Seven Little Sons of the Dragon Review

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It’s time for a anthology. You know those can get a little dicey at times because it’s just hard to come up with a bunch of good short stories. Worst case you have a really good one and it ends too quickly and then you’re still mad about this being an anthology. So there are a lot of ways that this can go wrong but not a ton of ways that it can go right. That’s the real problem here when you really think about it. Fortunately this one was pretty good.

The first story introduces us to a world where a big dragon has been parked between two kingdoms for a very long time. They used to be bitter enemies who would murder each other but nobody can leave the kingdom or they are eaten. As a result everyone is slowly getting ready to die of hunger. Fortunately there is one guy who is able to freely cross between countries with small supplies. So he does his best to help get supplies from the other kingdom to his. What he learns is that the other kingdom isn’t evil, they’re really just like his people. Unfortunately the grudge between kingdoms has been going on for so long that nobody is really backing down.

So it’s a fun intro about how sometimes battles and grudges have been going on for so long that they’re basically pointless. Ultimately they are able to find peace once the dragon leaves and so this big trial was a blessing in disguise. It’s a fairly low key story that had a good ending. I was really worried that something would happen to the dragon at the end so I’m glad that he was okay.

The second story is also solid. Basically humans and mermaids are not supposed to interact. Mermaids may look totally human but officially they are classified as animals so you’re supposed to leave them alone. That’s hard for the main character to do though, especially when he sees one mermaid who is always having a lot of trouble. So they get close despite warnings from his friend and the mermaid nearly drowns him. So the lead realizes that he needs to learn a lot more about mermaids

I wasn’t expecting the mermaid to try and drown the guy but it was a good way to show that they really couldn’t understand each other at that point in time. No matter how much the kid thought they were friends on equal ground, it just hadn’t happened yet. The mermaid was just trying to be friendly and show him the sea but couldn’t understand that he couldn’t breath. It’s not likely that he will come up with a sci-fi gadget to make them understand each other but doing research to help bridge the gap between the two species definitely sounded like a good idea.

Next up was probably the most low key story of the batch. A little girl wants to do well on a test so she is hoping that one of the gods will help her. In this world, every kind of object has some kind of god watching over it or that embodies the object. So she raises a god in her fish tank and she eventually gets it to full strength only to find out that it can’t actually help her with tests. So the whole thing was futile and the story set this up well. There are gods for everything here so why would a fish god be able to help with studying?

It’s almost so basic that you have to do a double take because it makes a ton of sense in hindsight. So it’s a pleasant story but there isn’t really anything to ponder compared to the first two stories. Like it just ends and you move on to the next story. You don’t even really think about what just happened all that much. By no means does it make this a bad story or anything, it’s just not all that eventful and that happens sometimes.

After that we have a much more serious story. Basically in this world some people are born as werewolves and so when the full moon strikes, a separate personality shows up. This has often been seen as super dangerous and so the main guy’s mother was scared at first but did her best to learn about the condition. She is now the top expert in the world which is really impressive. Her son sometimes feels that she profits too much out of this though and wonders if she has his best interests at heart. That’s really where the drama comes in here and so I would say that it doesn’t reflect super well on him.

It would definitely be awful to not be in control of yourself any time a Moon comes up. Or to not even remember what you did at that point since the other soul has all of the memories. That said, he should have discussed the situation with his Mom rather than just holding it in and being sad the whole time. The moral of talking things out is a good one and I liked the premise. It’s fairly original.

After that was my least favorite story of the bunch though. So there’s this painter who is so good that anything he draws becomes alive. He’s sort of retired now but there is a fake knock off making drawings of his own. So the old guy has to get out there and settle this. Along the way he is protected by a rather sloppy counterfeit of one of his own paintings and a lot of other distorted ones.

There is naturally a twist on who is drawing these but it was hard to get all that invested this time. The whole drawing plot just wasn’t very interesting. The ending is certainly wholesome but also still pretty sad. Especially when you consider that the paintings basically do have feelings. In a way having the ability to make your paintings become real is probably not something you would want to have. It would make you really double guess every single thing that you draw.

After that we have one of the more fun ones with a mysterious lady offering to help a group of soldiers get across a mountain towards a vicious monster. What they don’t know is that she’s bumping them all off one by one. There’s definitely a bigger sense of danger here than in any of the other stories. The lady is really deadly and just overall scary the whole time. Clearly not someone that you ever want to mess with. I liked the premise here although I would have changed up the ending a bit.

