Category Archives: Live Action Movie Reviews

Adam’s Rib Review

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It’s time for a classic comedy title and this one is definitely pretty fun. It has a nice sense of humor and goes by pretty fast. I enjoyed the court case and this movie has a whole lot of energy. I do think that in some ways it hasn’t aged amazingly well like with the moral and how parts of the film turn out but on the whole it is fun. I want to say it is a satisfying watch all the way through even if you don’t necessarily agree with every part of it.

The film starts off with a lady shooting her husband after catching him cheating on her with another lady. Unfortunately for her, the shots don’t end up being fatal and so she is taken to court on the charge of attempted murder. The prosecutor is a man named Adam who believes that the law should be considered as absolute. It cannot be bent or broken so he aims to really make an example out of her. Meanwhile her defense will be Amanda, Adam’s wife who feels that jurors are often bias against women. She seeks full equality in order to end this and so the big fight begins. Can their marriage stay strong as they try to destroy each other on the battlefield?

Now in terms of that question, I feel like it should be an easy Yes. You should absolutely be able to distance the work part of your relationship from the fun part. Like if you’re dating your boss at work and she is always chewing you out for mistakes, once 5:00PM is reached, it shouldn’t matter and you keep chatting as always. That’s how this should be but I feel like Adam takes this the most personally. He feels a little too delicate for most of the film as he takes things too hard and tries to get Amanda to quit. He should just let his talents do the talking for him and have it out with her.

If he really believes that the law will win out in the end then he has nothing to worry about. If the law is so easily broken by her antics, then perhaps it wasn’t a good one. In part I am a bit bias here as well though because I thought the lady was certainly fine. She caught her husband having an affair and decided to put a stop to it. I’d always support that to an extent, like as long as she isn’t firing at random civilians. I also agreed with Amanda that on the other foot this would also have been an easy case.

It’s not to say that any of the people in the court case are all that good because mot of them seemed incredibly suspicious. That said, you still have to go into this on only the facts of the matter. We find out that this was an abusive relationship with both of them hitting each other and throwing constant insults. Definitely not a healthy environment to be in, but that’s how it goes. So whoever wins the case, you aren’t rooting for either character but I would say the girl was more sympathetic. The guy just seemed absolutely unapologetic and like he typically started all of the fights.

Back to the main duo, Adam just comes across as really petty the whole time. He should have talked things out with Amanda more instead of giving up. Running off at the end was also a really bad look since it showed that he wasn’t really confident in the situation. I take a lot of points away from him, but unfortunately I have to take a lot of points from Amanda though. That’s because she allows Kip too much free reign and basically encourages him.

So Kip is the next door neighbor who is constantly flirting with Amanda. He doesn’t care that she is married and makes his contempt for Adam widely known. I have a big problem with Amanda not shutting this down immediately. It’s not cute or funny to let some random guy badmouth your husband the whole time. Perhaps the attention feels good but that just makes it even worse. It was really poor form and then she kept putting herself in bad situations. The worst was nearly getting drunk and being alone at the neighbor’s apartment. That was absolutely a terrible situation and she’s lucky that Adam showed up.

I would have cut out that entire plotline because it felt completely unnecessary. Just there for a little drama and some more jokes but it all felt a bit more mean spirited than the rest of the film. You were definitely ready for Kip to get blasted in the end and Amanda defending him was also pretty terrible. Definitely the weakest part of the movie but not something that would end up sabotaging the film as a whole.

After all we still had all of the court scenes which were a lot of fun. It was nice to see all of the different witnesses show up and then the experts to give their own testimony. The film got a lot of screentime to this part which was cool. We got to really see what the case was like and it definitely helped take things to the next level. I always love a good courtroom scene and the more detailed they are, the better. It felt like we got to see every aspect of the case.

Overall, This was a pretty good movie. It’s definitely a solid comedy with a lot of funny moments. Not all of the jokes land and both characters do look really bad in different ways. As long as you don’t take them too seriously then you should be fine. At the end of the day, things resolve pretty well as far as the case is concerned and we do have a happy ending. There may have been some bumps in the road but the pacing is fast and the writing is good. It’s definitely a solid film that I can recommend.

Overall 7/10

Challenge to Lassie Review

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It’s time for another Lassie film and this one is definitely ready to give you that emotional punch. Fortunately it focuses on the humans taking their Ls again instead of Lassie which is definitely the right way to approach it. It certainly works for me at least although Lassie still does get injured a bit here and there with all of the big jumps. I would say that it doesn’t end up beating the last film but still beats the average Lassie experience.

The movie starts by showing us how a guy named Jack raised Lassie for a long while. She was a small pup at first and then gradually grew into full size. She had a really good upbringing and it all turned out well but Jack was an old man. He was already breaking down and it only got worse when he was beat up by a bunch of thugs. That really accelerated things and he ends up dying. This forces his friend John to look after Lassie but it won’t be easy. She wants to always be with his grave but the grave is located among church grounds where dogs are not allowed. Now the cops have been alerted and since John has no formal license to Lassie, she is in a lot of trouble and may get the death penalty. Can’t anything be done?

I would say the weakest part of the film is how a lot of the characters are super unreasonable. This is a dog after all and a rather harmless one at that. The whole putting him to sleep business makes no real sense. They try to explain how it is necessary because that’s just how the law is, but it feels rather forced the whole time. There is no real reason to be this stringent about it. When the kids ask the judge about why he has to pass the law, the guy can barely even answer. Deep down he also knows that this is all a bunch of nonsense.

