all of this but at the same time, he is just following company policy. The other doctor brings this up a lot at the board meetings and keep shutting this down. So it’s not like it’s just Jack. Where Jack falters is in not closing out the deal on the big race. He really needed to stay focused and also should have been preparing a lot harder a few days in advance. No way that race should have even been getting close at the ending there. I know the guy is oblivious, but it’s also a bit much that he acts as if he’s never really been to school before. He rambles and acts like the teacher but I guess maybe he was just the class jerk back in the day.

As for Chris, well he acts a lot like the immature stereotype of every teen. He’s completely girl crazy and the first thing he thinks to do when becoming an adult is to go flirt and drink as much as possible. The amount of damage he’s done to his father’s reputation is crazy and so it’s hard to sympathize with him at all. He just looks so immature the whole time and has never heard the phrase of great power comes with great responsibility.

I know it’s part of the point of his character arc but I’d argue he never really learns that much of a lesson. Now at least the movie is consistent with how immature he is since the guy can’t even manage to talk to a girl without making himself look like a fool but it all boils down to you wishing the whole film could have been about the father instead. Even when Jack would make a mistake, he consistently looked better than Chris.

His friend Trigger tends to be more entertaining. Now, technically he’s probably about as immature as Chris but maybe since he’s in the side character role it doesn’t hit as hard. He also has the toughest job of playing advisor to Jack when he’s at school and keeping both parties from making huge mistakes. So maybe in a way he’s at least smarter than Chris.

The heroine Lori doesn’t look that good as the whole thing with her is that she’s not a very serious person. Likewise the bully Rick is super determined to prove that he’s better than Chris when he should probably just be leaving Lori to find someone who wants to be with him. He absolutely crushed Chris in their fight though so he definitely takes his fighting skills seriously.

So while I have a lot of issues with the characters here, the film does have its share of funny gags. I did like the walk-throughs at the hospital. Both the one that was taken seriously and then the parody one after the body swap where Chris didn’t know what was going on. It worked as a solid contrast and of course it’s generally fun to see each character messing up each other’s lives. I dare say it would just be a bit funnier if it took itself more seriously.

That may sound paradoxical but think of it this way. If both characters were a little better at living each other’s lives, then the mistakes they make would be funnier. It would be more of a rare error in judgment as opposed to getting major things wrong. You could also see if there were any ways where they made each other’s lives better thanks to their different approaches. These films always have a lot of potential but this one mainly stuck to going for the obvious gags.

Overall, The film was fun enough but is definitely lacking in some replay value. It’s fairly short so at a little over 90 minutes it’ll go by quickly. The romance scenes for both characters tend to be the most cringe worthy moments although there is a lot of cringe to go around. If you like body swap films then you should check this one out but there’s a reason why it’s not super well known and you will definitely learn that the hard way before you’re done. A remake could really improve on this one.

Overall 5/10

Blue Steel Review

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I’ve seen a number of John Wayne films in my day and let me tell you, if you liked the others then you will like this one. In a lot of ways it is really not trying to be any different than the others either. It’s really going for the classic Wayne experience and I can definitely respect that. It’s the kind of title that really makes you focus because you want to be able to talk about the film later on without accidentally mixing it up with a bunch of others. Trust me, that might be tougher than you think.

The film starts with John seeking some shelter at a nearby hotel. Unfortunately during the night the place is robbed and while John was unable to catch whoever did it, he did manage to grab a star that fell off of the guy’s boot. John wasn’t quite fast enough to escape before the nearby Sheriff saw him though. The Sheriff has no proof that John stole all the money from the hotel but knows the guy is basically guilty. So John decides to catch the man who did this while the Sheriff tags along under the guise of wanting to help out. Who will catch their prey first?

I think the first thing that stands out here is the fun banter between the two characters. Neither of them are being even slightly subtle here as they throw in their shades and suspicions on each other. It makes for some pretty quality entertainment the whole time. I always like good banter and when both characters want to catch the other, well it makes everything even better. That is probably the best element of the film since not all John Wayne films are going to have that detail.

Also I do enjoy that John gets to be super smug the whole time. This is one film where he is on the offensive the whole time so he doesn’t have to hide his power level. No, he just rushes in and basically does whatever he likes. It’s definitely a fun way to go about things. Also the villains may not be super memorable but they are also confident in their own right. You will definitely get some smug dialogue out of them as well since they tend to think that the heroes are walking into a trap. Naturally John tends to be one step ahead at all times but there would have been no way for the villains to know that. They didn’t realize that John is basically the toughest opponent that they could have gone up against.