I felt like the soldier got off a bit too easily. Now none of this is directly his fault so I’m cool with him surviving but I found the whole thing to be a little cheesy especially considering the resolve of the assassin. You probably could write an interesting dynamic there if you wanted this to be an ongoing but as a one shot it ends up feeling rather rushed. This finally goes to the potential issue anthologies run into where the story concept/premise is just too much for such a small window of time. I thought it was the most interesting of the bunch though.

However, the final story is my favorite. It’s about a family where everyone has different powers. The main character feels bad because she feels like her power is the worst. She can change your clothes into pajamas. Not much compared to mind reading, telekinesis, teleporting, etc. Well it might come in handy this time as a detective shows up and the house turns into an elaborate murder mystery.

The whole thing is a big tribute to Detective Conan and it works really well. The mystery is fun and you really see how all of the misunderstandings start to work. The ending’s a bit of an unbelievable gag and I felt like the author was trying really hard to make the pajamas power cool. It didn’t work….but I appreciate the effort. In general I just really liked the vibes the family had and the setup was good. This is definitely a story that could have been an ongoing.

The art is fairly decent here. I don’t think the artist is one of the higher tier ones in the business but this is still professional through and through. I definitely have no issues here. The volume is easy to read and so you’ll be blasting through. Most of the stories are pretty good as I mentioned earlier so you’ll have a fun time here.

Overall, The stories are pretty well balanced. They all bring something different to the table without being repetitive and I liked just about all of them. The author has good range as the stories really have a lot of variety. Even the painting one which is the worst one by default isn’t bad. I just found it to be borderline boring at times but still not one that I would flat out give the thumbs down to. I can definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun collection of stories. While none of them are great to the point where they will wow you, none of them are bad either. At the end of the day that makes for a good collection.

Overall 7/10

The Pride of St. Louis

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One of the toughest things to come to terms with as an athlete is when you are finally washed out. No matter how good a player you are, you will eventually not be able to play with the best of them at some point right? Well, it’s even worse if an injury cuts things short because then you really know that you had more left in the tank. The film shows this off in a rather light hearted way and we see that Dizzy had to go through a lot.

The film introduces Dizzy as a very confident ballplayer. He has been around the sport his whole life and it is really his favorite thing to do. The scouts don’t totally see it his way yet as he has to go through the minor leagues instead of straight to the pros. Dizzy uses this time to win games either way though and also impresses a girl named Patricia enough to marry him. Dizzy even goes on to convince the teams to hire his brother Paul so they can star in the pros together. It’s all going super well until one day both Dizzy and Paul get massive injuries that are basically career enders. Paul takes this as well as he can but Dizzy is in denial and believes that he can still make a comeback. Is he right?

Most of the drama by this point is really about Dizzy making himself look bad with how he thinks he can still play while no doing so good. It goes on enough to the point where Patricia ultimately ditches him. I thought this part was definitely a bit much. Sure they’re still married but Patricia is nowhere to be found and doesn’t even show up to support him when Dizzy is being attacked by the media. The film could have made their dynamic a little nicer since I felt like neither side was very reasonable. Dizzy would never listen and Patricia took rather drastic steps right away.

As the main character, Dizzy is fun when playing baseball but he can be rather annoying. The fact that he isn’t able to hold a conversation without going on different tangents definitely explains the nickname. And of course there’s nothing wrong with still being a kid at heart but he does take it rather far. Patricia is never really able to get through to him and it’s also hard to see how they can have a proper romance when he just doesn’t have too much time for her. He’s always wanting to play and talk Baseball which isn’t always a good way to show where his priorities are.

His brother Paul was slightly more reasonable although also a space case compared to most characters. The best character here was probably Johnny who was a good friend to Dizzy and helped him out when the going got tough. Without him, Dizzy would have really been in a jam since nobody else was really in a place to help him out at all. So it’s definitely good to have at least one real friend who has your back.

The climax gets a little intense with a battle between the media and the school association. I thought that Dizzy gave up a little too quickly here. I know he thought that he was doing the right thing but when you give up like that you really are hanging everyone out to dry. Everyone who was supporting you through thick and thin are basically tossed to the curb. As you can probably tell with this film, my main problem was definitely with Dizzy for a decent portion of it. I thought he could have been a lot better.