The basis of the law is that because John doesn’t have the license, he isn’t able to get one after the fact. Instead of waiting the usual 3 days for someone to pick up the dog, they can skip right to the execution. It’s a case of the process being put ahead of the logic which is where the whole thing breaks down. If a rule doesn’t make sense then you have to find a way to agree with it or just ignore it entirely. Now you do have to put some real effort into understanding the law first as you shouldn’t just break laws that you disagree with but this was a very clear example.

So I can’t say that I really liked any of the policemen or judges here. Then you have the church personnel who aren’t the best here. At least the big preacher at the end seemed reasonable and wouldn’t rat him out but the main guy wasn’t the nicest. You can understand why Lassie wouldn’t be allowed on the church grounds since there could be a lot of cleanliness issues but in this case you should just move the body then. Put it somewhere where Lassie could visit it and you would solve all of the problems at once.

I’ll give John credit for fighting pretty hard to save Lassie the whole time. He went to court and risked his reputation the whole time as well. It’s definitely not something that just anyone can do. His son the young lawyer was also pretty solid here. There were a lot of limitations on what he could really do before he was fully certified but he was always ready to help as well. Even the kids weren’t bad here as they were all on Lassie’s side. It was nice to see the whole community supporting him like that.

As I noted earlier, an issue is that Lassie still goes through a certain amount of grief. It’s nothing as crazy as in the earlier films but she is pushed to her physical limit the whole time as she has to scale mountains and constantly be on the run. You can’t forget the emotional burdens as she wants to be with the old owner the whole time and keeps on being prevented from doing so. Her dedication was definitely second to none but of course those scenes aren’t very fun.

That is a common theme with a lot of the Lassie films which is that they generally aren’t very fun to watch. This one has some fun dialogue and reasonable characters but it is mainly lacking a big hook. One framing device that could have really helped it would have been to have the film start in the court-room and have that continue as the present throughout the movie. We then see the scenes spread across as several flashbacks. Have more and more of the characters enter the court room as witnesses and then we see the scenes from their perspective. It would have turned this into more of a courtroom thriller film which always tends to work pretty well. It would have given the movie a bit of a boost.

Overall, Challenge to Lassie is a decent film for the most part but I wouldn’t say there is much reason to watch it. In some ways the last one is still a more satisfying overall picture with Lassie mainly getting the sweet end of things. In this one, Lassie may avoid a lot of the physical trauma of the original films but still has to deal with the emotional trauma of the fallout that occurs from the owner dying. It’s not like he returns at the end or anything like that so in the end it’s still a net loss for her. The fact that she still goes to the grave every evening to mourn also shows that she isn’t really over the loss and perhaps never will be. I like to think that eventually she would change and not have to visit the grave but it’s hard to say. Either way if you’ve seen all of the Lassie films then you may as well check this one out. Otherwise you can give it a skip.

Overall 5/10

The Sun Comes Up Review

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It’s time for another Lassie title! This may be the best out of all the Lassie films which may not be saying much…but we take those. I was a little unsure of how to score the film at first because it can be a little dull but does avoid most of the negatives. I had a good enough time with it. It’s not really the kind of film that you would go back and rewatch to be honest but you don’t have to re watch everything right?

The movie starts with some singing as Helen reminds the world why she is a premiere singer. Her skills continue to amaze the world and things are going well until her son is destroyed by an incoming truck. Helen retreats to the country-side and takes a break from singing. Initially she is going to ditch her dog Lassie but is forced o take her in. Helen doesn’t want to be around kids anymore since they all bring back her ptsd but she is shamed and pressured into letting the kids hang around. Will this town break her spirits until she is back to normal or will she go back to singing in order to leave this place behind?

Most of the film is really about Helen desperately trying to fit in no matter what she has to do. Whether it is driving the kids around or memorizing lines that the shop owner gives her in order to fit in, Helen is ready. At the same time, it can also be a little annoying because she is constantly doing everything to please them and it feels a little overdone. It would have been better if she could have been herself and they would gradually get used to her instead. I would also say it’s a bit rough that even to the very end she was planning on leaving the town never to return and didn’t even tell anybody. That’s a pretty big knock against her.

Also, the town is one of those old fashioned places where they figure even the quickest show of friendship means that a romance has to happen. A neighbor puts a lot of pressure on Helen because she didn’t immediately start dating the landlord when he showed up. I suppose normal friendships between adults just can’t be a thing right? The adults were definitely annoying here and the fact that the neighbors initially gave Helen the silent treatment instead of talking to her also comes off as rather petty.

Even the shop owner, who was the most entertaining character wasn’t the nicest one. Quickly letting the cat out of the bag to intentionally force a problem wasn’t a great move. I cut him a lot of slack though since Helen’s decision to keep everyone in the dark was even worse. We do have a dramatic fire at the end to allow the situation to work out for the characters but otherwise I’m sure there would have still been a lot of sore feelings around.

Naturally I didn’t like Jerry either. Definitely an annoying character who was always running off and making things even worse. He constantly panicked and he was also quick to forget his chores and cause problems for Lassie. Jerry needed to be better at clock management and making sure he took care of his responsibilities. It may be a hard thing to hear but at the end of the day, that is what is to be expected. So Jerry just kept sinking the more that the film went on.