The main heroine doesn’t look very good here. She does help to exonerate John early on which is good but she gets kidnapped on multiple occasions. The worst offense is when John goes to save her but she isn’t ready to just hop out on a dime. When your life is in danger you have to move quickly and without hesitation. She clearly missed the memo on that one and it’s just a rough look. I would have liked for her to have had a gun or been ready to fight at least. In the days of the wild west, everyone ought to be armed.

As for the sheriff, I give him credit for tailing John for so long. He never quite gave up on his quest even as Joh looked more and more heroic. I appreciate him not taking the approach that he could let John go just because he seemed like a good guy. No matter how heroic he was, if the lead had robbed the hotel then he would need to go to justice. So his sheriff was never wavering in his duties.

Beyond that, like I said this is a fairly standard film. I’d just say that’s not a bad thing when the standard is good enough. I always have fun with these films and this one was really no exception. It was entertaining to watch all the way through and has a lot of replay value. While you sometimes wish the films could be a little longer to flesh things out, it absolutely does work well at adding on the replay value. You could rewatch this one at any time and still have fun. It’s also a bit more light hearted than the average Wayne film (Which is saying something) with all of the slapstick and gags going on. None of them ever take you out of the immersion either. They just fit in really well.

Overall, Blue Steel is a pretty fun film. It’s got solid action and writing which are always two of the most important elements to any film. It’s also short with good pacing so it doesn’t take long to get to the good stuff. If you haven’t watched this one yet, then I definitely recommend checking it out. We even do have some pretty solid gunfights here to watch as well. The romance at the end feels a bit rushed and unnecessarily but otherwise everything really landed here.

Overall 7/10

War of the Worlds (2025) Review

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Sometimes you end up watching a film where you wonder what the thought process was. Did anyone think the movie would really be a success or were they just getting the film out as a way to say they did something? Well, this one is really a trip. The writing doesn’t make sense, the plot progression is odd, and the film plays out as a big parody. That said….this is why it actually succeeds. If you watch this as a parody comedy, it’s surprisingly solid with how the characters act so genuine with their odd behavior. You’ll get rather hyped up while watching it. Trust me, this is a film that you won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The movie begins by introducing us to Will. This guy is a pretty big shot within the Department of Homeland Security. He’s so high up that he can hack into any satellite across the planet and has unrestricted access to people’s phones and computers. He can essentially do anything. One character tries to warn him that the government is always watching and Will powerfully responds that he knows…because he is the government! Will has no regard for people’s privacy and believes that safety comes above all else. No worries though…power won’t corrupt him.

Well, one day the Earth is invaded by aliens and so the government needs Will in order to coordinate a response. They’re going to have to wait though as Will’s top priority is taking care of his two kids. His wife passed away a while back so this is what he has to do. Unfortunately his son is a big conspiracy guy so Will tunes him out and his daughter Faith is always running around and getting into trouble. Will is going to need to use all of his hacking skills to keep her safe but with him being busy…what will America be able to do about all of this?

So like I said this feels like a full parody. For example Will has more power than would be humanly possible here. This film is a conspiracy fan’s best dream because if you did actually have people running around with this level of tech, it would be bad. Then you have the fact that Will is basically blowing people off constantly to help his kids when lives are at stake. Will also takes time to click on every single pop up as news reports keep coming in.

As one point the government asks him for a plan of action and he goes on a 5 minute ramble about how we’re being attacked by aliens from outer space. The sentence is rather redundant but also they already knew that. They wanted to know what to do about it and he basically just says to fight back. Very nice. I do think it’s pretty realistic that some government agents are going to choose family over duty but the film is just so blatant here that it’s hilarious.

You want fake deaths for shock value? One character named Sandra dies around 4-5 times during the movie and always shows up like nothing happened. Nobody tends to even be all that surprised to see her. We get fake death scares for Faith and Dave at different points as well, even one or two for Faith’s boyfriend. The film loves throwing these in all the time along with some scary music to get to you. It may not be subtle, but hey it’s definitely memorable.

Will is basically stuck in the computer room for the whole film so all he really gets to do is look shocked for most of the film. He takes his glasses of and puts them back on at numerous points during the film. Each time makes it even better than the last. Additionally, he does try to leave at one point and has to give up when the doors were locked. That was a fun little suspense scene.

No worries though, we’ve also got a really fun main villain. This guy is as over the top as can be. He talks tough to his bosses about how he’s going to do whatever he wants and then totally gets away with it for ages until the film’s climax. He has absolute confidence and when Will approaches him about this, the guy takes it in stride. He just laughs about how long it took Will to catch on. I like when a villain keeps his composure like that. Sure he’s insane, but he’s not going to just back down on his convictions.