The writing is solid as you would expect from an old film though. The pacing is good and the characters always sound very reasonable. I still enjoy the retro way of talking. The film is also on the shorter side and never drags on. The pacing is pretty good at all times, they did a good job of including a whole lot of story lines and plots here. You see Dizzy at his highest and at his lowest here. It’s a good reminder to never turn to drinks and gambling when you’re in a slump because that only makes things get even harder. It certainly backfired for Dizzy as you would expect.

While the drama could be a bit much, the sports were always good at least. It was interesting to hear the play by play broadcast from back in the day. I think Dizzy was probably a bit too scattered even for that as I don’t think I would necessarily want him as the commentor for a game I was watching. Of course I don’t really watch Baseball because I feel like it moves too slowly so it’s possible that you’d want to be distracted from the game with a lot of stories to make the dead time go faster. That’s definitely a possibility.

Overall, If you’re up for some Baseball then this is a good film to check out. I wouldn’t say any of the characters are too likable but none of them are awful or anything like that. The film is still able to stand on its own regardless. Be warned that while the themes of Baseball are a central part of the film, it doesn’t actually have a lot of game time in it. The moments where we see someone playing are actually rather brief. I definitely would have liked to have seen more of the game itself. It seems like a pretty accurate telling of Dizzy’s story though even if you have to take the ending aside. At the end of the day it’s a fairly pleasant film and one that you can watch at any time.

Override 2: Super Mech League Review

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Override 2 is a pretty fun game. It really keeps the same gameplay style of the first game although in this case it does remove the story mode entirely which is too bad. Instead you just play through a lot of tournaments and stand alone battles. It’s more like what you would find in a Tennis game where your career mode is really just about racking up wins. It works well enough in a sports context but in a fighting game like this you definitely want to see a little more. Particularly since the first game had the whole invasion plot. Ah well, at the end of the day the gameplay is the true make or break point here.

It’s a classic 3D brawler where you can use standard attacks and power moves to deliver damage to your opponents. You can also use different items from the environment to deal damage as well so you always have a lot of options. That being said, your best option is usually to watch for the glowing circle on the map and get to it. The longer you are under the light, the more you can charge up your final smash meter. That ends up coming in a whole lot of use when you’re dealing with multiple opponents. There are different rulesets you can switch between in this game. You have the classic 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 4 player free for all, then you have tournaments which are 3 battles in a row, battles where you fight a ton of mini robots, and also a 4 player stay in the ring challenge.

The last one feels like it was inspired by Fortnite since you start taking a whole lot of damage if you leave the ring. Your normal attacks also don’t really deal damage in this mode so you mainly want to focus on grabs. Throwing your opponent out of the circle is a great way to win. In general the game is fairly easy on most of the lower ranks but I imagine that the more I play the game, the harder it will get. For the 4 way battles I would usually hide and let them knock each other out before jumping in. In the 1 on 1 battles I found it easiest to just keep using combos and they wouldn’t fight back much.

Ranking up in the mode is rather weird. You can actually move backwards if you aren’t careful by playing the same mode on a lower rank. This tricked me a bit on the way the mode works but if you’re careful you actually can continue to go up. I got stuck on D rank for most of the modes and it just wouldn’t let me go up though. I suppose I just have to keep on winning over and over until it sticks though. Ultimately I wasn’t sticking around quite long enough for that to do the trick.

The graphics for the game are pretty solid. They’re not out of this world or anything but I thought they were pretty good. The character models are nice and I liked the attack animations. The soundtrack is more on the bland side, I wouldn’t count on seeing any tunes that you really love. They’re more the basic type all around. At least in terms of content there is a whole lot here. You have to win tons of battles to get all the way to the top in career mode which will take many hours. The game tends to go for a fairly cheap price as well so that’s something to consider as well.

You do get a lot of value here. You will have the most fun if you have someone to play with of course but the 1 player experience isn’t bad either. The gameplay is good after all which is ultimately the main thing that counts. My version brought the Ultraman characters with it which was definitely a lot of fun as well. If the gameplay was just a little faster and more intense then that would have really helped the game out. I think part of the problem is the matches can take a little while and it’s not very cinematic either.

So it’s like you’re playing more of a retro fighting game as opposed to a PS4 title. Don’t let that scare you away though. If it was $60 then that would be spooky but that’s not the price at all so it really works out here. Aside from adding a Story Mode the other main change I would add is to give all of the characters more impressive final smash attacks. The current ones don’t even have cinematics or anything like that and those really add o the experience. Not having them just doesn’t make sense. It just feels like another power attack.

