Category Archives: Live Action Movie Reviews

The Fifth Element Review

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The Fifth Element is one of those Sci-Fi films where you hear about it all the time thanks to the main villain but otherwise I couldn’t say that I knew much about the film. Sci-Fi always has a lot of potential though. This film balances out the action, sci-fi, and even some humor fairly well. It’s not exactly the perfect Sci-Fi film out there but it has enough fun with itself to make this a pretty fun movie. At times part of it almost felt a bit like a parody.

This film starts off with someone finding out the truth behind the universe. There is a battle coming up where the forces of darkness will destroy Earth. That’s when some aliens invade and murder the guy. They leave a key with a priest telling him that they will return in 300 years to help us fight off the evil. We then jump 300 years into the future where the Darkness has returned. His name is Mr. Shadow and to the rest of the world he appears to just be a giant mass of nothingness. He blows up a nearby ship and keeps on heading towards Earth. The President is forced to call in the one man nobody ever thought would return.

We then cut away to the main character, Korben. Korben is a cab driver who used to be part of the government but things didn’t exactly end well for him. He’s just going about his day when a girl crash lands in his car. Her name is Leeloo and she is the last survivor of the alien species who promised to return to save us all. Unfortunately she is only part alien as the rest of her got blown up by bandits so she’s mostly an android now. She needs to find the rings so she can return to the temple and restore the 5 elements before Mr. Shadow arrives. Her assistant here is the Priest. Korben doesn’t exactly want to get mixed up in this but he’s basically threatened to do this or die so he prepares to locate the rings. Meanwhile you’ve also got bounty hunters and other rogues trying for the rings as well.

Naturally there is a whole lot going on here which is pretty neat. Pretty much every character wants to get the rings. When you factor in that you’ve got multiple alien species running around, a rich guy who wants power, and the Priest then there are quite a lot of factions to consider. While the film could have easily been overloaded, that’s where some of the humor starts to set in. One of the solid things about the film is how it plays around with this. The Priest ends up being a tennis ball with the way he is smacked around the whole time. Then you have the rich villain Zorg who betrays the other aliens while running in to end things himself. The film is at its best when it isn’t taking itself super seriously but I would make the case that it is rarely being serious.

Take all the scenes of the President and his men trying to fight off the Shadow. When their attacks don’t work, everyone on the first ship completely freezes up until the Shadow envelops them. I felt like that was taking a shot at how everyone always seems to freeze up in these things. The President made for a fun character up in the ship even if he wasn’t able to be all that effective in the end. His final scene with Korben’s mother was also pretty neat since you can respect the fact that she wasn’t about to get tricked even if there was some irony in the moment to be sure.

I would say the best scene in the film had to be when Zorg managed to finally get back onto the ship with the plan to deactivate the bomb. Turns out there was another bomb. The whole thing was so unlikely and sudden that it just works. You pretty much never see a second bomb show up in that kind of situation so that was cool. Again, the film’s humor was definitely on point here which helps to mask some of the issues.

A big issue here would be the power levels for Leeloo. So, on one hand she is shown to have enough physical power to be able to punch through a barrier that was deemed “unbreakable” by the futuristic tech experts. She was barely even awake and did this so clearly she is super strong right? Then she masters all of the data files of humanity so she learns advanced hand to hand combat as well. Despite this, she is rarely portrayed as being very powerful. She got one cool scene where she beats up a bunch of opponents on her own but then runs when Zorg shows up and ends up getting blasted as a result. She should have pressed the attack. Even the plan to get the rings didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Why wait until after the show when the savior of the universe is this powerful?

The characters rarely seemed to acknowledge that Leeloo was all that powerful. I also thought the point of her scanning the databases was also to learn English but she doesn’t end up learning until the very end of the film so it was a bit odd. Ultimately the movie definitely fumbled the ball rather massively with her character. In the end she was used a bit more for fanservice than to acknowledge her combat abilities. The one scene of her beating up the aliens was fun but we should have gotten more of that.

It goes without saying that the romance in the film is pretty rushed as well. As with most movie romances it’s just hard to buy into this. It all happens within the span of a few days and Leeloo didn’t even like Korben at first. Korben was also presented initially as a character who was too busy for romance and was waiting for the perfect woman. As soon as he hears that Leeloo was made to be the perfect being it’s like just the title was good enough for him. Korben has his share of solid scenes outside of the romance though. He does a good job of pushing the other characters around when they try to trick him like the Priest assuming the identity. Additionally when it came time for a firefight he definitely did step up when it counted. I wouldn’t say he’s a great main character but he was fun.

The Priest tends to get a lot of the humor moments in the film and he handles them well. He always has a shocked expression on his face which ends up working well. I wouldn’t say all of the humor in the film lands though. For example I wasn’t a big fan of Ruby’s character. Pretty much all he does is panic a whole ton. The point is that he’s extremely over the top but the gimmick gets old pretty quick. Usually for jokes the point is to go in, deliver the punch line quickly whether it’s visual or through witty wording and then move on. The tougher part for character gimmicks is that if it’s ongoing you have to do something to keep it fresh. This film didn’t really pull that off here.

A good gag for example if Zorg nearly choking and dying in such a crazy way. It’s unheard of for a main villain to go down like that especially during his big monologue. That’s when the film is at its best, just being incredibly crazy like that. He was definitely a fun villain even if he was out of his league a lot of the time. Really, I think this film should be considered as a sci-fi/parody with those being the two main genres. If this wasn’t intentional for most of these scenes then I would be quite surprised. Naturally there’s a lot of ways you could turn this into a series with sequels and all but as a one shot all of the plot lines do end so technically it’s not like you definitely need a sequel or anything like that.

Overall, The Fifth Element is a fun film. It’s a sci-fi title that pokes fun at a lot of the usual scenarios while still keeping with a full story experience. I would have liked to have seen a little more action with Mr. Shadow to be sure but making him a literal ball of darkness was a bold approach. Initially I was also surprised that the futuristic robot aliens were so weak but then I figured that may have been the point as well. Even one of the aliens being unceremoniously crushed by the rock when giving his parting speech to the humans was likely intentional. Same with their being blasted out of the sky by random aliens. Events tend to happen rather suddenly and without warning in this film. It doesn’t pull its punches. The power scaling is definitely a bit off at times though. If you’re looking for a pretty light hearted sci-fi title then this is the one you’ll want to check out.