Will definitely is the kind of character who is slow on the uptake though. After the aliens are attacking and things are going crazy, he still refuses to talk to his son Dave. Even once things get crazier and crazier which points to Dave having some valid points, Will doesn’t want to hear it. He’s stubborn to the end. While the end of the movie gives him some character development, it’s also crazy how Will was so readily willing to hack into his family’s devices and completely ignore their need for privacy.

It’s like he just didn’t register that this was a bad thing at all. Meanwhile Faith was okay but not the smartest character considering that they built her up as a genius. She nearly dies by pulling an object out of her leg even though it was already bleeding a lot and in the car she goes on a speech about how Will has no power. Pretty ironic when he remote hacked a Tesla car from his room to save her live and drive her to a security checkpoint. Maybe that speech could have been left for later on.

Initially I thought her boyfriend was going to be useless the whole time because he would never show up to help her when the chips were down. Turns out he is just really slow but once he’s there, the guy does decent enough. His main asset is that the guy works at Amazon so he has a ton of high tech equipment at the ready. Without all of that, the characters would have been doomed. As for Dave, he may have been the best supporting character. For once I can’t even blame him for not telling Will enough because Will seriously wouldn’t let the guy talk at all.

I did like Sandra as well. When she wasn’t constantly dying, she was trying to sound the alert on what was going on but Will would just blow her off the whole time. It’s not like they could have done a whole lot in the span of an hour or so but at least she was trying. Meanwhile the government was mainly helpless without Will. They’d be waiting at the meetings for him to show up and were mainly panicking. It was nice to get some army fight scenes where they were doing well against the Tripods but the aliens are too powerful. They just got a bit overconfident.

The special effects aren’t half bad. The terrible camera work hurts for sure but the actual lasers are good. Make no mistake, the script is definitely better for a comedy than a thriller but at least it’s not terrible either. This is the kind of film you will have fun with. If you think too hard about it, I’m betting you will find some serious plot holes though. It’s just that kind of title. It’s not worried about things like that and is just trying to make for a good time. Ultimately I’m not even all that opposed to such a concept. It makes enough sense to me.

Overall, I’d be up for a sequel to this one. Keep it as cheesy as this one with the heroes fighting off another invasion or something like that. Maybe Will’s development could be learning that things aren’t always ultra black and white. He’s super against the government now to the point where he’s making threats against them but perhaps we’ll see how he actually needs their help in the next film. Would doing another alien invasion film feel redundant? Nahhhhh, I trust this movie to handle it well.

Overall 7/10

Love and Monsters Review

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It’s time for a fun little survival film. It ended up being better than I expected as it dodged some pretty big pitfalls that I had expected it to land in from the jump. It’s a very upbeat film with some solid humor and adventure so I can easily recommend it to the average movie goer. In fact, I nearly gave it a thumbs up for the romance too but the film jumped the shark at the very end. Ah well…that’s how it goes sometimes.

The film starts off pretty quickly with nearly all of humanity being wiped out after a nuclear defense against an asteroid mutates a bunch of animals into giant monsters. These monsters quickly made short work out of humanity and the survivors live in isolated bunkers. Joel is a member of one of these but he’s not too happy. Everyone at his bunker has shacked up while his girlfriend is stuck 85 miles away at another bunker. Joel also has difficulty feeling useful at the base since he tends to freeze up all the time. All he does is cook around the base and while everyone is super supportive, he has had enough. He decides to brave the unknown and go find his girlfriend Aimee. Can he survive out there?

A few solid notes right out of the gate. I liked how everyone as really supportive and they genuinely tried helping Joel out. There were no random bullies or petty characters here. This is the end of the world so you would expect everyone to band together and not let a single person feel isolated. A minor scene about this is how they all even rehearsed how they would gently let Joel down in the event that he asked to go on a mission. Then when he decides to leave, they even make him a detailed map and everything. (Which he ungratefully only looks at for a second before putting it away)

Another thing I was glad about is that humanity didn’t just roll over. The intro states that before getting crushed, our armies did take out all of the giant kaiju. So at least they didn’t die immediately without doing anything. Additionally we were also given a good reason for why they couldn’t make a comeback because eventually we ran out of bullets and people who knew how to create more. They went more in detail on how humanity lost in 15 minutes compared to multiple movies for a Quiet Place.

Now I was going to give the film credit for the romance but like I said earlier, that didn’t work out. I think any film veteran can likely see how this journey will play out but I’m still not going to spoil it. What I will say is that for most of the movie, Joel and Aimee were fairly mature about everything. Aimee was perhaps a little tricky at times even if it was a situation where she figured it would never matter. Where it falls apart is their final scene together. Lets just say it is completely undeserved and completely destroys the whole message of the romance. Talk about one scene destroying over 90 minutes of goodwill.

