Category Archives: Live Action Movie Reviews

The Cable Guy Review

Posted on by
Reply


This title should be self explanatory for now but in about 50 years you might have to explain to someone what the cable is with how it’s been dying out. This is a film that definitely enjoys going really bonkers from start to finish and in some ways that’s a good thing but at times you also just wish the main character wouldn’t be such a pushover. Half of this movie just doesn’t happen if he stands up for himself but he really seems to be whining just about the whole time. He makes a whole lot of questionable decisions here.

The movie starts off with Steven moving into a new place after his girlfriend rejected his marriage offer and kicked him out. They’re now giving each other some space which means she’s going on a date with some random guy while Steven is sad at home. His friend suggests that he should at least get the cable set-up and if he bribes the cable guy he can get extra channels. He tries this and unfortunately it works too well. The cable guy is someone named Chip who is all too happy to help out but he now considers their friendship to be an eternal thing which cannot break. They must hang out every day for a while or else. At first this seems odd but harmless but before long Chip starts to escalate things and Steven has to do something or his life will be ruined.

So right off the bat Steven looks pretty bad here because it seems like Robin is openly manipulating him. If you need space away that’s one thing but dating someone else means that the relationship has completely fallen apart at that point. If you’re still together then it’s cheating and if you’re not still together then this sounds like you’re not serious about getting back together. The idea of wanting some space for a bit isn’t a bad one but it definitely becomes that way if you’re playing the field in the meantime.

Steven is just as guilty though because at one of Chip’s parties he meets someone who seems to like him so he gets together with her for a one night stand really quickly. Of course afterwards Chip drops the bombshell that he hired her and of course he took pictures so Steven is really behind the 8 ball now. Here’s the thing, that entire plan hinged around Steven not having any self control and immediately wanting to get together with any girl who looked his way. It was definitely a really bad look for him all around and so the main romance here really falls flat. You’re not rooting for Steven and Robin to get together at any point so even when things start working out for them you’re rolling your eyes a bit. You just don’t buy it.

Meanwhile Steven also needs to be more direct about everything. Tell Chip to back off and never look back. This all started because Steven tried to bribe Chip and then looked back once once Chip was leaving. Steven kept on digging the holes for himself and that’s what got him in the end. I did enjoy the dream sequence though where for once Steven made the right move in immediately running for it when Chip tried to break in. Of course it had to be a dream though because in the real life equivalent the main character will always just freeze in place without making any true progress. Also the music in that scene was great. It was like a minion encounter in Final Fantasy or something like that. I was not expecting that kind of music to show up here so that was a lot of fun.

In the end I just didn’t like Steve though and he really did not help his case with how poorly he handled the whole situation. Then you have Robin who I didn’t like for the reasons I already mentioned. That leaves us with Chip who is definitely insane but the question is if he’s insane in a cool way or in more of a cringe kind of way. Ultimately I wouldn’t say he’s that cool. The guy can plan things out well to be sure but he’s also a lot more emotional and his plans do get thwarted a lot. His strength is in how quickly he can come up with a new plan, not in how his original plan is unbeatable and that’s where he differs from the more classic geniuses.

His plans also rely on Steven acting very unintelligent as well. The biggest moment like that was when he went to meet the family. Immediately Steven should mention that Chip framed him for jail and start listing off the other stuff he did. Sure Chip has blackmail but unfortunately blackmail never goes away so you just have to own up to it and keep pushing forward. If he did that right off the bat then reasonably the family would have to take his side. It’s still unfortunate that they instead all played a really scandalous game and Steven could not verbalize why he didn’t want to play and so Chip easily manipulated them all. That had to be an annoying moment all around. How is Steven losing a battle of his family to his worst enemy who has never even met them before?

The scenes of Chip taking down the Basketball team was fun though. Ultimately I’d say the problem is that the movie is often meaner than it is funny. Chip’s antics can be crazy to be sure but I don’t think you would really be laughing at them for most of the film. Instead you’re more wondering what Steven is going to do in retaliation or if he will just get wrecked yet again. Unfortunately with this lead you just never know what he is going to do next. For a comedy the biggest rule is to be funny after all and if you miss the mark there then you’re going to be in trouble.

It’s not a bad film but I would put it right in the middle. I’d say it has some decent replay value mainly due to how crazy the whole thing is but it doesn’t nail the premise as much as it could have. I think you could have a lot more fun with the crazy cable guy in a different direction although this still beats playing the whole thing straight as a scary thriller. Because you could absolutely picture this as one of those intense lifetime kind of films and it’s nice that they didn’t go that way.

Overall, After this experience you have to guess that Steven would probably change to streaming instead of cable. Unfortunately you have doubts that he really learned the right lesson here. Steven just never grew to be a great lead and he needs to grow tougher if he wants to come out on top if another similar situation were to occur. I enjoyed the ending which almost has a bit of a cliffhanger to it though. The story may be over for Steven presumably but there’s always someone else. If you’re looking for a really crazy film which will have you wondering if you should be worried for the main character or not, this is an intense title to check out.

Overall 5/10

All the King’s Men Review

Posted on by
Reply


This is one of those films where everyone cracks in the end but ultimately you just figure that someone should stay strong by the end. In the end nobody can stop the allure of money, fame, or general power. It’s a pretty entertaining film the whole way through and definitely one that I would consider to be on the tragic side as well. It shows just how quickly things can start to snowball when you’re on the wrong side.

The movie starts off with Jack being sent on a mission to cover some political goings on in a small town. It’s basically run like a mafia where you can’t talk against the people in charge or they will start to try to bully and scare you into leaving. It’s certainly not an easy town to beat but one man named Willie Stark wants to make a difference. He loses in his bid to join the council and then loses his bid to become governor but something changes within him. 4 years later he runs for governor and this time he wins. The guy has a lot of fire to him and is a passionate spokesperson. Still, is he really the same man fighting for the common folk or did he lose something along the way?