Overall 7/10

A Raisin in the Sun Review

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A Raisin in the Sun is a film that decides to bet everything on its writing. The entire film is structured around a few characters having a lot of disagreements with each others. Tensions grow pretty high the whole time. I’ve seen a few other films with this style but they have consistently failed in the past. Usually the issue being that throughout the arguments all of the characters will expose themselves as just being awful people so you can’t root for them anymore. Where this film succeeds is in keeping each character likable no matter how tough things get which is important.

The film starts off by introducing us to Walter. You could argue he is the main character since he is the only character who gets scenes by himself without the other characters. It’s close though since all of the characters get pretty big roles. He wants to open up a liquor store. Right now he is not satisfied with his current job or living conditions where his family is always low on money. Well, his mother is about to receive a check for $10,000 for life insurance from her husband. Walter believes that she should give him the check to put into the store. She isn’t keen on doing this though because she believes opening up a store like that would be luring people over into drinking a lot of wine and becoming alcoholics. Walter’s wife Ruth doesn’t think this is a good idea but Walter puts a lot of pressure on her to be on his side.

Ruth’s sister Beneatha meanwhile just wants to find someone she can marry and also enjoys getting involved in a lot of hobbies even if she ultimately tends to ditch them pretty quickly. One of her goals is to attend medical school which will be expensive so she hopes Lena may help contribute to that. Then you have the Mom Lena who wants to do what’s best for the family but at this point it’s clear that there is no way to make everyone happy. What can she do to ensure the family doesn’t go off on the wrong path?

From the main characters the weakest one would have to be Beneatha. Mainly I’d say the issue here isn’t so much that she wants to try out a lot of hobbies but that she is aware of how broke the family is right now. In light of this, she has to realize that buying so much expensive equipment all the time is a bit of a burden there. She definitely has the biggest personality of the group though as she always makes her thoughts known. Aside from Lena, I would say Beneatha is the most straight forward with everyone as she speaks her mind. That’s a good quality.

In comparison I’d say Walter’s not as good at that. Several times when he’s making his case about the liquor store you feel like he could make a better case for why he wants it. He clearly knows why he needs the store but a lot of the time he isn’t really able to explain why that is. In his head it’s because he has already explained it a ton of times but that should be good practice. He tends to give up more than the other characters and is quicker to compromise on his morals. While you can understand this in large part, I do think his final mistake in the film is pretty inexcusable. Once you’ve made a promise and are given a lot of responsibility you can’t just throw it all away like that. He wasn’t really able to recover after that and he had already been on shaky ground with his reaction to Ruth’s baby.

As for Ruth, she’s a very solid character. She does her best to make ends meet and works as hard as she can. She doesn’t want Lena to have to do everything for them so Ruth tries to be as pro active as possible. She’s patient with Walter as well and may have the biggest workload here. She’s also able to talk civilly with everyone and doesn’t get drunk so she stays mature throughout. The best character though is Lena. She is always ready to offer the correct advice and has always lived her life in a way where she can keep her head high with dignity.

Lena probably has a lot of the more emotional scenes here as she watches her household effective start to get torn down with the decisions they are making. She was clearly disappointed on many occasions. The film does end on a high note after all of the trials at least but it was definitely a tough road for all of them. The movie did a good job of adding a new obstacle to the family every time they would get past one. It’s good because it also keeps the conversations fresh and there is also some pretty good set up here.

For example, from the start we know that Walter wants the money but the check doesn’t actually arrive for a while. Even after that you have to wait until Walter arrives for the big confrontation. So the plot is pretty dynamic and the story is constantly adapting for the new challenges. You could easily make a sequel for their experiences in the next home but at the same time without one you can at least hope that things finally went smoothly for them and they didn’t have to worry about any extra drama this time around. It’ll be good if they can finally relax here.

Overall, A Raisin in the Sun is a solid movie. The dialogue is pretty strong all the way through. The movie may only really have the one main backdrop of being in the house but the characters are all written well so this doesn’t feel like an issue. Lena is definitely the standout character here. When Beneatha tries the whole “God is dead” argument Lena quickly shuts that down and establishes the ground rules that this won’t be allowed in the house. She consistently pushes the characters to make the right choices and without her they definitely wouldn’t have made it through this experience. If you’re up for a good drama as the characters discuss how the family should move forward then this is a good one to check out.

Overall 6/10

Edge of the City Review

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When you think of the Edge of the City odds are that you’re thinking of either IHop in uptown Manhattan or the Domino’s at West 4th street if you’re in NYC. Those two places seem to be around the edges of each direction before you feel like you’re not in the city anymore. Well, in this film we have a warehouse near the water so you feel like you’re on the edge. Most of the film is rather good but the ending is definitely one of those film crushers. It really takes away from the feeling of accomplishment that you had in the film up to that point and it just felt unnecessary. There’s no way back at that point.

The movie starts with Axel arriving in town and needing a job. He uses an old connection to force his way in but now works for the corrupt Charlie. Charlie doesn’t treat any of his workers well and bullies Axel quite a bit since he has quite a lot of leverage there. He’s also racist towards Tommy but doesn’t have as much leeway there since Tommy is also one of the bosses in the company and doesn’t put up with anything like that. Tommy befriends Axel and convinces him to shift departments. They have a good working relationship and things are going well but Axel’s past is slowly catching up to him. Can Axel stay afloat or will it be time to flee?

From the start it’s clear that Axel is hiding a lot of secrets and those never stay buried for long. It’s a shame because due to this everyone seems to have leverage over him. In particular Charlie uses this to his advantage as he first takes money away from each of Axel’s paychecks and then only escalates his behavior from there. It’s why they say once you start running you will never stop. My main issue with Axel is how secretive he is about all of this until it’s too late. I think he could have at least told Tommy his story a little sooner instead of breaking it up into chunks over and over again until he could finally piece the whole thing together.