It’s one of those “Hollywood” type moments where you roll your eyes. If we ever get a sequel, hopefully this has no bearing on it. As a character Joel isn’t bad. He tries a little too hard to be funny and is often cringy but to an extent that’s the point of the character. Joel isn’t your average adventure lead and is completely out of his depth. He is still earnest and tries his best though. I wouldn’t say that he’s great or anything like that but he is a good character. He gets points for how he handled the final boss as well.

Then Aimee was a bit of a roller coaster for me. She was good in the intro, took some steps back near the middle with how quickly she got drunk and let her guard down, then buttoned up during the climax. So on the whole I would say she is a good character but as the essential leader of her group, she needs to keep her guard up. Leaders have an extra burden on themselves compared to other characters and while it may feel harsh or unfair, that’s just how the job goes.

Throughout the film Joel is accompanied by his pet dog, Boy. I’d say travelling together during the apocalypse makes him a pet by the end at least, but not to be misleading, they first meet on the journey. Boy is very helpful at numerous points in the film and Joel wouldn’t have survived without him. The film avoids going for the low hanging fruit of tragedy and drama here which was really appreciated. He makes for a really fun sidekick.

In general the film was really good with the supporting characters like Clyde and Minnow who show up later on. Minnow is a little kid who is really confident and doesn’t mind letting Joel know how weak he is. Then Clyde is an expert survivor who has been surviving very well all this time. The two of them make for a great team and are also very kind to Joel. They help him learn a lot in a short period of time and get him ready for the real world. They had a very strong team dynamic between the three of them.

As for the villains we get at the end of the film, they’re a bit sudden but it made sense in terms of having a true climax. Just having some monsters show up probably wouldn’t have been as intense in this case. You definitely wanted to see the villains go down after they spent a lot of time launching electric shocks and everything. So it made for a satisfying ending there, you always like to see the monsters getting some revenge of their own as well.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It had a good sense of humor. Honestly without destroying the romance message at the end this could have even gone up one more point. With monster films my worry can be on the animal violence and how badly the monsters get damaged. This time that ended up not being a big problem. Some monsters were blown up but generally it wasn’t really done in a big animal violence kind of way. There weren’t a lot of gross moments here and it also wasn’t one of those dystopias with a really jaded view on how evil everyone would be. Sure we did get our villains but by and large the cast was solid.

Overall 7/10

Next of Kin Review

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

It’s time for a classic revenge thriller. You can bet that this’ll make for a pretty intense film but the whole time you are hoping that the main character will make a move. He spends way too long just being absolutely persistent in wanting proof before making a move. The problem is that when you’re dealing with really experienced villains, getting proof is not always going to be possible.

The movie starts with introducing us to Truman who is a cop but isn’t always respected by the rest of the unit. They consider him to be a guy from the mountains who doesn’t really fit in but he does his best to overlook this and just do his job. He has a pregnant wife to think about after all. Unfortunately the town is on the corrupt side with a very active mob presence and they end up murdering one of Truman’s brothers. Truman goes to the funeral where the rest of the family swear vengeance. Truman pleads with them to let the law solve this but his other brother Briar decides to tackle this himself. Now Truman has to try and arrest the mobster responsible before vigilante justice comes through.

Now of course it is best to go through the law here but we’re talking about a big member of the mafia. You’re not going to see him just show up and bring him to jail. The mafia will fight you to the death on that and odds are that they’ve got someone on the payroll within the cops. Truman basically tries the entire film to do this by the book and it feels futile at every turn. He would have really been better off helping Briar get this over with right away.

Now Briar also wasn’t very smart about this. At one point he gets all of the villains alone in a room and has the drop on them. He decides to threaten them all a bit instead of finishing them off and that was a mistake. While his main beef was with the killer and he didn’t know which of them it was, they’re all gangsters. Why not just destroy them? He could have ended the film right there. Of course they would still have other people try to get revenge and the feud would continue but I wasn’t convinced at the reasoning for sparing them. Briar is outnumbered and in enemy territory so letting them go was not a good idea.

Meanwhile Truman’s wife Jessie was unfortunately a bit on the annoying side here. She knows all about how dangerous his job is and yet she starts complaining almost immediately when the going gets tough. I thought she would be on his side and try to stay calm but she panics so much. Additionally when she is attacked, she decides the thing to do is hide in the shower with the faucet on so she can’t even hear when Truman gets into the house and is yelling for her. That means if the attackers had gotten in, she would have been completely defenseless. Not a smart move.