Overall, This is a pretty good fighting game. While there is a lot of content, I would say it still feels rather barebones compared to other modern fighting games though. The difference in quality is night and day between this and something like Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm or Tekken. Still, if you don’t compare it to other titles then it does hold its own. The gameplay is a bit different from those after all and there is always room for more 3D brawlers around the bend. I wouldn’t exactly be pre ordering a third game if it came out but I’m still glad to be playing this one. There was enough effort put in to make this one worth it.

Overall 7/10

The Miracle Maker

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It’s time for a film that I was really impressed with. The Miracle Maker is a solid film that chronicles the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It adapts a whole lot of events from this period in the Bible and does so in a relatively short time frame. It links all of the events very well too. While there are some creative liberties taken, there is nothing I saw that directly contradicts the source material or that seemed to be there for dishonest reasons. Mainly they seemed to be there in order to connect the events and foreshadow others ahead of time.

The film is mainly in stop motion animation which of course isn’t my favorite. I will admit that this one didn’t really change my view on that but hey it still tells the story it set out to tell so that’s what counts. When it comes time for the parables and dream sequences it does change to hand drawn though which tends to look really great. In particular Judas has a really intense nightmare that makes use of the hand drawn style extremely well. The stop motion itself is also done well so they’re not cutting corners or anything like that. The production is well done the whole time.

The voices are good and the writing is on point. In terms of the foreshadowing and extra detail, it’s really solid like I mentioned before. Seeing Judas start off for the wrong reasons in wanting to be on the right side of power and slowly descending into darkness was solid. Likewise having many of the people Jesus healed appearing before they got sick was a nice attention to detail. Mary getting hit with the demons and being a background character for a while before we actually get to her plot was also nice.

There are of course a lot of details and moments that can’t be squeezed in as well. The price for adding all of these extra details and using some more obscure moments is some of the big classic moments are also taken out. No walking on water, feeding the masses, the angel on top of the stone, etc. It’s a fair balance I would say because realistically you can’t adapt literally everything unless you were ready to make this a complete epic. Even then it is extremely difficult and you can usually expect some things not to get adapted.

You still have the sense of scale here and there is definitely a lot of drama. The film is also completely revolving around Jesus at the center which is the way to go. All of the characters have their own agency and moments but when it comes time for an event to happen it is always centered around him. I would say Jesus also gets more dialogue than in other films and while the exact wording can sometimes be things that weren’t in the Bible, again it doesn’t feel out of character.

This also helps to capture the fact that he would talk a lot. He was a teacher/pastor in addition to performing miracles. He would tell all of these stories to the Disciples and we do get to see many conversations among them so it’s reasonable to assume that he was fairly talkative. I couldn’t picture him ever being more on the quiet or aloof side and this film did a better job of really showing that compared to most.

We also get to see a bit more of him after the resurrection which is usually a portion that doesn’t get adapted as much. The films tend to mainly have him resurrect and then the movie ends real quick but technically he did stay on Earth for a little while after that. So this time we get to see one of the conversations he has with the Disciples in addition to appearing before them. It’s the little details like this that help to make the film really stand out and also shows that the creators were really invested and did their research.

Overall, The Miracle Maker is definitely a really good film and one that was really perfect to watch for Easter. I would definitely recommend checking this out, it does a good job of adapting most of the biggest moments from this part in the Bible and keeps you engaged the whole time. It tackles a lot of advanced subjects but never gets all that violent so it is a good watch for all ages as well. So if we need stop motion to get more titles like this then I’d say lets go for it!

Demetrius and the Gladiators

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It’s time for the big follow up to The Robe. I saw that film a long while ago so it was good to finally check out the sequel. It really does pick up immediately after the film ends and of course the main character this time is Demetrius. He is ready to uphold the legacy and keep the Robe safe but unfortunately he is taken in by Caligula’s forces and forced to be a gladiator. Will he be able to survive in this arena considering that he refuses to take a life? Demetrius’ trials are just beginning.

The film definitely focuses on pushing Demetrius to the breaking point with everything that he has to endure physically and emotionally. On the physical side, he’s pushed into a rather violent world where the prisoners have to murder each other for sport. This puts him at a natural disadvantage in a fight. Technically with his physical abilities he would be able to win most fights without a problem but he really doesn’t want to cross that line. Then on the emotional side, he is subjected to constant temptation by Claudius’ wife Messalina who wants him for herself. Demetrius is determined to stay strong as he already loves a lady named Lucia and doesn’t want to betray her.