Axel acts tough but is never able to keep his cool. His empty calls to his parents were also a bit annoying after a while. Calling without saying anything doesn’t help either party. They were a lot more understanding about the situation than he had been giving them credit for as well. Still, the biggest slight to Axel’s character is how he handles the ending. That’s the part that really gets him. To go any further with that would be a spoiler so I’ll have to leave it at this. He is given multiple opportunities to ensure that justice is dealt and each time he decides instead to stay quiet and to flee. He absolutely should have fought hard to break through the people holding him back since this was all on him. Even after that though, he absolutely shouldn’t have just sat there and did nothing. When things got tough Axel didn’t step up and that’s a big shame.

Meanwhile Tommy is a good character. He adds a lot of good humor to the film and is also the voice of reason. He does his best to keep pushing Axel in the fight direction. Nothing gets him down and he is always determined to have a good time. He breaks up a whole lot of fights in the film so the situation would have definitely escalated a lot more without him there to oversee things. He’s easily the best character in the film. Meanwhile his wife Lucy is also a very solid character. They’ve got a good dynamic going. The other heroine gets less of a role. She seems decent but the romance with Axel seems rather fast and forced. Particularly since he does little to actually try and further the romance without a lot of prodding from his friends.

Charlie is the main villain of the film and he makes sure to remind you of this in pretty much every scene. He plays the part rather well as the guy clearly has something over just about everyone on the force. It’s why he can get away with so much since he can expose anyone who gets in his way. It makes you see why it would be so hard for one of the characters to rebel against him. After all, if you cross him then you’ll find yourself out of a job real quick. Still no excuse for Axel’s actions but you can see why nobody else would step up.

The writing is good and the movie does a solid job of balancing out the serious tone with more light hearted moments. Most of the film you could say is rather upbeat but at the same time you know things are going to take a turn. That feeling of dread is why I wouldn’t call this a cheerful film outright. It’s like watching Resident Evil or something. Even if there are a bunch of happy moments at some points like that scene in the town, you know that it won’t last so was it really a happy scene through and through? At the very least Axel and Tommy had a lot of great scenes.

The ending is one of the most important parts of a film though and this movie just couldn’t stick the landing. The last event just feels unnecessary. It would work better in an action blockbuster kind of film because with a lot of battles and going up against big enemies it’s reasonable for this to happen. For a more down to life film like this it’s just pretty tragic. It’s not like this is a movie where you would expect a sequel so there’s no reason to end it like this. What should be a triumphant film at the end just feels like it’s too little too late.

Overall, Edge of the City is a film that I would have recommended for most of its run but after that ending I would have to give it a thumbs down in the end. It’s just not the way you want to end a film like this. Switch the ending and the film instantly rebounds but as it stands you don’t feel like the heroes really got a proper win here. I’d suggest checking out a different film instead like To Sir, with Love which has a more wholesome ending or A Raisin in the Sun. Both of those films are complete titles that do have endings which hold up well.

Overall 4/10

Enough Review

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Enough is a film where we finally have a heroine trying to frame the main villain as opposed to the other way around. Typically you always see the villains going for this trick so it’s a nice reversal of sorts. At the same time, the film’s tagline and whole promotional campaigns feel like they spoil the ending right off the bar. There isn’t any actual fighting until the very end of the film. If anything it would have been more interesting if we could have had more of a setup to the fight from the start like the lead saying to give her 2 years and she’ll come back with masterful skills. The villain would accept the deal since he’s overconfident and then you’ve got like a Rocky climax. It didn’t quite happen though but that would have been neat.

The movie starts off with Slim working the usual shift at a restaurant when some guy starts flirting with her. This guy’s clearly been desperate for a while as he keeps trying to talk to her and unfortunately Slim humors the guy. That’s when a guy called Mitch shows up and explains that the other guy made a bet that he could get with Slim. Slim’s shocked and the guy runs off. Slim then decides that Mitch must be a good guy so they quickly get married but unfortunately that isn’t the case. Mitch is an abusive cheater who just wants to do whatever he wants while keeping Slim and their daughter as a hostage. Slim manages to escape one day with some help from her friends but Mitch is in pursuit. Can Slim stay one step ahead of him or should she change course and bring the fight to him?

Right away though yo can see how the romance was a bit rushed. Slim knew nothing about Mitch except that he was someone who helped prevent her from getting into another relationship that could have been tricky. It seems like the old hero error. I forget the name of the complex but it’s where someone saves your life so you mistake your feelings of gratitude for love. This seems like that kind of scenario because Slim was ready to date this random guy but then quickly moves on to Mitch and they get married after a montage so presumably a decent amount of time has passed. The issue here is that you can’t be falling for more than one person this easily. Still, clearly it worked out for a while until Slim found out the truth.

She’s a pretty solid main character. Slim tries a whole lot of options before escaping such as visiting the cops and doing research. The tricky thing is that they aren’t really able to do much of anything for her until something actually happens. It’s a pretty big issue in general which is why these kinds of situations aren’t easy even in real life. Particularly in this case since Mitch is rich and has contacts inside of the police so there isn’t a lot that can be done. Pretty much everyone ultimately forces her into becoming a vigilante but Slim deserves credit for trying other options first.

As for her plan, it’s a pretty solid one. Slim figures she’ll break into his house without his knowing about it, and then destroy him. As the poster says, this will be in “Self-Defense.” Naturally if the jury knew about her breaking in and starting the fight then this wouldn’t hold up in court but she makes sure there is no evidence. Stacked in her favor is the fact that she planted a note saying she had accepted his invitation to come in and have a talk. To the jury this will make it look like this was a trap set up by Mitch. Additionally she’ll have testimony from quite a few people that Mitch was a little crazy and she also has the name and identity of at least one person he was fooling around with which will help establish motive.

It’s why framing in general always seems to dangerous because unless you have a Sherlock Holmes or such to crack the case then it’s hard to beat. For example, in this situation the cops have no reason to believe that self defense isn’t the case here because for one, they have no reason to suspect Slim would actually attack this guy and the fall makes the whole thing even more believable. Slim better make sure she actually removes all of the tech and such from the house though. That was the only area where I think she may have made a mistake. The film ends rather suddenly of course but she presumably still left everything inside like the phone jammer, her suitcase, lockpicking tech, etc. If the cops see this it may raise some eyebrows.

I guess we can assume she maybe moved it later or pinned it on Mitch. Either way I would say that the deck is stacked in her favor in this respect. Slim may have had some hesitation at the end and I didn’t like the fact that she pulled movie trope 101 of turning her back to Mitch mid fight to take a phone call which was almost fatal but otherwise she was a quality character. She did her best to protect her daughter and constantly keep on moving. Things were rather grim for Slim but she never gave up and now she can finally have some peace.