Like I said in the intro though, Truman is just way too passive here. Sure, he threatens the villains from time to time but they know he isn’t going to do anything. It takes several murders for him to finally take action and by then we’re in the climax of the film. It’s a better late than never kind of story here when Truman should have been taking bigger strides to avenge his brother’s murder. That is what would have really helped him to have been better here.

As for the villains, they’re fairly generic. You’ve got Joey who is quick to violence and fits right in as the gang’s number two. He gets upset when John’s son threatens to replace him on the totem pole but that guy isn’t very smart. He is completely oblivious to how much Joey dislikes him and walks into every trap. You’re basically counting the minutes until he’s doomed. John is the actual leader of the mafia and is a much more reasonable guy but also takes too long to act.

If he was more in touch with what was going on then perhaps he could have prevented any of this from happening. Instead he talks about bonds and trust but didn’t do anything to solidify them Truman certainly gave him a lot of advance warning to try and stop this and John did not make use of any of it. At that point there just isn’t much more you can do about the situation.

While Briar didn’t handle the situation too smartly at times, he was still the most enjoyable character in the film. At least he was trying to serve up justice. This is definitely the kind of film where you end up rooting for the vigilante since nobody else is really able to get results. In general though you just don’t want to be in any city where the mafia have a lot of power.

The film can be fairly violent so just a heads up on that. The kills can be rather intense, particularly the first brother who died near the beginning of the film. The overall tone is more like a classic thriller so it’s not overly dark. Especially since all of the characters know what side the others are on. There is even a comic relief character who owns the apartment that Briar rents. He gets quite a bit of screentime here to also help prevent things from getting too crazy.

Overall, Next of Kin is a good thriller but a film that can also be a bit annoying for most of its run. The main character is too passive and then the aggressive brother decides not to finish off the villains at the last second. Definitely a rough combination there. Meanwhile the villains aren’t exactly subtle here because they don’t need to be. They just run in and shoot people whenever they want to with complete immunity. When the law fails so completely like this, it’s no wonder that some characters will jump in to complete the job themselves. It’s simply inevitable.

Overall 6/10

Selena

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It’s time for a film about a singer that I was not particularly familiar with. That said, those are the kinds of films where you can learn the most. After all, if you watch a film based on someone that you are already very familiar with, then naturally you aren’t going to learn a whole lot. So that makes a lot of sense. It’s a reasonable film but the pacing can really slow down to a glacial pace at times and the movie didn’t do a very good job of getting you to support the main romance when that seemed to be the goal.

The film starts off with Abraham trying to get some good gigs for his band but it doesn’t work out and eventually they have to disband. He tried to get over music for a long while but it’s one of those things that you just can’t get away from. He realizes that his daughter Selena has talent and wants to make her into a star. To this end he begins to contact all of his old friends to try and get some opportunities lined up but it won’t be easy. The family will have to fight hard to keep everyone together here.

It’s definitely a rocky start for Selena as her first few venues don’t have many people showing up but that makes sense. It takes a lot to break out in this industry and while her father sees her talent, to the outside world it’ll seem like he’s probably just bias towards his family. That would be completely understandable after all. Still, she eventually begins to prove herself and naturally that also means she starts to get a whole lot of popularity. That comes with a lot of positives and negatives.

Midway through the film a guy shows up and a romance starts immediately. It was easy to see why Abraham was real skeptical though. This guy is a bit shady right out of the gate and at the first opportunity he does get in with the wrong crowd and causes a ton of trouble. Yes, he says that he loves Selena but as Abraham points out, she is super rich and popular. There would be a lot of incentives for the guy to say that. Selena believes it’s true love but does come across as naive with how quickly she thinks this.

She had already given him a lot to worry about with how she had started to dress up in more risqué fashion so he was just trying to make sure that things didn’t get too crazy. Perhaps at times Abraham would overstep but I’d say on the whole he did a good job as a parent. His biggest mistake was probably opening up the restaurant that ended up failing. Taking risks is fine but not when you’re playing with the family money. That really put everyone in a tough spot.

As for the music itself, it seemed decent. None of the tracks were super memorable but I suppose the style of music can sometimes blend together a bit. The songs also rarely got to play all the way through so maybe that could have helped to tip the scales a bit. I was still glad to have some songs involved to shake things up though. Music is something that can always enhance a movie. The songs themselves don’t even have to be amazing or anything like that, it just helps the tempo and pacing.

In a way since this is more of a slice of life film, there isn’t a whole lot more to get into. Between songs and events we see that the family stayed really close and were still together even once she had gone professional. That was nice to see since it can be rare for the group to stick together like that. She seemed to have a good support network and if she had been able to go on for longer then I’m sure her popularity would have only continued to grow.