Usually this is where you could say that he did stay strong throughout and did not slip up but unfortunately this film was really determined to break him in every way possible. Ultimately that ties into the film’s themes of redemption and second chances but it would have been nice if Demetrius could have really come out on top. He was in such a rigged system that he never really stood a chance though. Unfortunately his heel turn is also rather dramatic and that lasts for quite a while. It definitely is a rough look for him.

The most tragic character in the film is probably Lucia. She really did everything right and did her best at all times only for things to not go so well. The rest of the characters are mainly antagonists. You have Caligula who is still as evil as possible and has become completely delusional. He really thinks himself to be a god by the events of this film and so anyone who defies him is quickly taken down for the count. The guy is definitely not very reasonable at all.

Messalina of course is rather petty the whole time. Anytime that Demetrius shuns her, she quickly does something to get back at him. She’s not doing anything out of a sense of justice or anything like that. No, she just wants to make him suffer and of course that’s not a good reason for doing much of anything. By the end she is seemingly going to do better so we’ll just have to see how that goes. I don’t have much respect for Claudius either. The guy tries his best to always be rather distant and emotionless but it also means that he really allows a lot of disrespect without doing anything about it. I can’t really respect a character like that. You always need to have boundaries at least to some degree.

Yeah it’s good to control your emotions but to not have any reaction and let things continue to happen is just a sign of weakness. So things get rather tricky for all of the characters here. The only one I’d say was fairly decent was the other gladiator, Glycon. He did his best to give Demetrius a real shot the whole time. His skills in the ring were real good and he was close to being free already but he still went the extra mile to help the lead out. That was awful selfless of him and I don’t think that most of the characters would have been able to pull that off. So he definitely gets special props there without a doubt.

Unfortunately the film does have to squeeze in some animal violence. As soon as I saw the tigers I started getting nervous. To the film’s credit it does do its best to not get all that violent. The camera angles don’t really show blood or anything but yeah I’d say you do want to always avoid getting any of the animals in on this.

Overall, This film definitely keeps in with the tone and feel of the original. You could probably watch both films back to back seamlessly without any issues. That said, it’s by no means a particularly happy film with how much happens to the characters the whole time. Nobody really gets a peaceful road here by any means. It’s a reminder that sometimes you do have to go through a whole lot of trials without any real way out. This will test your character on if you can still keep your own values and everything or if you will ultimately crumble before the situation.

Where Danger Lives Review

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You know I’m always talking about how it’s tough to have a really solid film where all of the characters are pretty bad right? Well, this is a good example of how you can still make that work. Noir is probably the best genre for this as you basically have a bunch of crooks running around and you have to decide who you want to pull through in the end. The writing is still solid and the plot is engaging so in the end this one definitely gets a thumbs up either way.

All right so the film starts off by showing us how busy Jeff is. He’s a really highly regarded doctor who has always done a great job for his patients and he is getting ready to leave the hospital and start his own practice. He has also been dating one of the nurses, Julie so this works well since there won’t be any workplace drama. Right before he can leave his shift, he has to attend to one last patient. A lady named Margo tried to commit suicide but ultimately it didn’t work out for her. She runs off but leaves Jeff a note with her address and name so he heads over. She basically admits that she needs him so Jeff quickly betrays his girlfriend and hooks up with her. One thing leads to another and he seemingly murders Margo’s husband. Now the two of them are on the run and the long arm of the law is getting closer and closer.

I mentioned how the characters weren’t very likable and it’s time to explain why. First up for Jeff this should be self explanatory. He had a good thing going with Julie and all it took was another lady to bay her eyes at him? Yeah you could use all kind of excuses like he thought she would try committing suicide again if he ran off or that there was no emotion in the cheating and he was just doing it to be a good guy. Unfortunately none of those arguments hold any weight and the film never really addresses this which is unfortunate. That’s a big element in why I think the ending to this film was really weak. It just takes away a big part of the impact there.

Back to Jeff though, the guy also gets super drunk which impairs him for the rest of the film. It also means that he’s not sure exactly if he did murder Margo’s husband or not. As the audience you know what happened from the jump and it’s annoying to see him getting gaslit the whole time. He’s not really back to 100% until the very end of the film and by then it’s very late in the game. Jeff really should have handled everything so much better.