Meanwhile the songs aren’t particularly good but that is to be expected when you see that the tag is part musical. It’s well known that musicals tend to have songs that aren’t as good as standard or concert type titles. Musicals are the weakest link after all and these songs will have you shaking your head. Okay most of this sounds really negative so what are the positives? Well, for one thing the movie plays it pretty safe like I said. There aren’t any real bad scenes or moments where Lassie is put through the wringer. This time the humans are given all of the trauma which is absolutely the right way to go about it. I’d prefer the humans have to take the Ls over the animals any day. That’s the right way to do it.

While I didn’t love any of the characters, the writing is good enough so they don’t get too far onto your nerves. The film is short so the pacing is reasonable. In some ways the film has aged a bit too hard in the wrong directions like Helen being such a passive main character but it is also nice to see a small town where everybody just helps each other. So there are some positives about the case like that. Lassie may not be the biggest character here but it’s the first time we see her having fun the whole time which is really nice.

Perhaps the final important thing to note is that it’s just an easy film to watch. You can plug it in any time as a pleasant watch to have in the background. It can be a little boring at times but sometimes you need an uneventful film to unwind with. The film could have probably added some kind of a rude townsperson to add some drama though and that could have helped to elevate things a bit. A lot of what ifs to think about but at the end of the day, this film destroys the average Lassie film and that’s something to be proud of.

Overall, The Sun Comes Up has its share of weaknesses but in the end it is still a good film. The main moral I would give here is that when you’re trying to move on from something, a new environment may actually be a bad thing since you won’t have much time to yourself. Ultimately things worked out for Helen but the town didn’t always make this easy. She had to deal with quite a lot of people the whole time.

Overall 6/10

Hills of Home Review

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You ever start watching a film and almost immediately start thinking to yourself, “Get this stuff off of my screen!!?” Well that is what happens with this film as it is definitely a thumbs down almost immediately. It makes every kind of mistake in the book as it puts Lassie through way too much. There aren’t really any redeeming values to be had with this film and so it ends up being a heavy thumbs down. Definitely a title that you will want to skip at all costs.

The movie starts by showing us that Lassie is on tough times as she is owned by a rather cruel owner. He traumatizes her into being deathly afraid of the water and fortunately her next owner ends up being a doctor named William. He is kinder but also in a rush and initially tries to sell Lassie off. Fortunately his conscience wins out and he keeps her. William is pretty busy as the only doctor around with a never ending stream of patients. He is getting older too but the guy doesn’t complain about it and just keeps on working as hard as he can. Will he be able to cure Lassie of her fears or is this one mission that will be too difficult even for him?

I won’t say that he’s a perfect character though because he does betray Lassie a few times here. Aside from selling her the first time, he also yells at her at different occasions and isn’t very patient with her fears. You would think as a doctor that he would know how difficult these things can be to get over but instead he doesn’t act all that sympathetic. He’s a fun enough character when it comes to interacting with the other humans, he just doesn’t seem like he’s the biggest dog person.

He’s also not that smart as he lets one of his “friends” get away with not paying him back on a lot of loans and then being tricked with Lassie. For starters that isn’t a good friendship and he probably should have asked for some serious money in the end. He let the guy get off easy despite being a major thorn throughout the whole movie. The guy’s son is an aspiring doctor to be but the path forward is made a lot more difficult because of this guy’s objections. Basically the way I would explain it is that the father is very old fashioned in an annoying way.

The aspiring doctor Tammas is okay but way too soft spoken and doesn’t really stand his ground. He gets pushed around so easily and so I never really grew to like the guy all that much. He’s okay at best but that’s a main problem for the film as a whole. The characters don’t really stick out and can come across as boring. You certainly aren’t all that invested in any of the characters, I can tell you that much. They come and go without a ton of impact.

As for Lassie, well like I said the film is rather brutal to her the whole time. It’s just so mean spirited and you get the feeling that none of the characters really knew how to handle a dog both in and out of the movie. Whether it’s Lassie being forced to lay down and clearly not wanting to or the whole water trauma moments, it’s all rather distasteful and holds the film back in a massive way. Even throwing in the big time skip at the end as if this was an anime could not save the film. That’s because there was no saving it by that point.

The writing itself isn’t terrible I suppose. We have some nice dialogue at times but there just isn’t much of a point to it all. Even for a complete slice of life film, you are expecting some dynamics to keep you interested and things like that. Instead you have nothing to hold your interest until the storms start setting in. Even when characters get sick you find it hard to care because of how unlikable they are.

Put it this way, even if we remove all of the animal violence, this film would have been probably stuck around a 5-6. It’s just not interesting enough and I tend to enjoy old time films like this one. Well, this time it wasn’t enough to carry the film which is a really big blow. In my opinion it’s not very hard to make very compelling characters in a setting like this. You just have to make them likable so they shouldn’t be doing anything crazy.

The movie is also fairly short even if it can feel long at times. So there isn’t a ton to talk about here beyond what we’ve already gone over. I suppose the final thing is that if you live by a road that is submerged during all big storms, you should probably have a better backup route rather than trying to swim through with your horse. That just seems like a terribly dangerous way to do this and there has to be a better way. There just has to be, because with this way people are going to die sometimes. I didn’t blame the big city doctor for panicking because the whole thing seemed absolutely crazy.