It was a nice change of pace to have a film like this that didn’t have a ton of tragedy throughout. Aside from the ending, it’s really an upbeat film all the way through. Yeah there are some issues that they all had to face here and there but nothing super dramatic. Often times when you see a film based on true events, you’re expecting a lot of death and controversy. Instead we mainly just got to see a glimpse into what it can be like to go from a normal life to being mega rich/popular. Music stories tend to be inspiring because they can happen to anyone. You have to have the drive and conviction to make it happen as there will always be many opportunities to give up midway.

Overall, Selena is a film that should teach you a good amount about the person behind the songs. If you’re more interested in her actually singing then this might not be the perfect film for you. They definitely chose to focus on her life story more than her musical career. You still do get to hear the main songs though so ultimately there is still a balance. How much you enjoy the film will ultimately depend on how engaging you find her story to be. This isn’t really my kind of film but it seemed like they did a good job of going through the big events.

Child’s Play (1972) Review

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It’s time for a film with a lot of suspense as you know something strange is going on but you don’t know exactly what it is. Well, it definitely succeeds in being a rather eery film with the kind of atmosphere that is hard to match nowadays. That said, the resolution isn’t particularly satisfying and just about all of the characters have to consistently drop the ball in order for the film’s events to play out in this way. It makes you wish that some real adults would show up already.

The film starts off by showing us that the children in a local Catholic School have all gone absolutely crazy. They are terrorizing each other and the events are only escalating. In particular they all seem to dislike one teacher, Malley who is infamously known as Lash. The guy is a really harsh teacher, someone who demands absolute respect and holds the kids to a high standard. Another teacher named Dobbs is always saying that he wants Malley to go easier on the boys but the guy refuses. Meanwhile Malley mentions that e is being harassed a whole lot as well as his sickly mother. He blames it all on Dobbs while Dobbs says that he is crazy. Meanwhile an alumni named Paul shows up to be the new gym teacher but really doesn’t know what he is getting into.

There’s a mix of supernatural elements here as well as a more practical enemy. It’s an odd balance as you can’t totally tell where one part ends and the other begins. I assume that is intentionally left up to your interpretation. The supernatural part was also necessary because otherwise it’s just hard to believe that things would have gone this bad this quickly. There are hundreds of boys in the Catholic school and yet a huge amount of them have turned rogue. It’s all very calculated and then the victims don’t even fight back and if anything just make it easier to become the next victims. Nothing at this school really makes sense.

So that’s really a big part of the mystery that Paul needs to figure out. The guy is really out of his depth from the start though and just being away from the kids for a few minutes is enough for the next person to be turned into a victim. With speed like that, you really have to be perfect in order to prevent anything from going on. It’s an unrealistic burden that nobody can possibly live up to. And yet, that is the burden that he ultimately has to bear as long as he’s here. Honestly he should have ducked out right away but I give him bravery points for sticking it out.

He’s just not too smart about it all. Remember that at least 20 kids are going around causing these issues and attacking other students. Paul is an adult but he’s only around 20, barely older than the other students. If it becomes a 20 on 1 fight, realistically Paul won’t be able to do much of anything. Yet, he easily allows himself to be alone in an environment where there is nobody to back him up. Just no common sense there at all.

I’m also unclear why the police haven’t gotten involved. Sure, the school isn’t contacting folks, but the hospital has records and then you also have the parents who should be getting more and more vocal with how often this has been going on. By the end the situation is finally being handled but it sure took a very long while. Everyone within the school takes some blame among the faculty because they were way too lenient and slow to react.

Dobbs does his best to look like the kind teacher the whole time but does tend to lay things on a bit thick. He does a good job of always looking very concerned and only blows up on occasion. He does come off as more reasonable than Malley although that guy isn’t actually that bad. He’s strict, but never abusive or anything like that. He doesn’t lay a hand on the students and while he blasts them about their mistakes, all of the students do make a lot of mistakes. Ultimately when everyone fails like this, it does reflect most on the teacher though. So I would say he probably needs to improve on his own curriculum here.

As for all of Malley’s concerns like the terrorizing phone calls, weird magazines, etc. The main message here is to not let yourself get gaslit. When things are happening, you always have to trust yourself above all to know that it’s real no matter how many people say you’re lying. I’m a little surprised he couldn’t take a more active approach to all of this though. There is no guarantee of success for anything of course but if he had brought in physical evidence or started recording the calls or contacting the police, something could have happened. You have to disrupt the status quo at the very least. If he’s sure that Dobbs is the one doing it, then he has to do something about this or it’ll only get worse.