There’s an old saying about how the only way to climb to the top is to use the skeletons in your closet as footholds. Basically you’re going to be accumulating a whole lot of them as you make shady deals in order to stay one step ahead. While the saying is likely a bit dramatic, that’s effectively what happens here. Willie always had some edge to him but by and large he had good intentions. Then he got more and more desperate to the point where becoming governor became his dream more for the sake of doing it than for actually helping people anymore. Perhaps he was still better than the opposing party but at this point it was going to be hard to tell them apart because they ended up being the same kind of people.

It’s pretty crazy how Willie started using his power to beat people up, murder them, and even to cheat on his wife. The guy had absolutely 0 moral scruples by this point and yet his friends just went along with it for the greater good. That’s why the supporting characters are annoying here because they are all complicit in what’s going on. They ended up going along with this plan even when they knew it wasn’t right and never really tried to talk some sense into him. Sure, halfheartedly they would say something here or there but I mean just standing up to him and saying straight up that this was a bad idea. If he could have turned over a new leaf sooner then that would have been a really good thing.

In the end Willie is basically a big antagonist here. He’s an interesting character to watch as we really saw his whole journey but yeah he was just another mobster by the end. It’s just rare that you get to see the origin of how he rose up like this. He’s also a charismatic main character so you can see how some of the other people in the movie would be fooled. You have to keep your guard up at all times. His secretary Sadie should have kept her guard up around her feelings and then the whole thing would have been less emotional for her. Basically she liked him but never really stood a chance since he likes to mess around which would just make her more and more upset. It would have been a toxic dynamic either way.

Jack was the main character for a while although you can argue that the role does shift between him and Willie at times. It can always be close at the very least. Jack isn’t very likable here though because the guy just doesn’t have a backbone. When Willie starts an affair with the girl he’s always loved (Anne) he doesn’t do anything about it. He still works for Willie and while he’ll throw in some insults once in a while, he doesn’t just leave. Leaving could be easier said than done but you have to rip the band-aid off at some point and how can you work for the guy who took your girl? It just doesn’t make any sense.

He also straddles the fence for way too long before actually choosing a side and a lot of damage is done in the meantime. Of course Anne doesn’t look good for any of this either and ultimately she enjoyed being rich way too much. She didn’t seem to care who she would be with as long as she had stature and money. So Anne felt very insincere and Jack was probably a bit too desperate in trying to be together with her. She didn’t exactly have his back when he had to leave his parents’ house in disgrace and so even if she were to come back to him once he had money, it just wouldn’t be worth it.

Then you have the Judge who had a great reputation and always tried to do the right thing. Unfortunately one of the messages in the film is about how everyone has made at least one big mistake and unfortunately that was true of him as well. We never actually learn exactly what he did and I would say that’s a style change that works well. We don’t have to know exactly what he did to know that it was easily recognizable and that it was something really bad. It’s so bad that the Judge basically calls it quite at that point and it’s a shame because it would have been nice if he could have stayed true to the end.

Finally you have Adam who was the best character in the movie for me. He had a tough road as well but at the end of the day he tried to stay true to his sense of justice while helping out as many people as possible. It’s still a tricky road for him though and he has to watch all of the lives being lost all around him. Ultimately he continues to do what he thinks he has to by the end.

Overall, All the King’s Men is a pretty good movie. It’s got a bit of a jaded view on humanity and on how everyone will ultimately be corrupted in the end but beyond that I would say the execution is on point. Even as things keep on getting worse for the heroes you can’t help but wonder how things will play out next. The film is fairly long and so the journey really feels complete as we watch Willie from beginning to end. It shows just how much he has changed within that adventure to the point you can barely recognize him. It works well as a cautionary tale. I’d like for some of the characters to have been a little more likable and gotten off the train early but sometimes nobody actually steps up as they wait for someone else to do it.

Overall 7/10

Demolition Man Review

Posted on by
1

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

The Demolition Man is a fun movie with a humorous premise and so it starts out of the gate really well. There are definitely some plot conveniences that make the story a little hard to actually believe but so long as you can get past that then you should have a good time here. Ultimately the movie just goes by really quickly with all of the fighting and fun banter going on throughout.

The film starts off with John cornering the notorious criminal Simon. Unfortunately while John takes Simon down, he was unable to find the hostages and then the government finds them among the wreckage. Thinking that John is responsible for this, they put him into a stasis sleep for 100 years while they will modify his behavior while he is in the tube so that he can be a nicer person. They do the same for Simon. Well, 36 years later Simon ends up being woken up early somehow and he even has all of the security codes needed to break out and begin causing a lot of mayhem across the state.

Here’s the problem, the state has grown rather lax over the years to the point where nobody even knows what violence is anymore. The state is in a utopia of sorts where everyone gets along and has a good time so of course there is no reason for people to know how to do anything with an actual crook. Everyone has been brainwashed to an intense degree. So with no other options the cops are forced to wake up John ahead of schedule as well. They warn him not to cause any trouble and John is already rather upset at being put into deep freeze after stopping the madman. At least he has one supporter in the cheerful cop known as Lenina. She is a big fan of the retro days and looks up to him as a hero of sorts who will save her from the boring status quo. Can he navigate through the future to save Simon?

Lets get my one main issue out of the way first. The timeskip was way too short. 36 years is not enough time for everyone to have completely forgotten about the old days. The way they talk about viewing old cassettes about the old days and talking about it as if they were myths, you’d think that it has been 100+ years at the very least. All of the dialogue supports this as well so it feels like maybe it was a last second decision to have the jump be only 36 years? At least that’s the way it feels to me because that number just makes no sense at all. Even on a purely government level because you can’t just change the way the whole government works on a dime like that. Now granted, the film is vague on if it’s the whole world or just the state which is like this. I like to think it’s just the state but of course if it’s the world then that makes this even harder to buy.