One of the side characters here is a guy named Joe. He’s a good friend who steps in to help Slim. I was glad that he didn’t bend to the pressure of Mitch’s hired help. I definitely recommend not opening the door when people come in claiming they have a warrant though. I mean it’s a tough decision because either way you’ll probably get beat up but you can’t trust anyone nowadays. Police uniforms can be forged and warrants can be faked so there’s no true way to know that someone’s on the level. You just have to hope that you aren’t in that situation I guess. Only thing I’d say against Joe is I think his trying to start up a romance with Slim is a little too quick. She’s in an emotionally tricky spot right now and is literally dealing with an evil husband so maybe waiting til after that is settled right?

At least he served as a good ally for her to have around. In general it was nice that Slim actually had some good friends for once. Usually in these films the heroine is all alone but this time you had the buddies from work. In particular they came in clutch early on when Mitch nearly foiled Slim’s escape attempt. Since he knows where they all live they were all taking pretty big risks of their own so now Slim can know that they’re all true friends.

One of the standout characters near the end was Slim’s father. At first he’s your average gangster father who doesn’t want anything to do with Slim but once Mitch threatens him then the guy jumps into action. I like the idea that he only helped just to stick it to the other villains. It’s one of those chaotic kind of moments that just so happens to help the heroine in this case. He may not be a hero but he definitely came in handy when it counted.

Meanwhile Mitch is definitely a bad character as you’d expect. He’s one of those villains who just operates completely on desire and doing what he wants. He is tough when he has a gun and such but otherwise that’s about it. I will say at times he looked a bit like Tom Cruise so it was a bit odd to see him as a crazy villain like this. Cruise has been a villain before but not really a crazy one. Naturally it makes the final fight pretty solid where Slim is taking him down. The film resists the urge to make this a big martial arts battle with a ton of high speed choreography out of a Mission Impossible film but I admit that would have been fun to see. Instead it’s more of a desperate fight with Slim getting to use her training. Her coach deserves a shoutout real quick because he prepared her really well for this moment.

Enough has a solid climax to be sure as things end off on a good note. The journey is also solid as Slim keeps on going from place to place and establishing new identities. Even her daughter was pretty reasonable the whole time as she tried to take things in stride. It’s definitely not easy on a kid to be running around like this. She may have gotten a bit careless with the basketball but you can blame Joe and Slim a bit on that one for letting her out of their sight even for a minute. One other character in the movie is Mitch’s ally who happens to be a cop but there’s not a whole lot to say about him. He lets Mitch threaten and push him around a lot so this isn’t exactly the toughest villain out there.

There’s one character in the film that’s a bit annoying though and that’s the attorney Slim visits. He basically blames her for not going to the cops earlier even though the film already established why that wouldn’t work and you’d think this guy would have known it. At least he let her know that the court date was a trap but she knew that as well. I thought he was going to be more helpful. I guess it was good as a twist of sorts that he wouldn’t help her out at all but you’d think he could have offered up some advice. At the end of the day Slim basically had to do everything herself including thinking up the plan to get a coach and learn how to fight. Definitely the best possible investment she could have made though.

As with some thrillers like this you may have to suspend a little disbelief with how much pull Mitch has. The guy has friends with the cops, mafia, personal security force, he can trick phone operators, etc. Slim literally travels to many different cities and he catches up to her almost immediately. The guy is clearly obsessed and insane so while I don’t think anything he does is completely impossible, at times it feels a little too fast. Right now you can use the internet to find just about anybody but if they move away it’ll still take some time to track their next position, especially with a new identity. That’s just the way it goes though.

Overall, Enough is actually a decent film. This genre can usually get a little dicey like Sleeping with the Enemy which didn’t get the highest of scores. This film allowed Slim to get out a little earlier this time though which was helpful. She didn’t have to put up with quite as much so by the same token Mitch didn’t get away with the same amount of things before her escape. Additionally Slim actually getting to physically beat him up was a nice way to close things out. It’s definitely a vigilante move but the film did show that she tried to use the official channels first so it’s hard to fault or blame her in any way for these steps. Realistically if she didn’t choose to take the attack to Mitch and finish him off then she would likely be dead. I can safely recommend this if you want to check out a pretty intense thriller. Although if I were the film creators I would have marketed this as a normal slice of life romance film because then the twists would be that much more effective. I still don’t understand why the film’s premise spoils almost the entire first 70% of the film but at least it makes it easy to review the film since I can talk about more than usual.

Overall 6/10

The Fastest Gun Alive Review

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It’s fairly rare to have a western without much travelling or gunfights but The Fastest Gun Alive manages to pull this off pretty well. It’s more of a down to Earth story about a guy trying to walk away from the business. Unfortunately the main character doesn’t end up being a likable character though as he makes the wrong decisions consistently throughout the movie. The movie survives despite him though and it’s a pretty solid experience. You’ll be kept interested throughout.

The movie starts off with the main villain Vinnie searching for a man named Fallon. Fallon is said to be the fastest gun around. Well, Vinnie takes him down in a gun fight and is now satisfied as the best. Meanwhile, news travels around to a small town where everyone is fascinated by the idea of someone being this fast. This annoys George because he is actually a very good gunman, but he doesn’t let anyone know it. He prefers to live as a very meek shop owner who just minds his business. The issue is that this all starts to get to him more and more. Will he remain strong or is it time to show everyone what he’s got?

Needless to say, George definitely doesn’t stay strong and quickly tries to prove himself to everyone. Part of what makes the character annoying is that he lets everyone get to him rather easily. He doesn’t help matters either by deciding not to dance or constantly going out on walks instead of actually minding the store. He basically leaves all of the work to his wife Dora. We find out later on that George also lied to her about getting rid of his gun when he kept it the whole time. He just made every kind of mistake possible and either got drunk easy after his half a cup or his desperation made him drunk. Either way he definitely did not look good during the whole saloon scene where he is making fun of everyone.