Overall, Hills of Home is definitely a film to stay far away from. It’s incredibly mean spirited and doesn’t really have anything to it. All of the characters have moments where they are acting like big jerks and you get the feeling that they all probably hate each other. After all you don’t just forget the comments so quickly. Whether it was one wife blaming the doctor for not doing well enough, another guy saying his new method for knocking out someone was terrible, everyone laughing at him at the bar, etc.; they were all taking some major shots here. Lassie doesn’t really get the respect that she deserves at any point which is a shame.

Overall 2/10

Lonely Are the Brave Review

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Lonely are the Brave is definitely a film that took a much different direction than what I was expecting. Initially it plays out as a very low key drama and then all of a sudden it becomes more of a thriller as the second half is a big chase scene. It’s an interesting story but does start to really fumble in the second half and unfortunately ends on a whimper. The final scene is stretched for quite a long time only to make the wrong decision in the end.

The movie starts off with Burns coming back into town to visit his old friend. Unfortunately his friend is doing two years in jail for helping get some people who jumped across the border illegally. His wife is quite upset at this and so Burns decides to break his friend out. After all, for a Cowboy such as himself getting thrown into jail should be real easy. Burns has never agreed with modern life and still lives life on the wild side. Unfortunately that works against him as the cops don’t want to deal with the paperwork of arresting him. So Burns is forced to seriously upgrade the felony by striking a policeman. Now when he escapes prison he is really going to have to hustle!

I think the film could have focused more on Burns’ lifestyle instead of turning into a big chase film. The chase itself is solid enough but at that point the premise doesn’t really matter anymore. The chase would have been the same regardless so it seemed like a really odd decision. We could have also gone a bit more into Burns’ psyche on why exactly he doesn’t want to modernize. We got a brief speech about not liking restrictions and fences but you could go deeper.

Where the film faced its first big pitfall was when Burns was leaving for the big police chief. He convinces his best friend’s wife to cheat with him “just once” as a parting gift. Now this is terrible for a bunch of reasons but the most obvious one is that cheating is never justified. You see this kind of thing all the time. The guy was coming off a bad break up, he seemed depressed, lost his job, etc. All of these sob stories to try and somehow convince people that cheating is justified now. I’m here to report that the context doesn’t matter. It’s still cheating and a complete betrayal to his friend who is in jail. It was just an awful move to make.

The wife looks terrible as well since it’s like she has no agency there. She should have just told him to get lost. Respectfully or Disrespectfully, I wouldn’t have minded either way she put it to Burns. That scene was just terrible and a really poor way to start off the chase scene. Yeah her husband made a big mistake and will be in Jail for a while as a result, but you still don’t just decide to throw him in the ditch like that.

Then my other issue is the super unnecessary animal violence. You could see this one a mile away to be honest. They built up from the start that Burns was really close with his horse Whiskey. So immediately if you’ve seen any movies before you know that Burns will be punished by having his horse taken away from him. It’s easily the way that you can hurt him the deepest so the film is going to take it. That’s just the way that it goes. The whole build up to that is just fluff and only delays the inevitable.

It all comes to a head for the ending which is why the ending is absolutely brutal. That final scene just stretches over and over. The actual chase itself is also rather drawn out. Perhaps it is because the movie is going for a super realistic vibe but Burns can’t move very quickly through the mountain so it’s one of the slowest chase scenes you will get. Really the only interesting part was the meanwhile with the cops.

I rather enjoyed the main chief with his sarcastic barbs the whole time. He seemed like a guy who would be fun to work with. Perhaps not the most efficient out there, but considering that all of his colleagues were complete scrubs, he seemed like an expert next to them. He was certainly the most effective and I can see how working with these guys would make him so sarcastic eventually. It’s like he was all alone out there.

There is another subplot with a truck driver but it takes forever to go anywhere so I wouldn’t worry about it. In general the film’s writing was pretty solid so I’ll give it a thumbs up there. The pacing was good as well until the chase scene. I don’t have any real issue with the film’s technicals. The backgrounds and such were fine. The movie just needed more likable characters and to remove the two weaknesses that I talked about earlier. It’s not like they were just small weaknesses either. We’re talking absolute film busters here which is the real problem.

We even have the corrupt cop who goes around beating up inmates with complete immunity. I can’t say that I was expecting that to happen in this film since it just didn’t feel like the tone they were going for. The absolute moral here is that if you don’t change with the times, you will be beaten and overpowered over and over again until you eventually submit. That is your only real option and the film isn’t shy about reminding you of this point.

Overall, This is a film that had some potential but ultimately squandered it. The ending just couldn’t be salvaged in the end and so this one won’t be a film for the record books. You’re better off choosing a different western to watch or just taking the chance to check out a big sci-fi film like some of the Terminator titles for that complete contrast. At the end of the day, change is always coming in and you have to adapt or fall behind.

Overall 4/10

High Cost of Loving Review

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It’s time for a classic romantic comedy title. It’s a fun enough film that has a nice plot. I would say the film restrains itself a bit too much at times and could have really drummed up the craziness of it all a bit more. Still, it’s an easy film for me to recommend to anyone and it’s fairly short so things tend to move fast.

The film starts off by introducing us to Jim and Ginny who have a really good marriage going on. They have no real problems and Ginny is finally pregnant after nearly a decade so they are ready for fun. The only problem is that Jim’s job has been taken over by a new company and they might be letting some people go. When almost everybody except for Jim gets an invite to a luncheon, he figures that this is game over. Should he talk things over with the bosses and see what’s going on…or should he crash out? Time for Jim’s toughest call!