So this is the single biggest issue in the film on a logical standpoint because way too much happened in a short space of time. For the rest of the film just pretend this takes place like 100-200 years in the future at least and the whole thing flows much better. Trust me on that! The film also isn’t very violent and they show a good amount of discretion there. The most intense scene is probably someone losing their eye which was rather painful but it’s pretty tame beyond that.

As always we do have to force in a real quick romance out of nowhere which is one of the weaker elements here. The movie absolutely did not need a romance and it shows. They should have kept John and Lenina in a mentor/mentee kind of relationship which would work really well. You get some fun banter that way and then everything works out. I’m also skeptical about love turning into something completely virtual because inevitably people would not allow that to happen since it’s no fun. So here is a point where you have to assume that everyone is constantly being brainwashed or taken into the shop for repairs to keep them from thinking about things that go against the system. Yes this premise keeps failing more and more as you think about it.

Well, logic aside, it’s nice to see John show these guys just how out of touch they are. Simon was running rings around everyone because they couldn’t do anything to stop him and so John shows the world how to fight back like in the good ole days. The fight scenes are on point and John makes for a good main character. He’s always on top of things and knows how to handle any situation. John is quick on his feet and is certainly the only one who can hold his own with Simon. John gets annoyed at the government but he doesn’t use that as an excuse to let everyone fend for themselves. He still gets in there to do his best to protect everyone and that’s what you like to see. At the end of the day he is a hero after all.

Simon also works well as a villain. I like just how insane the guy he. He really makes the most of this new era and tends to have some of the best comedic dialogue here. He pokes a whole lot of fun at this pacifist future that tries to control him. When the most a future officer can do is tell him to stand down, then Simon knows he is in the clear. He can beat a whole army of these officers because they can’t fight at all and have probably never been to the gym a day in their lives. You’re not going to beat a super villain with that lack of effort. It’s just not going to happen and the whole time you are waiting for Simon to betray the other villains and just become the leader. He’s definitely not a follower and that’s clear even from just watching him for a few minutes. If Simon isn’t leading the charge then you know that he is absolutely planning something wild.

Of course part of the mystery here is in who freed Simon and what their plans are. All I can say is that the main villain isn’t all that engaging here. Simon is really the star on the antagonist side and the ringleader’s main draw is really just the whole twist of who he is and how he set up the pieces just right. Otherwise there just isn’t all that much to him. This is a film that is really just revolving around Simon, John, and Lenina. I suppose you have the police chief who is always complaining as well but he’s not that important in the end.

Lenina does well as John’s partner and you can always appreciate her enthusiasm. She is eager to get in there and make a difference which is more than I can say for most of the other characters. She may have trouble getting her history right but she tries hard and that dedication will serve her well here. She’s also the only officer to take shots at how relaxed everything is in the future as everyone else seems to have just come to accept this. She still has some freewill left.

Overall, Demolition Man is a pretty good film. The premise has a lot of potential for fun moments and the film capitalizes on this. A longer time jump would have solved all of the logic issues this film has but I guess they just didn’t think of that. If we ever get a remake or a sequel that’s the only change I would make. Beyond that this is a film that has aged well so if you check it out then I wager you would enjoy it. It’s a very classic kind of action film and one that always has a lot of replay value.

Overall 7/10

Rabid Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

There are some movies where right from the jump you know it’s going to be a miss and this is one of those. You’ll be shaking your head the whole time here because this vampire type film just isn’t it. The world doesn’t handle the threat very well and the whole film is going for grim violence the whole time. It’s basically a B grade slasher film but in all the wrong ways.

The movie starts with Rose and Hart driving down the road at massive speeds. They are defying destiny to try and make them crash and sure enough they run off the road and do in fact crash. Hart has a lot of broken bones but he’s mainly okay while the same cannot be said for Rose. She is taken to a nearby hospital where they run a very experimental surgery on her. Basically their justification was that she was not going to last otherwise but the head also needed quick results because funding wasn’t going well. Unfortunately while the surgery was a success, it came at a great cost.

See, by mistake the surgery gave Rose a giant stinger in her armpit which she could now use to destroy everyone in her way. She no longer has a taste for real food and only seeks to consume the living. Whoever she drains becomes a zombie and this infection continues to spread. Basically she is patient zero and the only silver lining of this is that she keeps some semblance of free will while everyone else becomes mindless zombies. She’s always hungry now too so she bumps a lot of people off and then afterwards it is unclear just how much she knows about it. See, she knows enough that she wants to always get away from her friends to murder a stranger instead but then seems to have headaches and isn’t totally sure of herself. It’s almost like a split personality but that may be giving her too much credit and she was just trying to make the whole situation look like that.

Regardless that is basically the entire plot in a nutshell. Rose goes around murdering everybody and nobody can figure out how to stop her because nobody even knows that she is the one doing it. She always waits until only her victim is in the room and then she makes her move. Whether it’s a poor girl just trying to have a refreshing swim or a doctor who leans in too close, Rose takes them all down. Often times the people she’s destroying aren’t even bad people which is the most tragic part like the truck driver who was just trying to help out. They all meet rather gruesome ends before the adventure concludes.

The movie is rather unrelenting in that respect. There is always something sinister or dark happening at all times and so the viewer can’t catch a break. There is no time for lighthearted banter or any really happy scenes to be honest. Instead we just see the world descending into chaos. They also squeeze in some animal violence of course as Rose goes after a cow or a horse. I forget which but of course she can’t control her hunger again and this is why she has to be considered as one of the main antagonists here. In the end she could not control her abilities at all and that was a big problem.

She also makes some very bad mistakes like at the end deciding to prove her innocence by trying a blood transfusion with someone. It’s great to test out a theory but she didn’t have any kind of safety precautions and so it’s really as if she just blew herself up. There was never going to be a positive outcome from all of that and that was the problem here. It just makes for a really dark ending and ends the film on a super sour note. Not that the film had any hope left by this point mind you but at least having a decent ending would have been nice. Instead the film is doubling down on making everything as tragic as possible which is definitely unfortunate. Not what you want to see from a title like this.