I can maybe get past that except then at the end he is too afraid to go out and fight Vinnie when the villain hears about this. Not only is this directly George’s fault for showing off but he is willing to let the entire town burn if it means that he doesn’t have to fight. It makes sense that some people don’t want t fight in a gun battle of course and George would usually have the right to refuse a challenge but not in this circumstance. It’s only when another member of the town tries to go in his place that George finally works up the courage to act. A lead who wants to be recognized but then immediately regrets it is just too wishy washy to be a quality lead. He should have just been content with the life he had with Dora. She did her best to help out and he wasn’t grateful.

Meanwhile Dora is a solid character. She does her best to keep George on the straight and narrow but at the end of the day she has her limits too and made sure to hold her ground. Moving again wasn’t going to be an option for her. She definitely didn’t support the gun business in the slightest. As for the rest of the town, they all seemed pretty friendly except for one guy who was always getting on George with some passive aggressive comments. It’s clear that the guy had some strong views about guns but at the very least that’s as far as he went. With the rest of the town seeming pretty supportive to me I still say George had a great gig here that he was willing to blow for a few minutes of fame. Even the older man who kept recounting the story about the gunfight was having a good time. It was a pretty thrilling experience for him so why not enjoy it a lot right?

We get one long dance scene in the film where one teen gets to show off his moves. It feels like the potential start to a romance subplot that never actually happens. I feel like there was more that was cut out from the film or something. Still, it’s a pretty solid scene because the moves are quite impressive. He’s able to use all of the objects in the room to his advantage with some tight footwork and clearly he has spent a lot of time honing his skills at the barn. So while the entire scene is really filler to be honest, it’s a pretty fun scene to watch. I’d say it even beats a lot of the more classic dancing scenes you would typically see because this felt more like an athletic exhibition.

Meanwhile Vinnie was a solid main villain. He has an honor code which I like and he was also smart enough to make sure that none of the other two villains would stab him in the back. The guy’s gun skills were also the real deal so he makes for a very complete villain. The icing on the top was the fact that he has a good honor code where he doesn’t attack kids or dogs. You really couldn’t ask for much more out of a quality villain like this. There is a lot of build up to his big fight with George and it makes for an epic way to end off the movie. The ending to the film is quite solid and a great way to wrap things up.

The writing in the movie is on point as you would probably expect. The dialogue is pretty strong and there are a lot of quality discussions the whole time like deciding how to handle the situation with Vinnie getting ready to burn the town. I may not have liked George but he was still written well and never got crazy or anything like that. All of the characters are pretty reasonable and even minor characters like Vinnie’s right hand man get some personality in their brief appearances.

Overall, The Fastest Gun Alive is a solid western film. I like the idea of several characters all fighting it out to prove that they are the fastest. It’s a title they clearly all want to own since it’s a matter of pride. Even George was more into it than he would let on. At the same time as a blind character in the movie said, there is always someone faster. Your opponent could have a jammed gun like someone else mentioned or maybe just a bad day. In a gun draw where both characters quickly try to fire off their shot, there are a lot of ways that things may not plan out as you figured. Every bit of speed comes in handy in those ties though. I would definitely recommend checking this film out if you like the Wild West. It’s an all around solid title.

Overall 7/10

Sounder Review

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Sounder is a film that came out quite a while ago at this point. Whenever a film’s title is the name of a dog in the film you wanna be a little careful because those films can get a little dicey. I’m thinking of the Marley and Me, Lassie, Eskimo Dogs, Old Yeller, kind of titles. They usually tend to fumble the ball and destroy whatever potential they had. Unfortunately this one also massively fumbles the ball at one point which holds the film back. Things were going pretty well but then you enter the point of no return. The film did its best to salvage the situation at the end so it didn’t lose as many points as it could have but it was a shame.

The movie starts off by introducing us to David and his father Nathan. They hunt with their dog Sounder to try and get some food so their family can stay alive. Unfortunately it has been rather difficult as of late and so everyone is starving. Nathan grows desperate enough to steal a steak from one of his neighbors. The Sheriff ultimately finds out it was him so Nathan is sentenced to a far away prison for hard labor. His wife Rebecca now has to really take care of the family by herself with David helping as much as he can. They need to know where Nathan is though so David and Sounder go on an adventure to find him. Can they locate and bring Nathan back?

Lets get the obvious elephant in the room out of the way first. Sounder is the reason why the movie treads on thin ice. He’s a pretty happy dog and a very loyal companion who always does what he can to help. When Nathan is being taken away Sounder steps in and unfortunately gets shot in the process. You do not shoot dogs in a film, that’s just a pretty bad idea. It never has any upside and any kind of plot development you’re trying to tell could have been handled a different way. Sounder lives which is the only reason why this film didn’t sink lower.

The idea seems to be that this traumatized Sounder so now he refuses to bark again until Nathan returns. You could have easily still done that idea with Sounder not barking anymore because he misses Nathan without adding the whole bullet angle. I suppose this is a quick way to build up tension and establish the sheriff as one of the bad guys but it’s not worth the cost. Sounder was certainly a standout character all the way through though.

Meanwhile Nathan’s a solid main character. Naturally stealing the steak was a mistake and he ended up paying for it pretty quickly but the film does a good job of establishing why he made the decision. It’s not like he just decided to be a thief out of nowhere. He’s a fun character and always sees the glass as half full. He has a lot of good banter with the other characters. Rebecca is also a really solid character. She works quite hard to make sure that the family has enough food to survive. Managing the house and working on all the outdoor tasks is certainly a lot of work but she accomplishes it all without any issue.

The kids don’t really get much of a role outside of David. He’s good as the lead kid. I’m not big on having kid main characters for the most part though as they just can’t be as interesting as an older main character. There’s nothing bad about David but there’s only so much he can do to have interesting scenes because he isn’t old enough for banter or to really talk up to the other characters. He’s just a little too young but he does his best to hang in there and try everything he can to find Nathan.

Sounder’s writing is pretty solid. The characters are all established well and the pacing is on point so the movie never drags on either. It’s a very direct adventure with a beginning, middle, and end. The supporting characters hold their own such as the neighbor who supports David in finding some information as well as the school teacher who helps him out and also gives him a lot of hope for the future with education. She doesn’t appear until fairly deep into the film but has a good role. It’s always important to at least have one ally when you’re travelling and this way David finally had somewhere he could rest since pretty much everyone else in that area was acting kind of dangerous. People were very quick to attack him when he was talking around. There isn’t really any filler or stalling, the film just goes straight through its plot.