Now a lot of this film does rely on Jim not making the smartest choices time and time again. He jumps to conclusions quite regularly and doesn’t put himself in a position to succeed. It’s a story that we have all seen many times before but it can be pretty funny. I would have liked for things to have been more extreme like I mentioned in the intro though. Like one misunderstanding that worked super well is when someone jokes with Jim that he won’t be ordering the boxes because he might mess it up. The guy was just having some fun and Jim didn’t pick up on it because he was so stressed.

Beyond that, we don’t have a ton of big misunderstandings going on though. So a lot of it is Jim really just overthinking things and I feel like it’s because the film wanted to stay very grounded. You could have really had it both ways in this case though. Also Jim does look pretty bad throughout because of how callous he was when the shoe was on the other foot. At the beginning of the film he talks quite happily about how some guys will get fired and that’s just how life works. He talks a lot about survival of the fittest and all of that. It makes it ever so slightly harder to root for him here because you know first hand that he would not really care if someone else was fired.

He took his safe standing within the company for granted to the point where he didn’t even imagine not having the job. It’s why his friend Steve is comfortable about joking how he would be super depressed and end it all if he was fired. Nothing wrong with the jokes but then you have to be able to take it when you’re the one going down. Instead Jim was super defensive and panicking the whole time. It just didn’t do wonders to make him likable and then of course when he’s frustrated he is very quick to start taking it out on his wife. Being snappy, irritated, etc.

Jim doesn’t talk about things until it is forced out of him and it’s jut such a standard move but it is always a character killer. You can’t be so close to someone and then immediately still get so upset like that. He needed to talk things over and calm down. Ginny is also shown to be super reasonable the whole time so it’s not like there was any risk of her being upset. There was no downside to talking things out with her instead of straining everything like when he wasn’t acting very concerned about her pregnancy results coming out negative.

His friend Steve seemed a lot more reasonable and was a good guy to the end. He prevented Jim from making any career destroying decisions the whole time. His wife Syd may have been someone who just wouldn’t start talking but at least she wasn’t actually trying to cause harm. So I won’t really dock her any points there. She meant well and of course this goes back to how the characters don’t mind smack talking everyone except when it effects them. The double standards are where things really start to get dicey.

If there are any other main issues here, it can be that you feel like there should have been another angle to the film. Either make the jokes a bit bigger like I mentioned or introduce another plot. Even though the film isn’t all that long, it feels like there isn’t anywhere for it to really go. So it’s a serviceable film but not a super memorable one. It’s nice to see a married couple without too much drama but in the meantime their scenes tend to be a little on the boring side. Showing how close they are in the opening also backfires because of how easy we see Jim turn on her later on. You may as well cut out the intro at that point.

I did like the fact that Jim’s immediate boss had his back. Often times in these things it feels like the main character is on his own throughout management but since he was such a good worker, it makes sense that some people would have his back. It would have been annoying if the boss was just looking out for himself or something like that. The top executives were also pretty solid. They asked the hard questions and pressed Jim a little. They did seem really good at their jobs and it’s not like they take joy in letting anyone go. They are just doing their jobs and doing them well. This is an example of a movie that didn’t really have an antagonist but ultimately didn’t need one anyway.

Overall, High Cost of Loving is a good film. It hits enough of the right notes to skate on by and it’s one that you could easily watch because it’s just light entertainment. It has good replay value in that way. It does reinforce why you should always have proper communication channels open with everyone. If you don’t, then it opens the door for misunderstandings and panic. Also, perhaps keep the jokes to a minimum if you would be upset if the same thing happened to you.

Overall 6/10

Best of the Best Review

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I’m always up for a good martial arts film. Mix that in with a tournament and that sounds like the recipe for a really good movie. Unfortunately this one doesn’t spend as much time in the tournament as I would have liked. The drama starts to take over instead which isn’t super bad or anything but I wanted more action. The characters could have used some more work too. So it’s a good film instead of being very good.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Grady who suffered a huge shoulder injury a long time ago. This has prevented him from being more involved in tournaments and such. He still knows how to fight but his life feels unfulfilled. Well, one day he gets an invitation to be a part of the USA selections for the big global match against South Korea. Against the advice of his mother, Grady enters and he is selected to be one of the 5 players along with Tommy, Travis, Virgil, and Sonny. Can the 5 of them really defeat the South Koreans though? These guys have been training their whole lives and have unbelievable amounts of power after all. Also one good hit to his weak shoulder and that will be it for Grady.

So right off the bat we do have a good set up here. It’s a classic battle although I would have liked a full tournament bracket instead of it just being two teams of 5. So the first half is really about training, then we get some drama and the fights happen in the climax. That means that the focus of the whole movie is really about the build up and that needs to land. I would say that is a mixed bag though. What missed the most for me was that the characters would do some pretty serious things and it would be brushed aside.

A main example here is Travis. He is the hot head of the team who is constantly picking fights, insulting, and being a general nuisance. He tries picking a fight with Tommy rather late in the game and was also responsible for the big bar brawl. The guy is constantly running his mouth and going for late hits. There is nothing sportsmanlike about him. I tend to like the cocky type of fighter in a movie like this but there’s a big difference between cocky and dirty. I would argue that this guy crosses the line quite often. It was a little hard to buy into his turnaround later because all of the development was off screen.

Likewise for the main villain here. He is fighting super dirty and going for illegal hits in the final round. Then suddenly he has his big change of heart moment and all is forgiven? I just can’t really accept that and the whole ending was extremely cheesy and unsatisfying. I did not like the ending here and would have changed things quite a bit. I would say the message was not even handled well about not being too violent. One character has a way to win the match in the end and chooses to hesitate because of something that happened previously. The two circumstances are completely different though and so this was a bad look.