Hart also has almost no point in this film. Rose may as well have been driving by herself in the intro. He barely appears until midway where he runs in to call her a monster and runs off. By the time he cools down it’s already too late for Rose. Rose’s roommate did a better job of being there for her and even then she was doomed from the jump. In this film nobody is really safe and all you can do is make a run for it or you will probably be devoured next. Now is there anything I can say in favor of the film?

Unfortunately no, but I can at least say that the concept of having a stinger in your armpit is unique. Not even sure if I would say it’s unique in a good way but it’s a premise I had never thought of before and will probably never think about again. It’s just so weird but that’s the kind of idea that can make you rich if it’s handled right. This one just wasn’t and the film gets lost in the sauce really quick.

What the film should have done was to focus on the world at large a bit more and how they were handling it. Of course one governor just said they should shoot the infected while a lot of other people were panicking but focusing on the government a lot could have been fun. Lets see what they think about all of this. Sure, the virus is spreading fast but the zombies are really slow right now so you don’t figure that they should be a big threat at any rate. Just take them out and all it a day. I want to see a zombie invasion film from the start of when it was happening for once and how the government handles it. I think there is a whole lot of possibility there. Perhaps it will be negated by all the blood sucking and zombie eating but maybe it could pull this premise off.

Overall, Rapid is a film to stay away from without a doubt. The whole time you’re watching it you will be realizing that there are much better films to check out. Nobody has heard of this film for a good reason. It’s just not that good and certainly ahs not aged well either. This is not the kind of film you would ever rewatch either and so in the end what that means is that you will be shaking your head here the whole time. I don’t know where I would start in trying to tell someone how to do a good remake of this one so instead I’ll just say that the whole premise is probably doomed and you shouldn’t even attempt to make a movie like this.

Overall 0/10

Touch of Evil Review

Posted on by
1


The Touch of Evil is one of those films where a whole lot of stress could have been avoided if the main characters talked to each other more. Whenever you’re in a hostile territory but don’t want to confide in each other that things aren’t going well, that’s when trouble really brews. The movie is fairly serious but then throws in quite a few comedic moments as well so it can be tough to say what tone it is going for at times. This one isn’t one of the better gangster films even if I do give it props for having more unique scenery compared to most.

The movie starts with the main characters getting ready to leave the border town between Mexico and the United States until a car blows up in front of them. The main character Miguel works as a prosecutor and is in the middle of a big case involving a gangster group so he can’t leave now. This is the villains’ turf so in case they are involved he will have to look into this. His wife Suzie isn’t quite as pleased since they should be going on their honeymoon and unfortunately she is now being targeted by the villains. It starts off as pure intimidation but the longer she remains, the more that may begin to change. Can the main guy solve the case in time?

So right off the bat here is one of the problems. The mafia wastes no time in summoning Susie over to make some veiled threats and she takes it well in talking tough back to them. My problem is after leaving she doesn’t tell Miguel what just transpired. I feel like you have to tell him so you’re both on the same page about the fact that the danger has arrived and it isn’t just a possible thing that could happen anymore. Later on they do this again by dropping off a threatening letter for her and she thinks about telling Miguel but opts not to. She had even been planning to leave for the American side of the border but decided not to after the threat. Telling Miguel could have caused him to play things differently.

He ends up dropping her off at a motel which is where she said she would stay but unfortunately it’s run by the villains so she ends up falling for their trap which ends up not going well as she is drugged and framed for doing this herself. I would argue that Miguel and even the cop who dropped her off should have been smarter about this though. Leaving her at a note like that just does not seem safe at all and of course it wasn’t. Even if the villains didn’t run the place it feels like that would not have been a particularly good idea.

Another complication here is Hank, a police captain who is determined to find the culprits for the bombing no matter what. The problem is that he will use less than legal means of getting a culprit and he always gets a culprit, even if he has to make up some proof. Hank is definitely very corrupt and while the end of the film tries to give him some credit with his instincts, you still can’t take the law into your hands when you’re an officer like that. The instant he did this he was definitely setting himself up for a lot of trouble. He makes for a good villain but it’s hard to see him as anything more than that no matter what his intentions were. I can’t say I felt sympathetic for him at all.

The most random plot here is the night custodian working at the motel. He is extremely afraid for his life the entire time he appears and so everyone pushes him around. I suppose he has probably seen a lot of things since he started working here but all of his actions just felt very exaggerated. The movie could have stood to tone this character down a bit to make him more realistic. It can be fine to have a character who completely clashes with the tone of the movie of course but at the end of the day this guy just wasn’t very funny so that immediately defeated the whole purpose of his character. Someone like this would have a better chance of succeeding if he was not related to the serious events in the movie.

In general I think the film had an issue with balancing the comedic and serious bits. The villains for example appear as comic relief for decently large chunks of the film as they run around and get into trouble but then they suddenly get rather serious near the end when they drug Suzie or when they nearly melt the main character with a vial of acid. So the movie was really all over the place in a lot of ways and maybe all the terrible decisions that the heroes made was supposed to play into that somehow. Like you’re meant to realize they are bad decisions although I never got that implication from the movie so I don’t know about that.

Overall, The Touch of Evil has an interesting setup with a crime at the border so both sides want a piece of the action. The place definitely wasn’t the safest with a gang running around but at least by the end of the film that group will be a lot weaker. The main characters could have handled all of this a lot better than they did though and I feel like some of the villains really got off completely free. We never saw the whole mafia group get arrested after they attacked Suzie and that would have made the ending a lot more complete. The atmosphere is on point but in the end this film really falls in the middle on the spectrum of good and bad movies. A better ending could have helped it rise up.