Then we have Margo’s husband Frederick who handled things abysmally. First off, he takes forever to get to the point. He seems to enjoy messing with Jeff as he builds up the suspense but of course this gives Margo a lot of time to make her own move. All Frederick needed to do was say one or two sentences to get all of the plot twists out there but he couldn’t even muster that. Ultimately this would be his undoing and so I couldn’t take this guy seriously. I did think he was an entertaining character though. The guy has a very smug air about him which I can really appreciate.

Next up is Margo and of course she is the one who is already married but trying to go after Jeff so that’s pretty bad right out of the gate. No way you can spin her as a hero in this one. She continues to dig Jeff deeper and deeper into trouble and the whole time you wonder if she actually likes him or if she’s going to bump him off. If that’s what she plans to do then it’s going to be incredibly easy for her to pull it off. You can tell that Jeff would never see it coming.

Finally there is Julie who isn’t bad but is definitely way too forgiving. She misses out on just about the whole film and after that she doesn’t get a chance to have any kind of reaction to what happened. She should have been able to put two and two together so the ending shouldn’t be too bright for Jeff. Perhaps you can say that right after the film ends she really takes it to Jeff but in the end we don’t really get to know.

So the characters annoying but the film really works because the thrills have aged well. One thing I liked about the film was how things kept going badly for the main characters because they were overthinking things. In one scene the road is being blocked by the police and they assume it’s because of the murder but in the end it was just a drugs checkpoint for some kind of plant. Another time they saw the police around and had to run off but it was just the airport trying to pass on a thank you note and the cops were there purely by coincidence.

Villains would absolutely get paranoid in a situation like this and the movie does a good job of showing this off. It’s not something that you usually get to see which makes this one stand out a bit. Additionally, I liked all of the pitstops. At one point the main characters pass by a village where you are required to have a mustache and actually get pulled over if you don’t have one. The only way to get out of this situation was to get married. The whole thing is so strange and absurd while being rather funny. That was a good scene to include.

Then Jeff crashes into another car and gets taken in by the police chief for questioning. The cops are just happy to have something to do because apparently there is no real crime in this town but of course the timing is tough for Jeff and Margo. All of these little incidents keep on reminding you that these are not pros but amateurs trying to escape a murder charge. It adds to the realism but most importantly it’s just a lot of fun. I really appreciated that.

Overall, This was a pretty good film. It’s a good reminder to watch out for the green grass on the other side because going over there could really end up costing you dearly. Jeff figured this out the hard way and you know many people probably get tricked like this all the time. You have to make sure you take care of what you have, rather than risking it all for a possibility. A solid moral to take away from this title I’d say and I would recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

The Pups’ Christmas Review

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It’s time to look at a wholesome Christmas special from a while back. It’s extremely short at only 7 minutes long but it makes for a good time. You get to remember the excitement of opening your gifts on Christmas and just how chaotic it can be. The main characters being dogs doesn’t really change that because you can still feel the excitement all the way through.

Basically when they go and open the presents they are attacks and shocked by a number of impressive toys. You’ve got the train set, giant stuffed animals, etc. The biggest highlight of the film though is this little toy tank that is constantly running around blasting away at the pups. It is able to survive just about everything as if it’s the Terminator. Seriously, nothing is able to bring it down and this reminds you of how sturdy the toys used to be back in the day.

If this came out nowadays you’d just be wondering how the toys haven’t broken to pieces yet. Of course there are high budget toys out there as well but they can be rather outnumbered at times. So as long as you enjoy seeing dogs play and have fun then you should like the special. Of course the dogs do get startled a lot and are on the defensive for most of the special but it’s not going into the realm of animal violence or anything like that. Mainly you’ve just got a lot of toon force going on with a very fast paced chase scene going on.

The animation has really aged well here. There’s a whole lot of detail and I’m always impressed at just how much they were able to do. It’s crazy how in 2024 you’ve got new cartoons just announced that look substantially worse than this one. This one has good character designs, good animation, etc. It’s the whole package and it’s also so fast paced that it makes the animation even more impressive for effortlessly keeping up. Yes this is definitely what you like to see from a classic animated special like this.