It does come back to how the film doesn’t handle drama so well. Tommy has a subplot about seeing someone get murdered in the ring and so he is scared to fight too hard. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a classic plot. However, all of his scenes transition into black and white to really show you how somber it all is and the film is extremely heavy handed about this even to the music. Nothing about the film is even remotely subtle. Then we get coach Frank’s origin story which also feels extremely forced and unnecessary. We should have used this time for fighting instead of expanding the sob story’s more and more.

I also thought Frank was just not a good coach. He talks super tough and tries to be in control but at the end of the day he lets the players do whatever they want. One of them storms out? No problem. One of them breaks the rules and goes home? No problem. One guy is throwing dirty blows and antagonizing the others? Eh he’ll look the other way. I would submit that Frank was just not a good coach and he was really just full of hot air. Not like the assistants were any better either though.

There’s the super nervous guy who gets pushed around and leaks documents as soon as there is any pressure. Then there’s the girl with a chip on her shoulder who does a lot of yoga and meditation. Her classes didn’t seem to really do anything and the scenes could be dragged out. I don’t think she did anything to really prove that she was needed as a coach here. Meanwhile there wasn’t time for everyone so I’d say Virgil and Sonny had the least to do from the main 5. They were likable enough though but ultimately weren’t super useful in the tournament. They just needed to fill in the 5 spots.

Now this sounds pretty negative but that’s because the film wasn’t really prepared to handle any of the non action scenes. Fortunately, we are here for the action and that part was really good. I liked the choreography and there was a consistent amount of fighting the whole time. The sound effects were really on point and it was all very fast paced. So you didn’t have too many breaks. It felt fairly realistic as well as these could be matches that you would see on TV. I just wish we got more of the fights especially since you could use that to show off all of the different fighting styles.

It was nice to see a tournament that wasn’t super corrupt or having everyone get murdered for a change though. Yeah there is still a level of danger here but it is a professional tournament. Aside from the ref being blind, it all felt above board. So I could definitely appreciate that. I’d also say the short run time helps with replay value. That said, as long as the original Mortal Kombat exists there isn’t a whole lot of reason to check this one out.

Overall, Best of the Best has a pretty fun concept and the movie should have focused on that a little more. The fact that the tournament feels more like a subplot is just a really bad look. I know on paper you probably want to have some depth but you really don’t need to force it. Sometimes it’s best to just focus on the action scenes and let those speak for themselves.

Overall 6/10

The Cobweb Review

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The Cobweb is one of those films that definitely gets real dramatic. The characters all tend to be pretty bad and so the movie spends more time spinning its wheels than necessary. You could have made a pretty good flick out of this with quality writing and a solid ensemble of characters but in the end it was not to be. By the end of the film I dare say you will be thinking that the ending should be a cliffhanger or something just for the extra drama.

The film takes place at a psychiatric institution where everyone is always at odds with each other. The main character is Dr. Stewart who uses some pretty controversial methods in how he runs the place. He has let the inmates make their own government council so they can talk directly with the heads of the facility. In that form they are able to mount complaints against things they don’t like and also participate in the decision making. The idea is that this will help them also reach a point of more stability by having this control and also learning how to deal with some stress. Everything goes wrong when the topic of window drapes comes up.

The inmates are hoping to have their local painter take care of the job. The head wants to buy professional ones to put up instead. Stewart is with the inmates, the other head of the school doesn’t particularly care, but Stewart’s wife has her own idea for professional ones. Unfortunately Stewart is basically never home so she ends up talking to someone else about this and now we have a bunch of characters who only know chunks of the story. This starts to result in all of the characters cheating on each other and using any trick necessary in order to claim victory. Will the characters manage to stay sane by the end of this?

So lets talk about each of the characters’ mistakes here. First up we have Devanal who is definitely one of the most depraved characters here. He has long since forsaken his mission to help patients get better. He basically skips all of the meetings so he can have a bunch of affairs and be drunk all the time. He makes a big push to get with Stewart’s wife as well and by the end of the movie you feel like he got off way too easily. For one thing, he is married so that makes all of this 100X worse.

It’s already pretty bad to get into a lot of flings, but once it is cheating then that is rock bottom. There’s no such thing as it being a “mistake” either as I see that around a lot. Cheating is a completely conscious decision to do the wrong thing and there’s never any way to justify that. So I had no sympathy for this guy whatsoever and he should have definitely been outed at the meeting.

Then you have the main character Stewart and unfortunately he’s just as bad. He takes his job seriously which is good but he’s always got a short fuse and started off on the wrong foot by blowing up at his wife in the early scene. He basically does nothing to stay close with her and quickly ends up cheating with a colleague. Again, no excuses are good enough for that, you’re basically throwing the whole relationship into the dirt at that point. What really hurts him at the end is that he’s eager to keep on cheating and the girl has to be the one to call it off. So you don’t take anything he takes seriously in the final scene because it wasn’t his choice to stop. That’s such a bad scenario.

Obviously I also take points away from Meg for cheating with him. It’s not just the cheater that you blame in affair but the one who agrees to participate in the act. She knows full well that he is married after all. It’s really not to hard to be loyal and if you have such extraordinarily weak willpower then the next thing is to make sure not to put yourself in bad situations. This means no drinking or hanging out with someone one on one at night. In general that’s good advice for anyone.