Overall 5/10

The Walking Dead Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Walking Dead is an interesting film. I bet a lot of you think about the TV show when you hear this title but this movie predates that by a considerable amount of time. It does sort of have a zombie as the main character though which is a fun coincidence as it were. What makes this film fairly unique is it’s a revenge film of sorts but one where the main character doesn’t really get the revenge directly. He spends most of the film being rather confused to be honest.

The movie starts off with a nice old man named John being tricked into being the fall guy for a bunch of crooks. The cops figure he is guilty of murder and unfortunately nobody can help him out. John’s own attorney is in on the scheme and intentionally defends him in a really poor way so that it appears John was insane and evil the whole time. John is sentenced to death and executed. Fortunately Dr. Evans is able to revive him using a very experimental procedure. John is now back from the dead and has a 6th sense in a way where he is able to tell someone’s true intentions and knows if they were partially responsible for his death. So he wants answers….why would anyone possibly want to bump him off or was it just a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time?

The uniqueness of the movie is in a way also part of the issue. See, in concept I’m not opposed to a revenge film like this where the main character is more interested in finding out the truth than enacting revenge. I think that can actually be rather compelling but for most of the movie it just feels like John is really unsure of himself and sort of hesitating a lot instead of being like a true detective. John is older so I can cut him a bit of slack but it means that he isn’t always the most engaging main character. You get the feeling he’s lucky that this was an older film because there’s a number of ways the mafia types could have taken him out in the present.

Where this premise gets fun though is we see weaponized karma to an extent as every villain starts getting bumped off in crazy ways. They just can’t help but die throughout the movie as they are bumped off one by one. You could maybe even say it is as if John is bumping them off through some kind of bad luck ability. In a way for the characters the scariest part about this is it means even if they were to quickly apologize or run to the cops they may still die. It’s not as if John is controlling these abilities. For most of the film he barely even knows what is going on.

The end of the film also tackles the question on if you should revive someone if you can or if that’s taking things a step too far. Personally I don’t believe it is possible to ever conquer death so the question is moot but hypothetically if we had the ability should we use it? It’s an interesting question and I would actually say yes to it. Because the way I see it, if you have the ability to save someone then you have to use it and I see the ability in that context. Of course someone like John had already lived out most of his life so you can see why he wanted to stay dead but letting him die is almost like destroying him so it’s a really tricky position.

In most things I say you let the individual choose what they want to do but this is a really close one. I dunno I don’t think it’s an easy question but it’s an interesting scenario. At the end of the day though when you see a title like “The Walking Dead” you are picturing a slasher type film where zombies are eating everyone and causing a mess. I’m super glad that wasn’t the case of course but the whole story almost feels a bit misleading. It’ a lot more subtle and low key than you may have been expecting. I would also say it’s less violent than I expected.

Yes, there are a lot of deaths and some of them are quite painful but it’s not like your classic Hammer film that really wants to zoom in on the details and slow everything down. The deaths here are mainly matter of fact so they go by really fast. The film also introduced the villains are being very unlikable so you were ready for them to get bumped off. As always the writing was very solid for this classic film though and so it worked pretty well to supplement the main story. With weaker writing this film could have easily crossed the line into being boring but fortunately that didn’t happen.

I do have to give a shout-out to the two witnesses at the beginning for being rather awful characters though. They were too scared to tell the truth of what happened which is the only way the frame-up was able to work at all. If they had spoken up sooner then they would have basically avoided this entire film. Sure the villains threatened them but letting someone else take the chair for you is a step too far. I’m glad they eventually came to the right decision of wanting to help him out but it was too late at that point thanks to the villains seemingly being everywhere so they were able to slow this down. The villains definitely planned this one out thoroughly.

Overall, The Walking Dead is a fairly chill film but once I understood that this wasn’t going for a more action packed angle then it worked well enough for me. The opening scene actually is fairly tragic because it’s probably everyone’s worst fear to have an attorney intentionally sabotage you. Once you are in the court room you are really putting your life in the attorney’s hands so to see this backfire has to be incredibly unnerving. It’s also hard to know what to do at that point and even if you were to jump in and say you want to represent yourself, it’s too late by that point. I think you’ll have a good time with this one. It’s also quite short so it’s not like it’ll take much time for you to watch this one all the way through.

Overall 7/10

Starship Troopers Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

Starship Troopers is definitely a very well known film even if it’s one that you might not know the details of. It’s the title itself that is more popular than anything and the franchise has withstood the test of time. It fully embraces the sci-fi nature of the adventure and this feels like a true Star Trek type adventure. It can get a little overly violent at times and you should definitely expect a big body count. There are parts of the film that work better than others but at the end of the day I’d say it was solid.

The movie starts off by explaining the situation which is that the bugs are slowly taking over large parts of the universe and the federation isn’t having any of that. They are always recruiting more people to stop these monsters but that also means that the body count is rather high. A lot of people don’t make it out of the situation in one piece which is what makes things tricky. Johnny’s parents don’t want him to enlist because they are wealthy so they could shield him from having to go and fight. Johnny wants to do his part though and additionally his girlfriend Carmen is enlisting so this way they can be together.

Unfortunately they are assigned to different platoons so they will need to try and make a long distance relationship work. This will be tricky though because Carmen’s commanding officer is a guy named Zander who has a lot of natural charm. Meanwhile Dizzy has always liked Johnny but he never really noticed her since he only had eyes for Carmen. Carl is the only one standing apart from all of the drama and he is determined to do his part for the war effort. This is a huge war against the bugs and so it makes sense that the friends wouldn’t all be together. That would probably be a little too convenient right? That’s actually something the movie does really well which is to build a realistic environment and world that shows the scope of this battle.

One thing Starship Troopers does right here is establishing all of the characters and giving them each things to do. They all have individual goals of their own outside of what they are doing as a team. Sometimes it can be easy to zero in on the main character but everyone gets their time to shine here. Now some characters like Carl do look really suspect in the end though. It’s hard to tell me that the sacrifices were really worth it. Carl ends up being a very logical type of character who believes the ends justify the means and I tend to be at odds with characters like that. After a point sacrifices just get too numerous even if you do win in the end.