It’s why it’s still a shame about the shot connecting with Sounder. The film already had established some good tension and a feeling of danger so why shoot the dog? It’s not like it makes their situation significantly worse since they weren’t catching many animals to eat anyway. Knocking Sounder out of play just felt really forced especially since it sidelines him for a good chunk of the film despite the name.

Overall, Sounder is a movie that I can’t really recommend. It comes close but sometimes even one big mistake can hold a film back if it’s big enough. The drama and writing are on point otherwise so if you can get past this then maybe give it a shot. If you’re big into dogs and want something where the dog manages to get through without issue then you may want to check out Underdog instead or something like that. Since this film has other versions I’m hoping Sounder manages to get through without injury next time. He is pretty fit and a solid lead so I would even be cool with the sheriff trying to shoot at him but Sounder just jumping and rolling out of the way of each bullet. That would be pretty satisfying to watch and would still establish the Sheriff as a pretty fierce villain.

Overall 4/10

The Late Show Review

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Noir films tend to be pretty fun with their chaotic plans. The lead is always thinking things through quite a bit to the point where they might even overanalyze things at times. Well, this film is no different and plays things out pretty well the whole time. It’s a pretty good film and you should have a fun time here. It may not go down as the ultimate film of the genre that you will remember for all of time but it does hit all of the right beets. The Late Show represents the genre really well so you can certainly recommend this to any fan of the Noir genre.

Ira used to be a pretty good detective in his day but he’s basically out of the business now. He’s quite old and just doesn’t get involved in those situations anymore. Well, one day his partner Harry shows up and dies. Ira realizes that the guy has been shot by someone and decides to avenge him. His only lead is that Harry had been helping out a lady named Margo with…her missing cat? This doesn’t exactly sound like a life or death matter but clearly there is more to this case than meets the eye. Getting information out of Margo will be difficult though. She is a very active person who likes to talk a whole lot so it can be tough to ever get to the bottom of things with her. Still, Ira knows that if he sticks close to her he will get his chance. You have conspiracies, lies, missing people, a possible cheating scandal, and more here. Ira will have to piece all of these seemingly unrelated plots together.

Part of the fun for Noir films is the twists and turns that come along the way so it’s harder to go more in depth with the story. A big emphasis is on Ira being old which the villains take advantage of but Ira dishes it out as well as he takes it. Several of the villains try to strong arm him and that always backfires. A good example of this is Lamar who beats up on Ira after getting in a surprise attack but he gets to feel the same punishment later on. Ira certainly holds a grudge and won’t forget things very easily.

He’s a fun lead and works well in this role. The character of the aging detective who knows all of the tricks works pretty well here. He’s not going to fall for any easy traps and the villains have to do everything they can to make sure they aren’t just completely squashed by this guy. Ira has some health issues in the film which do present an issue but he handles those pretty well too. So all in all I was definitely quite satisfied with this guy. Then you have Margo who is a solid sidekick. She really wants to be helpful so you can appreciate her drive even if she sometimes gets them into a bigger mess like with calling Ira’s other partner. To her defense I guess she may not have known better but considering how crazy things were getting she probably should have stayed quiet. Can’t trust anyone in this kind of situation I would say.

Margo handles the car driving really well as she escaped the tails though. The writing in the film is really solid with the banter between Margo and Ira being a nice highlight. Technically she is doing most of the bantering since he doesn’t talk a lot. He prefers to just think things through in his head while Ira likes to bring everything out into the open and just discuss everything until it makes sense. They have very different styles for sure.

On the whole the movie is just pretty fun so the whole thing goes by pretty quickly. It’s a solid plot and by the end you get to see which of the characters are able to stick the landing and which ones crack under pressure. In particular there is one character who looks terrible at the end. After getting beaten by the thugs in a theater this guy still decides to help them out for the money. I think just about anyone would realize that these guys probably wouldn’t give him the money anyway. Most likely he would just be shot in the back for his troubles. There’s no way things would end well for him either way so it makes his character choice even worse. All he is doing is digging his own grave but at least it gives Ira a chance to dish out some more solid burns.

The ending is pretty sudden with several shots being fired and the body count certainly rises. Nobody is really safe in a film like this, especially when you have villains running around. Everyone knows about two of the thugs for example but nobody does anything about them. It’s one of those interesting elements where you have characters uttering a lot of veiled threats against each other with the mutual understanding that no fights will break out as long as each person leaves the other alone.

Overall, The Late Show is a pretty good movie. The plot is engaging from start to finish and there is never a dull moment. You have to really stay on top of things here or you may lose track of a few of the twists. It works well as a slow burner film where we slowly find things out along with Ira until we have the full story. The movie balances the serious nature of the movie along with some quality humor the whole time. It’s done carefully so both tones are in tact. You never doubt for a second the high stakes of the film after all as we do get some intense scenes like someone literally being found inside of a fridge. If anything the humor makes these moments feel even more intense since they can really come out of nowhere. The ending even leaves room for potential sequels should they decide to go in that direction. Of course Ira is already quite old so the films would have to be careful not too stretch it too far or you’ll have a hard time believing that he can hold his own. At least as of this film he is clearly still tough enough to physically manhandle some of the villains though.

Overall 7/10

Rise – Dharuriser Review

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Whenever you think of guys fighting in colorful suits you’re probably going to be thinking of Power Rangers or Kamen Rider. They have really done a whole lot to make this trend stick and in particular Power Rangers is one of those franchises that is just so huge at this point. It makes sense that there would be a lot of other competitors in the genre. Dharuriser is a one shot movie so you don’t need to watch anything else to get into it. It’s a little more down to Earth than some of the other titles I mentioned but we get quality action scenes and a good plot. This is a film I would be able to recommend to anyone who wants to watch a solid action film with a good story behind it.

The movie starts off by showing us how Akihiro’s dream of being an actor isn’t paying off all that well. His wife Mio is now pregnant so he needs a way to find some steady income. He reluctantly moves back into his father’s house but does not want to assist in the family business. He gets a job as a security guard instead and also enters a “create a suit” contest in his free time. He submits the Dharuman costume which later gets renamed to Dharuriser. The issue is that there is a very real villain group called DICE. They intend to purify the county by eliminating all those who they deem impure. They seem to be connected to the mystery discs embedded into everyone’s wrist. Can Akihiro find out what they are doing and stop them or will he ultimately not rise to the occasion?