There really aren’t any negatives to be had with this special although of course it’s so short you would hope that nothing would squeeze in there. The length of the special means that you can watch it at any time although I’d say it probably wouldn’t have a ton of replay value so give it some time between each viewing. It also means there isn’t a ton to write about so this will be on the shorter side for reviews. I like to think I still have this same energy when opening up presents even if I know what’s in most of them beforehand. It’s just a time honored tradition that never really goes away.

Overall, The Pups’ Christmas is a pretty good special. It’s good wholesome entertainment all the way that is good for all ages. It may be many decades old but that hasn’t zapped any of the life out of this short. Sometimes you just want something really light to watch and get you into the Christmas spirit. This one does a good job of that. It may be a few months after the fact by this point but with the weather going up and down you can easily pretend that it’s still December and give this one a play. I guarantee it will be a satisfying 7 minutes of your time.

Overall 7/10

Hard Target Review

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

All right it’s time for a very old school thriller title. This one has a lot of action, guns, and thrills. I’d say it works fairly well even if it doesn’t really have a ton of identity. I can’t guarantee that I will really remember the film a few years from now but maybe I’ll surprise myself. It still is a good film though, the genre is just rather packed with movies at this point.

The movie starts with a guy making a break for it but he’s murdered before he can make it to the goal. Basically there is a group of villains who make sport by giving someone a lot of money and daring him to run all the way to the goal. You sort of wonder how anyone makes it all that far though based on the amount of resources that the villains have. They’re everywhere and you don’t get much of a head start. Well, what they didn’t count on was the victim’s daughter deciding to look into what happened to him.

Her name is Natasha and the deck is not in her favor this time because she hasn’t seen her father in a long time and so she doesn’t have any recent pictures of him. The cops let her know that this is definitely going to be a longshot as a result. The unspoken vibe here is that they can’t help so Natasha recruits a homeless guy named Chance who saved her from a gang. Initially he doesn’t want to get involved but he owes some Union dues and won’t be able to make any money until he can pay them back. So he agrees to help her in exchange for the money but what he doesn’t realize is that he’s about to enter a large conspiracy.

As with any conspiracy thriller like this you will have to stretch your disbelief at least a little bit. Yes, in the film the villains do reference how they’re always paying a ton of people off until the situation gets too hot and they have to leave. Even with that you have to be a little dubious though. They follow their victims into the heart of the city and just go around shooting. You’d think this would attract a ton of attention and eventually reach someone who actually does care. Perhaps I am underestimating the villains but it can be a bit much.

You also wonder why the victims are so bad at using the terrain at times. Once you’re in the city that is absolutely your best shot to survive. Stay in crowded areas and pick off the villains one by one. Instead they usually run into their own demise. So again I’m not sure how the first guy actually got all the way to the harbor. A few more steps and he actually would have beaten them.

There are two main villains here in Van Cleef and Fouchon. Van Cleef is usually my kind of villain as he is very talented with a gun and can hold his own but he weakens near the end. The guy starts to get visibly afraid and he really breaks down. He’s supposed to be the tough man of the group so he really has no business cracking like this. It destroys all of his mystique and so I didn’t care from him by the end. He’s only good at beating up on the weak.

Fouchon is a reasonable main villain though. Very by the books and while his grudge prevents him from making it all the way to the end, you can assume that he only got this far in the first place because of his big ego. Without that he likely would have lost a long time ago. Every associate who works with the villains is pretty much doomed from the start so you are not surprised in the slightest when they start going down. They were definitely not prepared.

As for the main characters, Natasha is a good heroine even if it takes a while for her to start helping. By the climax she is contributing and even has a gun at the ready. Her main issue was just being a little naive at first but fortunately that did not last very long. As for Chance, he may not be the most heroic guy out there as he won’t generally go out of his way to be a superhero but he will help out anyone in front of him like when he stepped up to save Natasha in the intro. The guy’s also a super fighter as he took down like 20 guys all by himself in the climax fight.

Is it maybe a bit exaggerated? Sure but it’s fun. The climax here is really solid with how extended it is and how bad the odds were for Chance. Every time it felt like he had beaten all of the minions, a few more would suddenly show up. There was just no real end to them. Chance also got to mix in some hand to hand combat skills along with the gun shooting. Yeah if you were wondering how well a roundhouse kick would do against a flurry of guns, wonder no longer!

Clarence also ends up helping out near the end. The guy definitely shows up out of nowhere but knows how to fight. He gets some shots in. There’s also a cop who does good in putting the pressure on the villains which is what causes them to start panicking and speeding things up. So the supporting cast here was reasonably solid. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side and the slow-mo was definitely overdone but for the most part the action scenes were always really solid.