Johnny was a decent character but he made a whole lot of mistakes. I would say 1 or 2 too many as the movie went on. The scene where he takes off someone’s helmet to try and repair it before that guy gets blown to smithereens was a bad look. It seems like this is textbook safety 101 not to remove a helmet during a live firing session so that just wasn’t good. Then later on he’s still chasing after Carmen even when it’s clear that she’s moved on. Yeah it probably sucks for him that they had to break up like this but try to take it with class. Instead he picks a fight with Zander and the whole thing wasn’t a good look for him. He does put up a good fight there so physically he is strong but it wasn’t the best battle to fight.

Meanwhile Zander seemed rather reasonable the whole time. Yeah I thought the romance was weak since it felt like a total rebound but as a character he’s just really confident in himself and has the skills to back it up. He’s very similar to Johnny since they’re both rather cocky but Zander has more experience under his belt and you figure that he won’t be making any critical mistakes during clutch time. That’s what really separates the two of them.

Dizzy is definitely more on the tragic side since her feelings for Johnny are basically shut out for most of the adventure and then things get tricky later on. She was always good at giving him moral support though and seemed like a good friend. As for Carmen, well breaking up with Johnny and moving on so quickly was definitely not doing her any favors here. I feel like moving on that quickly just isn’t good and it was a little overly optimistic to assume they could go back to being good friends right off the bat. It’s really not a relationship change that can be accomplished so quickly and she should have given Johnny more space. He didn’t take this very well of course and at the same time it’s fair to say that rushing up to him as if they were still good friends was too soon.

By the end of the film the heroes all have to put aside their differences to take down the bugs though. The war is what matters above all else and these bugs are strong. Half of the landing parties are decimated on site because the bugs are largely immune to the guns except for if you hit them in very specific places. It is difficult to do that though and so the body count continues to rise real fast. This is mainly where the violence comes from as the characters are eaten and quite literally ripped apart. You feel like the main characters needed better weapons badly because otherwise it’s like you’re entering just to get slaughtered.

The film does acknowledge the propaganda the federation puts out to the new recruits. It was handled in an interesting way where commercials just take over the movie from time to time and they’re all about how cool it is to become a soldier. The whole world is built that way and it makes for an interesting dynamic. Most of the commercials are fairly cringe although I suspect that is the point here.

It’ll be fun to see Johnny as more of an experienced pilot. There’s a lot more you could do with this premise and way more battles that are to be fought. The aliens continue to improve after all and the humans have to follow suit or they will quickly be surpassed on the evolutionary ladder. It adds an extra layer of tension to the adventure as opposed to these being mindless monsters so that’s a good thing. You also had a number of solid supporting characters like Jonny’s teacher and the head drill instructor. All of this combined to help make the film a more complete package.

Overall, Starship Troopers is a good movie. If you’re a little queasy about violence then it may give you pause but beyond that the movie delivers on the sci-fi aspects and there are a lot of fights. The movie also fleshes out the world around the fights a whole lot which I thought was a very good idea. It’s an important way to make you more invested in the overall experience and it succeeds. We’ll see if the other installments in the franchise can top this one or not.

Overall 6/10

Gun Crazy Review

Posted on by
Reply


Gun Crazy is a very appropriate title for this film. It shows how you can quickly be dragged over to the dark side when you become reliant on your gun too much. The main guy started as someone who just enjoyed his hobby and had a good time but by the end that’s no longer the case. Unfortunately I would say he wasn’t the most stable guy from the jump anyway with how the film shows him murdering a bird. Even though he stops murdering after that it was a very bad look for him. It’s hard to really rebound from something like that.

The movie starts with Bart stealing a gun and he’s taken to court. Some people say he’s dangerous but his friends stick up for him and ultimately he gets to stay free. Years pass by and he goes on adventures but eventually he goes back home and meets a traveling gunwoman named Laurie. She’s exceptional with a gun and has defeated everyone prior but Bart defeats her much to the happiness of the crowd. They then get together and everything looks like it’ll be just fine until she shows her true colors. Laurie wants to live a very fancy lifestyle at any cost and because Bart doesn’t make enough she wants to start robbing banks and stealing money from people. This is where Bart needed to very quickly shut this idea down completely. Laurie says that she will leave him if he doesn’t become a crook with her and he folds. Can he convince her to stop?

I can answer that right now, he can’t. Look if someone wants to be a criminal then there is very little that you can do to stop them. A person needs to absolutely not want to be a criminal and then you can throw attacks on him. The problem here really gets serious when the criminal enjoys the life of crime because at that point we’re really talking about a psycho who can’t be stopped. Laurie is very open about the fact that she loves using a gun and being as rich as possible. Her personality doesn’t change and in fact seems to get worse and worse the more they talk. Any ideas Bart may have had of fixing her were just dreams at this point.

Hey that’s just who she is, but his tolerating this and going alongside it makes him just as guilty. I don’t care how many times he said this was a bad idea or that they shouldn’t do it, he still went along for the ride. You can’t have it both ways and he really made his choice here. It was inevitable that things would continue to get worse and Bart has to own that. No excuses and no double talk, he is a criminal too and so you’re rooting to Bart and Laurie to be taken down by the cops as soon as possible.

Bart even chooses Laurie over his childhood friends Dave and Clyde who stuck up for him through thick and thin in the court room. It was a shame that he was so quick to point his gun at them as well. They were good friends and even tried to plead with him one last time even if it was no use. I don’t think there are very many friends who would have been willing to stick their necks out like that but these did. They didn’t even bring their guns to the confrontation to help their odds but it was no use.