Then we have Stewart’s wife Karen and things don’t look good for her either. For starters she seems oblivious to basic facts of the job. She should know better than to be sneaking around the institution and opening doors when there is such a big level of privacy there. I don’t know how she would have forgotten this. Then hanging out with Devanal to spite Steven was a really bad idea. I do think she was fully aware of where that was going and so again she put herself in a bad spot. If Stewart hadn’t said anything about how he has a lot of affairs, it may have gotten even worse.

Putting up the curtains really just made the situation worse. Everyone was quick to get even and continue escalating the circumstances which was not mature in the slightest. I’m not going to knock her any points for the opening drive with Steven though because I’d say that was fully on the kid. It’s definitely a dumb risk to be picking any hitchhikers up when you’re on your own but the kid catching feelings wasn’t really on her.

Then you’ve got Victoria who is fighting in the power struggle for the curtains as well. She has been around for a long time and wants respect but ultimately is quick to fall into the misunderstandings and just make things worse for everyone. She’s a character who should have stuck to her instincts a bit more like in showing the report. As for the patients, most of them don’t have huge roles but the biggest is definitely Steven. I would say he also shows the biggest weakness in Stewart’s idealogy.

Yes, it could help give him more confidence to see his artwork hung up by the windows but any kind of setback or unexpected incident instead ends up setting Steven’s own development back. So it’s extremely high risk with what I would say is low reward. Often times you will remember a bad thing that happened way more than a good thing so this just wasn’t worth it. I would argue the film also makes this clear with how he nearly died. Hopefully Stewart does take this into account. I know he’s continuing the program but maybe they can scale back some of the projects.

Overall, The main problem with the Cobweb is that it ends up making all of the characters supremely unlikable. The idea of a bunch of misunderstandings all combining into a super mess is pretty fun. I think you could even throw in all of the characters trying to get their petty revenges if this was also part comedy. When played completely serious though, I feel like the movie just goes too far. You need someone to root for after all and that’s not going to work with any of the main characters. In the end I would say to just give this one a skip. It doesn’t have a satisfying ending or enough positives to keep it afloat.

Overall 4/10

Space Cowboys Review

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Space Cowboys is one of those films that knows how to have a good time. There are a lot of little jokes throughout the movie and for the most part it’s got a light tone. I would say that it does start to falter a bit during the climax when the film takes itself a little too seriously. Still, it’s a fun enough movie, I would say that it goes by quickly even with the long run time and so you’ll have a good time here.

The movie starts off by showing us Frank and the crew back when they were younger. They were the best crew of pilots you could have out there! They were ready to go into space and everything but Bob messed them over at the last second. Decades have passed and each member is retired and living the good life. That changes when we find out that a Russian satellite is falling. The impact will be disastrous and the U.S. is trying to keep it afloat to prevent all out catastrophe. This forces Bob, who is now a high ranking NASA official to call in Frank. They will have to let bygones be bygones but Frank is only accepting the mission under one condition. His old senior citizen buddies have to be included in the team as well. Bob agrees..but secretly plans to leave them behind.

You could say it’s like a battle of wits here except that while Frank has all the bravado, Bob has all the wits. It can’t be denied that Frank is a total genius and everything but allowing yourself to be tricked by the same guy twice is pretty rough. If not for the vice president getting involved, it was definitely not going to go very well for Frank. I sort of figured Frank would have had some kind of a backup plan but unfortunately that was not to be.

The film’s biggest strength is in the banter though. I like all of the crisp dialogue between the characters as they really take each other to town. They all get along pretty well so they’re able to really go in without anyone taking offense. The only person with actual bad blood is Bob and those arguments tend to be fun as well. The writing is solid here and you should have a smile on for most of it. When the film wants to be funny, the jokes tend to land.

The film’s biggest weakness are the serious plots like I mentioned before. The whole climax is trying really hard to be serious, intense, and dramatic. The main problem is that you just can’t take any of it seriously. It’s all too by the book to be honest and I think they should have played it all more for laughs. Sure, in a way you could say that the whole film was building up to the actual mission so it would need to be serious but I just wasn’t buying it.

Additionally there is a quick romance plot here that doesn’t work either. The film seemed to think that it had to have a romance but otherwise there is no real reason for this to have even started. It really comes out of nowhere with no kind of warning and feels extremely rushed. I don’t think you would have much time for hooking up with the fate of the planet resting in the balance. It’s like the characters in these movies are trying to speedrun romance and that’s not really a successful way to go about things. It really doesn’t work out for her due to a variety of reasons.

It’s safe to say that Frank is the most enjoyable character in the film. He talks tough and never shows his kinder side but the guy made sure that his whole team got to be here. He really went above and beyond for them which is really important. It’s definitely not something that just anyone would do and the rest of the characters know it. It’s why they have such a tight squad, because they really trust each other.

Hawk gets the next biggest role due to a personal subplot he gets as well as the whole romance angle. While I could do without some of that, he’s still a fun guy. He can hold his own with Frank as needed and they both keep each other in check. In comparison, Tank and Jerry don’t have as big a role but they’re always around. They all contrast with each other pretty well for the overall team dynamic. It was fun to see how they all got through the physical exams for this. Les just say a good memory goes a long way.