I would say the main thing holding the film back here is how mean spirited it could get and of course how nobody was doing anything about this. There is quite a lot of bullying going on here and since the victims can’t fight back either due to the supernatural element or full on fear, the adults had to step up. Every time they have a meeting with 0 results you have to shake your head. It felt like a film where the ending had no real hope from the beginning. So it’s like you’re on a slow ride to dark end with no hope of getting out in sight. Doesn’t quite make for the most enjoyable kind of experience right?

Overall, Not every film has a happy ending and a horror film makes that even more likely. How good these films will be can usually e boiled down to how solid the characters are and if you felt like there was at least some hope along the way. Some point where you could be having fun during the movie. That’s never really the case here and while there are several teachers, they all tend to be rather useless when it counts. The movie is very much a slow burner but when the characters are helpless to stop the impending evil, it’s not the most effective approach. If you like really sinister kinds of films with this atmosphere then you may enjoy this one but ultimately while it is a step above the average slasher kind of film, I still wouldn’t call it a good horror title.

Overall 3/10

Disaster on the Coastline Review

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It’s time for a film about the dangers of technology. A bit ahead of its time perhaps but the message still works really well today. Technology is something that will always present a whole lot of issues to everyone around and this one is no exception. When you throw in the rogue human element, then things get even worse. This makes for a pretty solid thriller film with quite a lot of players involved although ultimately a lot of the plot does revolve around some characters being really gullible/naive.

The film starts off by explaining that the vice president’s wife will be taking a train since the planes are currently on strike. As a result the government wants to be extra sure that the ride goes smoothly and they send one of their operatives to wait by the central computer base where all trains and their connections are monitored. The team is annoyed to have him there but they will have to make do. What they don’t realize is that the driver of the train has been knocked out and replaced with a terrorist. Meanwhile a big time con man has escaped onto the train as well and is using an annoyed lady as his cover. All of the characters will soon be colliding.

Now I have to say that for most of the film I figured the thief was in cahoots with the terrorist. I figured he was the inside man who would be ready with distractions as necessary but in the end it was all separate. Stuart really is just trying to avoid the people he swindled and that’s why he is being so shady. Now the romance probably still should not have worked even with the relationship dramas that Paula was having but anytime someone is quickly ready to have a beer, that is a red flag. Now to be clear, the guy was cheating on her first and while she didn’t know this for a fact, the signs were there.

So you can see her wanting to find something new but this still ends up being a rebound. She also knows from the jump that Stuart isn’t an honest man. So that’s a bit of a snag in a relationship because how does she know he will be honest about that? Trust is the biggest part of any relationship and so if you don’t have that, then it seems to me that everything else will be moot right? A train ride just isn’t long enough for this to be ready for a serious relationship even with the dramatic ending. So this part didn’t feel earned.

Meanwhile the actual terrorist has things be a little too easy. For example he has to convince the other driver on the second car not to listen to everyone telling him to stop which is what will ensure that the two trains collide into each other. To a degree his excuses make sense which is that everyone else is a terrorist trying to trip him or a civilian held at gunpoint. However, the terrorist says that the helicopters outside are here to support him and you have people waving and telling the guy to slam on the brakes. I don’t know how they could have been more clear about the instructions and he still kept on going straight. That was real lucky for the villain.

It should have been curtains right there. Additionally the thief should have been out of luck right away when Paula found the briefcase with the stolen money in it. There would be no reason to aid a villain at this point in time. So both villains were really lucky all the way. Well, luck aside it does make for a pretty tense scenario. The film did a good job with the mounting danger and ho the various characters were all starting to panic.

The writing is solid with a lot of good dialogue the whole time. Even when the computer guys are arguing with the FBI agent, they manage to stay rather civil and aren’t immediately resorting to personal attacks or anything like that. It does eventually come up of course but they are mainly focused on the threat at hand which is the important thing. The blame game and everything else can happen later on.

Then you also have a subplot where corporate actually looks pretty good for once. A CEO is put into a tricky spot when the terrorist gets his company involved and the guy is quick to take charge of the situation. He could have just ignored the situation or given a generic public statement but he prioritized the lives on the train the whole way through. Even once the cameras were off, he prepared the next steps on the investigation because he actually cares about justice. You don’t always see that so it was a pretty nice moment.

In the end I would say the movie as a whole did a good job of trying to show the brighter side of humanity. When the chips were down, everyone stood up to do their best. From the Con-Man risking his life (Not like he had a ton of options though) to the snobbish FBI agent forcing himself to play nice with the technicians, everyone was trying to do their best to resolve the situation. Some films take a jaded view of humanity while others lean on the positive and the latter can certainly be refreshing at times.