Bart was just too far gone and he was also gullible as Laurie would always manipulate him by saying exactly what he wanted to hear. You just have to take a stand at some point because deciding not to just makes you look really bad. Well, I’ve bashed this guy enough. It goes without saying that the same issues are present with Laurie but at least she isn’t hesitant about the whole thing. At the end of the day if you’re a villain then you’re a villain, it’s better not to be complaining about it. It’s a shame that she was able to drag him so far into the criminal world though.

The film definitely should have cut out the scene of Bart shooting the bird too though. It doesn’t add anything to the film and actually hurts the message. It may be the reason why he doesn’t shoot animals anymore but the reasoning would have been even better if he had never murdered a bird before. That’s exactly how I would have handled it and it would have made the main character a bit more salvageable. A bit more mind you as he would still look pretty bad late on. It wouldn’t be as bad at least.

It is always interesting when you watch a film where you are rooting for the main characters to lose the whole time. I think it can absolutely work but I would say that it is a bit tougher to achieve than a classic hero. You have to balance things right where you still see the real heroes take down the main characters at some point or make sure the leads don’t go too far in being unbearable to everyone because if the tone gets too malicious or annoying then that wouldn’t be good.

In this case the main characters weren’t likable in the slightest so you’re really rooting for them to lose but a bit more balance could have been nice. Maybe if they’re going to be crooks anyway, have Bart keep Laurie from taking her gun so they’re still robbing people but it’s a slight concession. He’s at least making sure nobody gets hurt. You could have had Laurie lie to him and still bring her gun but it would make Bart have a little bit of a backbone there and then I could say with a straight face that he actually did something as opposed to just getting pressured into making all the wrong calls all the time.

Overall, Gun Crazy is an interesting film about why you should always be careful about who you pick to be your girlfriend. Make sure that you are choosing someone whose morals align with your own and that if you did make a mistake you stay true to your ideals to the very end. The instant you concede on that is a moment where you have lost yourself and it can be very hard to get back to where you were. There are things you can never take back and murdering someone is absolutely one of them. Bart would do everything Laurie would say and that’s not the basis for a good relationship. In the end I would say to give this one a skip. At the end of the day you want a film with a better lead and this one just doesn’t have a whole lot of great qualities to bring to the table.

Overall 4/10

Vertical Limit Review

Posted on by
Reply


Climbing has never been something that really appealed to me. Aside from feeling like my arms would fall off I’m also not big on heights so it’s not really a combo that works for me. That being said, you can absolutely have a fun movie about it. This one is okay but my only issue is that the climbing itself can be a bit dull. I felt like the movie never reached that second gear where it could really differentiate itself and make a difference. Still if you are looking for a run of the mill thriller type film then this should still work out well enough for you.

The movie starts with Peter and Annie climbing a big mountain with their father and a bunch of other climbers but unfortunately there is an accident which causes a lot of them to fall. This causes the main characters to fall as well and the line connecting them isn’t strong enough to carry all of their weights. This causes Peter to have to make the very hard decision to cut their father free at his request so that he falls away and the other two live. Years pass and Annie has never forgiven Peter for this. She continues to climb in honor of their father while Peter has decided to completely retire. They are both coping in their own way but now Annie is about to go on a super difficult expedition and Peter is worried that she is going at this too hard as if she has something to prove. She denies this and decides to continue on as planned but when things go sideways it is up to Peter to save the day.

It can be a little rough to see Annie blaming him for everything but considering the stakes of what happened, I can’t blame her for holding a grudge for all these years. I disagree with her blaming him for this but at the end of the day once she does then that is a grudge which can go on for your whole life because losing a life is not something that ever goes away. She also does take a few too many risks although at the end of the day many main characters take risks so it’s not like that’s a really novel thing either. Ultimately she decided to shoot her shot even if it didn’t go very well here.

See, she is climbing one of the tallest mountains in the world along with a rich man named Elliott and one of the world’s greatest climbers in Tom. Elliott is desperate to climb this mountain so even when Peter and the team back at base tell them to turn back he refuses. He is getting to the top of that mountain and says that nobody is going to be able to stop him. At that point you can either turn back or follow him but it’s hard to actually stop him. That was certainly the best time to back away but unfortunately they don’t and they all get trapped. With a very limited amount of supplies it is only a matter of time until they turn on each other.

On Peter’s side he has quite a few people helping on the rescue mission but you figure that most of them are probably doomed at this point. Usually in any survival type film like this you can expect a modest body count because you can’t just have everyone make it all the way to the top. That would just feel too easy and so the cold starts to wear them down. The movie does a good job of showing just how cold the whole place is and how you even have to use an oxygen device of sorts to keep enough air in your body. It was pretty interesting.

My main issue though is that climbing can be quite repetitive and this film was no exception. Long chunks of the film are just about climbing up and slowly trying to get to the top. Not a bad thing by any means since that’s the point of the film but you need to spice things up like having them dodge avalanches a lot or something. Because the scenes quickly all start to blend together as they keep climbing the endless amounts of snow. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s a snowy mountain which makes this all the more apparent but all the terrain just looks the same. So it’s like you’ve got a few scenes on loop and that doesn’t help the overall experinece.

I actually thought the film was more interesting near the beginning as we meet the characters and get a lot of banter. There is also a mysterious character named Wick who is a full longer when it comes to climbing. He seems to have some beef with Elliott and this leads into a whole emotional backstory. Wick makes for a good character and he’s definitely not someone that you want to cross. In terms of overall climbing talent he would likely be the best one here.

You feel bad for some of the other climbers who are good but just have bad luck. For example there are two climbers who seem really skilled and can hold their own. The problem is that nobody told them that the explosives they were carrying were triggered by heat aka sunlight. Nobody knew this but they happened to be the ones who were told too late. It was a death that felt pretty much unavoidable for them so that’s why it was tragic. The rescue mission to save a few ended up costing a few and so it ends up being a whole cycle. At the end of the day of course you do have to do everything you can to save the people who were trapped/stranded though even if the burden is rather high. Especially since Peter was saving family but even if they had been strangers it is the right thing to do.