At the end of the day Akihiro isn’t a hero when this all starts off. He doesn’t know how to fight and is just an ordinary guy. During the course of the film he works to change this as he gets more and more serious about being in the hero business. He’s a solid main character who is definitely determined and ends up helping out quite a lot when the going gets tough. He’s the kind of guy that you want in your corner when things get tough.

That said, I did agree with his father in some respects. Akihiro absolutely did not want to help in the hotel business but he’s got a family to think about. He was rather unreasonable about this from the start. If he didn’t want to go straight to work then he is taking advantage of his father’s house. It’s something he had to think about before having a kid. That’s why you wait to have children until you have a stable income and living situation. Akihiro didn’t really think any of this through and then he nearly loses his job by oversleeping. So he had his moments where he was taking things for granted to be sure but once he turned into Dharuriser he became a lot more reliable.

Akihiro’s wife Mio is definitely a quality character as well. She’s a very loyal character who takes his side at all times. Whenever he is in trouble she doesn’t throw extra blame on him either. There’s a scene where he is getting ready to fight again and you think she might guilt trip him, but instead she just helps him get back out there again. It’s always a nice change of pace to have a character who isn’t quick to change sides. Mio was someone he could count on.

The movie’s close to 2 hours so it’s able to capture quite a lot of story in that time. DICE gets a full backstory to the group and we gradually learn about their goals. The leader ended up using his goal of keeping someone alive more as an excuse though to be honest. He definitely went way overboard with the whole thing and cracked up. Akihiro’s friend from work would probably be the worst character though as he was corrupted really easily and never tried to fight it. He just went off the deep end rather quickly and never looked back. You probably won’t be able to trust him again after all that.

Akihiro’s parents were good. As mentioned, the father was pretty reasonable with why he was upset with the lead the whole time. The Mom always tried to calm things down between the two of them as well. Then you have Akihiro’s best friend who was pretty solid. He definitely came in handy quite a lot as he assisted Akihiro in pretty much every task. He could have been a little less nervous at the end since he has a one hit KO gun but I guess even with that he felt like the danger was too much.

As expected the fight scenes are pretty good here. We get a lot of quality hand to hand action. Akihiro certainly improved in hand to hand a lot over this period of time. The costume for Dharuriser also looks really good. A particular standout here would be the soundtrack though. There are a lot of great themes with a quick tempo that feel very fitting for the battle scenes. Sometimes even when there was no battle present the music would ramp up. It helps enhance the chase scenes and adds a bit of stakes to the fights. A good soundtrack can definitely go a long way.

Throughout the film someone is trying to contact Akihiro using a bit of telepathy and a lot of direct mental images. You can’t help but feel like the sender could have made the message more specific though. Akihiro wanted to help the whole time but without any hints as to where the villains are or how to recognize them, it’s not like he could have done much about it anyway. It’s not until the very end of the fil that he is given any real instructions. I feel like the sender could have done a better job with that and who knows, Akihiro may have ended things a lot sooner.

Overall, Dharuriser is a good movie that manages to stick the landing. Things almost get a bit dicey in the climax but Akhiro makes the right call. At times the film may seem a bit cheesy with the hero being able to dispatch tons and tons of opponents even though he just learned how to fight but when you consider that his opponents are often pretty old and don’t know how to fight then this adds up rather nicely. If the enemies had guns then that would have been tricky but it might be hard to acquire those in this small town. The film has no real weaknesses so it’s definitely one that you should have a lot of fun with.

Overall 7/10

When A Stranger Calls Review

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This review is of the edited 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.

I can’t say the premise for this film filled me with any real hope after the disaster that was Black Christmas but maybe it would actually be good right? Unfortunately that was not the case. When A Stranger Calls is another film that you will want to absolutely avoid at all costs. It’s got a pretty bad villain and the main characters can be annoying. The main character from the opening segment certainly could have explained more on the phone but lets go back to that in a minute.

So the film starts with a babysitter, Jill, looking after two kids. She then starts getting a ton of calls from someone telling her to go check on the kids but 1. she isn’t getting paid enough for that and 2. this seems a little sketchy. So she calls the cops and when they ask her if anyone is threatening her, she says no. She’ll probably say that the caller is threatening the kids next right? Unfortunately she does not. She basically denies everything and just wants the cops to look into it. They tap the line at least but either way they’re too late to save the kids. The kids are murdered and the crook escapes into the wild.

I still can’t get past Jill not actually saying that the caller was making threats. Ah well, I suppose it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway at that point. Duncan is the guy we now know to be the murderer. He’s on the run in the streets after escaping an asylum so Clifford has made it his personal mission to take the guy down even if it costs him his career as a cop. He searches around the city for clues but of course this won’t exactly be easy. Tracking one guy down in such a huge crowd will not be easy. Meanwhile Duncan has found his next victim, a lady named Tracy. Will she be able to escape before he makes his move?

This film’s going for a different approach than most horror films like this. Usually you either don’t see the antagonist until the very end of the film or he only pops up when bumping off the main cast. Duncan is a bit different as the film actively follows him around a lot of the time. We see him attack other characters who have nothing to do with the main plot. So that’s a fresh take on the genre. It may not have even remotely saved the film but I will give it props for trying something different. Of course the downside of this approach is that Duncan’s an awful character so having to follow him around like that is pretty brutal.

At least in the bar someone stands up to him which prevents things from potentially escalating. Unfortunately he was still able to follow Tracy to her home. Duncan’s basically one of those obsessive serial killers who is completely insane but plays the victim card all the time. There’s nothing remotely redeemable about him and he’s not even a mysterious figure because of this since we see him constantly. On the whole the cast isn’t great. Tracy’s certainly a brave heroine at least. She is out at night a lot and all by herself but manages to keep her head held high and keeps on going. A lot of the other characters wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.

As for Jill, if you take away her messing up on the call I guess she was decent. As for Clifford, his drive was solid. He did keep his word on sticking around which helped Tracy out at the end. It would have been nice if at least someone would have tried to stop Duncan when he was running away though. Clifford was super close to catching him there but ultimately he just needed another step or two to actually make it. Close but no dice that time.