Overall, This was a pretty good movie. For the most part it’s what I would consider to be a fairly low key thriller. Yes, the stakes are as high as ever and people could die but everyone involved is a professional. You’re not seeing the same level of panic as what you would see in a modern version of this story. That would be in a completely different level without a doubt. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a good story. It’s a well balanced movie with a solid beginning, middle, and ending. It’s the complete package.

Overall 7/10

Live and Let Die Review

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It’s time for another James Bond adventure. The Bond films do tend to be on the weaker side next to other secret agent kind of films but occasionally they end up surprising you. Unfortunately this is not one of those times. The film can be rather out there at times which is a nice change of pace for the series but it still does run into every one of the usual issues. As a result, it’s a film that won’t end up ranking all that high for you and instead will leave you hoping that the next one will be better.

The movie starts with some secret agents getting bumped off with ease so James Bond is called back into action once more. His mission is to go to New York and find out what is going on. There are ties to the New Orleans overlord Kananga who is head of a rather powerful operation. Something that could even end up overpowering M16. If Bond doesn’t stop this conspiracy soon, it’ll be all over for humanity.

One funny thing about this film is how Bond is 2 steps behind the villains at every turn. EACH TIME Bond thinks he has a lead or is about to get the drop on the villains, we find out that they were aware of it the entire time. He is captured numerous times and has to be bailed out on many occasions. Only luck and plot armor are enough to keep him safe during all of this. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Bond was a total amateur in this adventure.

Bond walks into a villain stronghold with no plan and so he is immediately defeated. Another time he sits down at their restaurant and falls into a trap. He falls into the same trap a second time later. These are only a few of his missteps. The villains really should have just bumped him off at that point but they do love their theatrics.

The villains also have the arrogance of not keeping their fortune teller Solitaire guarded at all times. She has the special ability to read the future so long as she never gets intimate with a man. Bond’s whole thing is that he has no moral compass when it comes to love but even if the villains didn’t know that, why wouldn’t her house constantly be guarded? How are you a pivotal player in a giant terrorist racket and yet you just go back to your home like it’s nothing after a mission? This naturally ends up in disaster for the villains.

Solitaire isn’t a particularly good heroine though as she relies too much on the cards. She allows them to completely dictate her destiny and yes, even her love life. The cards are also total trolls since they gave her an answer that would mean losing her powers no matter how you slice it. So in a way you could say that she never had any real chance of winning here. There is another heroine named Rosie who isn’t particularly likable either. Another easy score for Bond and someone who never really gets to prove her skills on the field.

It’s no wonder why all the other agents are constantly dying. Bond seems to e the only capable one around. That’s also a pretty sad thing since as this film shows, he isn’t all that great. He’s distracted too easily by women an doesn’t know how to avoid any traps. He is not the kind of guy that you want to rely on to save you. It’s just not going to work out very well in your favor.

The humor in the film can be pretty decent at times. When a character named Sheriff Pepper shows up, the film briefly becomes a full on comedy. The change in tone is rather dramatic but it works out well. The chase scene may be a bit too drawn out but it was nice to see the sheriff show up to yell at everybody. He really had a lot of confidence and so it made it easy for you to root for him.

I also appreciated the laughing villain who seemed to have some real supernatural abilities. He was tough to deal with and just kept on coming after Bond. This film delving into the supernatural like that also helped to increase the stakes, it’s just a shame that the villains couldn’t have been more entertaining otherwise. I also don’t really care about the tribe subplot with all the snakes. I did enjoy the New Orleans parade that would be used to bump off the heroes without anybody suspecting anything. That was a scene that I thought was actually super clever and both times it was used was really effective.

So if the Bond films could just stay away from the consistently terrible romances there might actually be something here. Have him act a little more professional. Meanwhile the opening credits song should be used more for total hype than for the fanservice. The songs sometimes aren’t even all that bad themselves but the images will have you cringing. The writing for the film isn’t all that bad either but everyone feels a little too easy. It’s at its best when the film is trying to be about the secret agent stuff. The gag where the driver was in on the whole trick was really good. That was an effective moment without a doubt and one of the big twists about the villain was also good. I would just say that for large portions of the film it didn’t feel like there was a ton of plot here. Certainly less so than in other films because this one got so ambitious with everything going on that it wasn’t always focused.

Overall, Live and Let Die is not one of Bond’s better films. It still has all the fanservice and one night affairs as the older films but without a lot of cool villains or action scenes to try and combat that. In fact, don’t expect Bond to be doing much of any fighting for most of this title. It can be funny to see Bond losing just about every encounter he does have without even putting up a fight but the actual plot isn’t nearly as interesting as it could have been. Ultimately this is a huge demerit to the film. I would recommend checking out some of the latest Bond films instead of this one. It simply doesn’t age well.

Overall 4/10