Wick’s subplot does add some drama here so that helps to enhance the story somewhat. Tom was also a good character but my only issue with him is that at the end of the day he folded. He knew that continuing with the climb was a bad idea but allowed Elliott to pressure him into continuing anyway. On the mountains and in life in general you have to trust your instincts. The instant you abandon them is when everything is lost because those are what you need to trust at all costs. Once he was frozen/sick you knew that things weren’t going to go great for him.

Meanwhile Elliott is quite unrepentant in how he will do whatever it takes to survive. This is someone that you absolutely can’t trust under any circumstance. He will always save himself first when the chips are down, that’s all there is to it. That alone is enough to make him the main antagonist here. It’s the kind of film that didn’t need a main villain per say but I think he works well enough. You’re constantly waiting for someone to take him down.

Overall, Vertical Limit may not be the most engaging film but it’s a fundamentally sound one. It doesn’t make any big mistakes and the cast isn’t bad. Wick would probably be the more interesting main character but his plot did get full closure and a resolution so he worked well within his role. It may not be my first recommendation for you but if you’re looking for a very specific sub genre of climbing then you can do pretty well with this one. You’ll probably feel cold while watching it too since there is so much ice everywhere.

Overall 6/10

Pacific Heights Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

Pacific Heights is one of those films where you feel like the main villain gets real lucky. His strategy of sabotage is very high risk since if you try this with the wrong person you are absolutely going to get shot. A lot of people just wouldn’t tolerate this guy’s antics right from the jump. The movie can be a bit annoying in that way as the main character also makes so many mistakes that he basically sabotages himself here. You wish that he would be able to make the right move at least once instead of crashing further and further.

The movie kicks off with two people being beat up and then we cut to Drake and Patty as the main characters. They are brand new landlords who have made an investment into buying a house so they can lease out the rooms. It’s a big investment but this does tend to be a fairly lucrative career as you can make a whole lot of money out of it. You do have to have a strong personality for it though because you will have to deal with crazy residents from time to time. They’re confident that they can find the right people though and so when Carter shows up and is too scared to do a credit check, Drake is not worried. This guy is going to pay “up-front later” which sounds like a contradiction but since when do wire transfers bounce right? Well the money never arrives and the guy has locked himself in the room while doing a lot of drilling. He’s also invited other people into the apartment and they are doing something crazy there. Can Drake and Patty stop this guy before he wrecks their livelihood?

Now one thing you should know is that landlords have a whole lot of power. Why do you think you hear so many stories of people being kicked to the curb? The power is not unlimited but Drake absolutely had some real options here. Not allowing Carter to buy the house before paying would certainly have been a good start but after that you’re not yet doomed. He should have broken the lock when he found out it was changed because that goes against the building policy. By the time he calls the locksmith all of the damage is already done. He should have gone to the cops way sooner instead of trying to handle it himself which is really where things backfired a lot.

Later on he is baited into entering the building again while there is a restraining order in place which was not a good idea and he just falls for every trap like beating up on Carter in front of the cops. He really makes the villain’s job super easy. He also didn’t react well with his girlfriend because he got so stressed out that he starts to be rude to her as well so even their relationship starts to get a little rocky. Drake’s whole life is falling apart and to a large extent he is the one digging his own grave.

Of course at the end of the day Carter is still the villain here and the one who needs to be blamed but you just know that Drake should have handled things way better. Patty had a much cooler head throughout the film. Unfortunately she didn’t tend to think of many ideas to help so in that way both of them were doomed but at least she wasn’t actively sabotaging their only chances of winning the case. See, they hire an attorney (Stephanie) to represent them in kicking Carter out and it should be an open and shut case but Drake being tricked into assault and violating court orders doesn’t help things at all. It was a really bad look for him.

As for Carter, surprisingly there isn’t some kind of big twist like Drake bullied him in high school or he wants revenge on the family for firing him. None of that, to this guy it’s just a business and he makes a whole career out of messing up people’s homes. It’s certainly a crazy hobby if I’ve ever heard of one but he just keeps going at it and has done all right for himself all these years. He got beat up in the opening so at least that group gave him a scare but realistically he’ll just use that to sue and cause a fuss unless you hide any evidence linking you to the beating. So you either have to take him down for good or put him in a position where he can’t sabotage your place later on.

I absolutely don’t blame the other neighbors for moving out either because there’s no way they could put up with this. The loud drilling at night was just way too crazy and of course Carter also causes a whole roach infestation. Roaches are hard to deal with and when you know where they are coming from but can’t do anything about it then that becomes a problem. The house was basically not salvageable at that point. I’m impressed they were even able to start rebuilding the place after the way everything was broken.

Patty’s plan of revenge had some promise although I think she needed to take it a little further to be really effective. Ultimately if she had gotten away a bit sooner then at least he might not have figured out it was her but at the end of the day it’s still just a minor inconvenience at best. You need to find a way to lock him up for a longer period of time although a large part of the blame also goes to the lady who agreed to pay Carter’s bail because that was crazy.

The film’s fairly tame although the climax naturally gets a little intense. Ultimately fighting in an unfinished house will always feel really dangerous because there are nails everywhere. Drake looks awful throughout the climax so the less said about him the better. I can tell you that I definitely expected much better out of him. At the very least the adrenaline and rage should have carried him through a lot better than they did.

Overall, Pacific Heights is one of those films that’s mainly annoying because of how the main character does everything half heartedly and as a result he constantly gets into trouble. You have to go 100% at anything you try to do because otherwise you are definitely going to be in trouble. At the end of the day I would say the film was decent. It doesn’t have a whole lot of replay value to me but it wasn’t bad either. If you’re looking for a film where the resident has the edge over the landlord for once then this is an interesting one to check out. You just know that if this guy went up against any experienced landlord then he would be in a whole world of trouble and I don’t love his odds of surviving.

Overall 6/10