While the film isn’t all that violent for the most part, it goes out of its way for grit later on as we’re given a very descriptive account of what happened to the kids. Needless to say the film wants you to know that these murders were quite gruesome with a lot of unnecessary detail. We also get a flashback showing the aftermath of this later on which really comes out of the blue since I thought we were going to at least avoid the visual. I don’t see why we needed the extra shock value at that late stage in the game but it’s how it goes I suppose.

There aren’t really any fun scenes in the film. Even some of the more intense horror films like the ones with Jason or Alien usually try to squeeze in either a party scene or some character competition moments but you don’t really have any of that here. You have the first murder, then a brutal bar fight, then nearly a second murder, a final struggle and then the climax. The film really keeps a tight grip on the plot which does make sense to an extent but it means that the film keeps up a very dreary atmosphere throughout. There’s just no time for you to enjoy a scene before shaking your head at whatever fatal moment is next.

Overall, When a Stranger Calls is definitely a film I would recommend avoiding. The film is going for too much of a shock value vibe and the main villain’s pretty terrible. The idea of following him and the cop in random locations is interesting but following a villain around almost never works either. So at the end of the day what you have is a pretty unwinnable situation where the film has planted itself in the corner. It’s doomed to come out on the losing side there almost as soon as the first 20 minutes are up with what happens to the kids. If you want to watch a good film with some scary moments then I would recommend watching Dragon Ball Z: Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan instead. Now that’s a film that will probably get you a little scared while watching because of how intense Broly is.

Overall 1/10

Communion Review

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This review is of the edited 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.

Whenever you have a film with aliens in it you are hoping that a lot of fun things are in store for you. Aliens should be fun and make for imposing villains. Unfortunately that was not the case here. The film is based on a book of pure fanfiction from an author who was delusional but you hope that the film can surpass this. That’s not the case though and the film is very weird from the start. This weirdness ultimately starts to crossover into just being an awful film and by the end you’ll be cringing so hard that this will hit rock bottom. The film was just reeeeally bad.

The movie starts with a guy named Whitley who is an aspiring author. The issue is that he can’t focus on anything for more than 5 minutes so instead of working on the book he’ll play pranks on his wife and kid. Whitley is always rambling on about random stuff but one night when a few friends are over there is a bright light that shines across the world. An alien shows up as well. Whitley doesn’t want to tell anyone about this though so he keeps quiet and continues to go more and more insane. Eventually the aliens come back to kidnap him and things get dicey for the guy. Can he cope with the experiences that he went through?

Part of the problem here is even before the abduction, Whitley already seems certifiably insane. He just never makes any possible sense. He’s always wearing a different costume while working on his book and never ends up making any progress on it either since he ends up throwing out what he had started on each time. Then once the aliens do appear he starts to grow worse as he sees them everywhere. Hypnosis only makes the visions grow even more and he can’t trust anyone even at the end so he fights on his own. One of the annoying things about Whitley is that he’s also really bad at explaining things. Often times he may make an attempt to talk about the aliens but he does it in such a round about way that it doesn’t get through.

Additionally, the aliens seem to have told him not to tell anyone. Throughout the film we eventually learn more about what happened. See, initially we only get the quick jump scare before going to the present but a lot more happened that night. By the end of the film we learn that they definitely did a number on him. So, you would expect that after this he would probably want revenge or something right? Well, this leads to the most insane part of the film where he tracks the aliens down and ends up dancing with them for kicks.

Never mind the fact that the aliens also attacked his wife and used psychic powers to murder his son once already (and vowed to return) but he still wants to dance with them. He takes the old approach of forgive and forget. His wife doesn’t seem to mind either when he tells the story to her. The whole thing is just off the walls. It’s clear that after a point Communion is intentionally trying to be as weird as possible. The characters just don’t make a whole lot of sense with their actions. If they should do something then they will do the other. I dare say the dancing scene had to be part comedy or something. How do you seriously do a scene like that? The music was also as happy as possible for ultimate contrast.

A better film could have handled this well as perhaps a parody of some sort but not this one. This film seems to actually be trying to have a horror vibe at times but I can tell you now that it doesn’t succeed in the slightest. The characters are all too ludicrous for that to work. They never act scared in a natural way so why should we be scared? Whitley has a panic attack at one point when a kid scares him using a costume and it’s so over the top that you’ll just be shaking your head. The writing isn’t any good either. You’ll lose count of how many times the wind has to silence Whitley as he goes off on a tangent. The actual story makes no sense either.

The film doesn’t exactly have any subtlety either. For example a big thing here is that Whitley is traumatized because the aliens physically ran experiments on him including some rather invasive maneuvers. Anyone can put the pieces together particularly because there are tons of memes about this and it’s the first question someone asks whenever anyone mentions being abducted by aliens. Communion doesn’t realize that though so we get a long flashback detailing this just for extra grit and edge. The movie tries to make this as tragic as possible with Whitley attempting to fight them off at first, then trying to joke around so they’d let him go but none of this works.

It makes the rest of the scenes with him and the aliens even worse. It seems like the film was trying to say Whitley had stockholm’s syndrome with the aliens to an extent and that’s why he likes them now but that’s a very disturbed way to end the title. You just know that by the end he has completely lost and that’s the real shame here. There isn’t a happy ending to be found as the aliens have won and you know that more and more humans will keep on being attacked. Since nobody believes that the aliens exist it’s not like anyone has begun to fight back against them either. That just means that the aliens have completely won.

The premise has some potential of course because alien invasions are fun. Maybe have the government find out about this and have them send over some heavy artillery. I think that would go a very long way to making this interesting. At the end of the day one of the big things holding this film back aside from all the other negatives like the endless flashbacks, slow pacing, extra grit, and characters making nonsensical choices the entire time is that the character cast is just really bad. They all come off as insane and it’s really hard to follow a group of characters like that.

Overall, Communion is definitely a disgrace. There aren’t any core positives to be found here. The movie wastes a whole lot of time in each plot so the story developments that are in the film could have easily been handled in half the time. I like to think a sequel could start to fix this film a bit by making it a total action thriller but the first step is to completely shift the focus from this film. Maybe even ignore this film entirely so in a way the sequel of this film would be starting from scratch. Kind of like a reboot. Regardless, I would highly recommend staying far away from this one.

Overall 0/10