It did seem like a pretty extreme regimen for the crew though. I assume this is to make sure you can handle the tasks while you are in a space station but typically tests like this go a bit over to really make sure you’re ready. So you could probably hold back a little on the old timers and they’d be fine. Honestly they looked way better than the young cadets. We have two cadets who get to go on the trip with the old timers and they look absolutely awful.

One of them gets a concussion almost immediately and ends up being dead weight. The other one goes crazy and basically starts messing everything up as fast as he can. A supremely annoying characters all the way through and that was one part of the climax that just felt really forced. I had a really hard time buying into that and it would have even been more believable if he was a Russian double agent instead. I definitely wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the big meetings and political fights going on in the background. That could have been a pretty good subplot.

Overall, Space Cowboys is a good film. I would say it had enough weak points for me to keep it from going to the next level but on the whole it’s an entertaining film and that’s really what I’m looking for here. If you like the idea of a group of old friends getting to finally achieve their dreams then this is definitely the film to check out. Even if the climax isn’t the greatest, the film had enough good moments to carry it all through and quick enough pacing where you felt like the movie covered a lot of ground without dragging.

Overall 6/10

Frankenstein Created Woman Review

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This poster is massive clickbait. The film is definitely not going in the direction of Frankenstein creating another monster. He does dabble in the souls business though and causes a whole lot of trouble. In the end this turns into a super annoying revenge thriller and so much time is spent on the villains. There is not a satisfying conclusion here and so in the end I have to give the whole production a massive thumbs down. It was just not in a good spot and I was not surprised since Frankenstein is rarely any good.

The film starts off with Hans’ father getting executed and he grows up with the reputation of being the son of a convicted criminal. Hans helps Frankenstein out in the lab, another guy who has been ostracized by society as a whole. Hans does a pretty good job of following the doctor’s lead and helping out when possible. He also liked a lady named Christina who helps her father out at the tavern. Unfortunately she is often picked on and harassed by the locals. One day Hans defends her and fights back so they get revenge by framing him so he is executed as well. Christina bumps herself off so Frankenstein revives her and puts Hans’ soul inside of her. What Frankenstein didn’t realize is that the spirit of vengeance demands blood! The ghost of Hans is now telling Christina that she must destroy all of the oppressors who framed him for death. Can she destroy them all before the cops catch up?

The 3 bullies are terrible characters so you’re totally cool with them being bumped off in painful ways each time. They really didn’t do much to convince you that they deserved anything better. That being said, this is still not helping the movie much because the whole thing is focused on a ton of negativity. It’s a shame how nobody was doing anything about this. Even Christina’s father was not really doing anything to defend her. I don’t care how rich these guys are, you can’t let them mess with your daughter like that. That’s just awful and you really can’t stand for that. The father was one of the worst characters as a result. Not the absolute worst since those 3 still have to take that but he was pretty bad.

I thought Hans could have done a much better job of defending himself to the judge too. You could at least say you weren’t at the scene of the crime if you don’t want to expose the relationship with Christina. Mentioning the relationship probably would have been a good idea though when death is the alternative as she doesn’t want him dead either. Dying definitely ended up breaking down his psyche with how crazy he got later on.

Also, the revenge is slightly less satisfying with Christina allowing the villains to have their way a bit first. Sure, she knows she will have the last laugh but I’d have preferred a much more direct approach where they don’t have a chance to really get any kind of quick victory. They just didn’t deserve to have any kind of positives here. I’m struggling to think of any real likable character in this movie to be honest. Frankenstein’s assistant Hertz knows a lot of dark secrets and never tells anyone. This is portrayed as him being a good friend but instead what it tells me is that he will always look the other way and that is absolutely not a good idea. When people are doing evil things, the right thing to do is to expose them. So yeah Hertz is compromised.

Also while Christina is really the victim of a lot of this, it doesn’t help that she murders herself twice. You feel bad for her and would have hoped that the film could have given her some kind of a happy ending. The whole thing just feels so mean spirited, like there is absolutely no hope out there. That’s really a big downer for the film as a whole. I wouldn’t say it really had any particularly happy segments, at least none that lasted for any real long period of time. Even Hans and Christina finally getting together couldn’t last because the villains were yelling through the window the whole time. That romance was a bit too rushed though and wasn’t needed.

So the movie is bogged down by lots of heavy violence, some fanservice, and generally being more of a depressing picture. Frankenstein makes for a good villain but he doesn’t appear as much as he should. I like that he’s the only character who can talk tough to everyone. Generally he isn’t afraid of anyone and has a really confident demeanor to him. This guy just keeps on going and it’s quite brilliant. You just can’t forget that he’s super evil here. At no point should you think he is sympathetic or heroic because he makes it clear just how many people he is willing to sacrifice for his experiments. He doesn’t even hesitate to let Hans get executed after all.

Overall, This is one of those films that goes all in on the shock value and doesn’t have much else to offer. This town would be absolutely dreadful to live in with pretty much all of the inhabitants being evil. They look forward to executions and look the other way when crimes are happening. None of these guys would be your friends and would backstab you in an instant. It’s also still weird to watch a Frankenstein film that doesn’t even have the monster at all. I suppose you can always do movies with just the scientist but the monster is typically the big draw. It’s why the poster had the girl version but that design never happens either. Instead this is more of a possession slasher movie. Either way it’s not like the movie would have been much better. I’m sure it would still be terrible so my best advice is to stay far away from this film. You really don’t want to get mixed up with this series. When you see Frankenstein in the title and particularly if it’s a Hammer film, run far away!

Overall 2/10