The film could be a little on the violent side at times but nothing too crazy. The most disturbing scene is likely when one guy’s ear gets taken out of the picture. Definitely why you never want to get involved with the underworld because it comes back to bite you. If you’re super unlucky then sometimes this can happen to you even if you are unconnected but that’s a whole lot rarer.

Overall, Hard Target is a pretty solid movie. Again I do think it’ll get lost in the shuffle a bit as I watch more movies but at the same time it really embodies what you would expect an action thriller to be. There are a lot of fight scenes, pretty good pacing, and always some extra thrills around the corner. I enjoyed the fight scenes and you are invested all the way through. I would check this one out if you’re looking for an action title to watch.

Overall 7/10

Super Mario Party Review

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Mario Party is one of those really long running series that just keeps on going and it’s always impressive. It did hit a bit of a slump for a while there starting with Mario Party 8 but this one is getting on the right track. My main problem with it is just that the control scheme isn’t great. The fact that you can only use the single Joy Con and can’t use any of the actual controllers is rather puzzling to say the least. Why would you even do that? The only explanation I could think of it that maybe it would be slightly easier for 4 people to be in the same room playing buttttt I’m not sold on this because in theory if you had more standard controllers you could use the 2 Joy Cons and two wireless for an instant 4 player session. So yeah that was a little too bad.

When you boot up the game, you get the brief intro cutscene which is pretty much a remake of the first Mario Party at least in terms of the concept. Everyone is fighting to be recognized as the greatest superstar on the planet. To prove this, they will all compete in a bunch of minigames and so that sets the stage for all of the modes. There are a decently large amount of options to be had here outside of the normal party mode and it’s all connected within the hub world. You can quick travel to any area once you have unlocked it as well.

Interestingly the intro movie plays every time you boot up the game but you can skip it so that’s not a big deal. I suppose the first place you will likely go to is Party Mode which is always a safe bet. You are able to set each stage to 10 turns which is nice. That may sound like a given but believe it or not this isn’t the case. After playing through the original Mario Party titles I was reminded that you used to have to choose 15 turns. 10 turns is fairly long anyway so don’t worry about that. There are a ton of unskippable cutscenes on every turn and of course you can’t skip the CPU’s turns so that’s a lot of waiting time anyway. It’s why this is a game that is really meant to be played with friends.

There are 3 main maps and then a 4th one that you unlock by playing the first 3. A key thing to note is that you don’t have to beat these levels, just playing them is enough to unlock everything. By playing the 4th level you unlock a jewel. Gather all of the jewels to unlock the true ending. You do this by completing each mode. So aside from the party mode you also have co-op party mode. I’m not exactly sure what that entails but maybe if it’s a 2 v 2 the whole time, any stars and coins you obtain are merged? That means you need to hope you have a good teammate.

Another mode is music based. All of the minigames that you play in this one are build around timing and rhythm. So feel the beat as best you can and then you will be fine. This mode is the quickest by far and only has 3 levels to play through in order to unlock the gem. This time I think you do have to win but the games are fairly easy so you shouldn’t have a problem. Then there is the water-raft mode. This one feels the most pointless to me so far. Basically everyone is stuck on a boat as you try to maneuver your way to the end. Completing minigames adds more seconds to your timer so just keep on playing and you’ll make it to the end. I think part of what holds this one back is everyone is stuck together anyway so there’s no real competitive aspect to the game. It also feels really hard to lose. There’s just not much to it.

Outside of that you have the classic minigame modes, mini, minigames in Toad World, and you can check out the shop to buy advice. There’s a fairly large variety of content to be found within the game so I give the title a lot of respect there. There were still a lot of question marks within the game by the time I finished it. In terms of minigames, I unlocked nearly all of them, there are just 2 left. A great quality of life update is that the game prioritizes minigames that you haven’t unlocked yet when playing. The curser will intentionally stop on the question marked ones for any area where I was missing a game.

I can’t stress enough what a big deal that is. It saves an incredible amount of time and makes unlocking the games no chore at all. It could be rough in older games if the RNG wasn’t just right. There are also unlockable characters here which feels nostalgic since you don’t get to go through that process nearly as much anymore. Each character has different unlock criteria so I recommend looking that up online. Once you fulfill the criteria, just run around the hub world until you find that character. I ended up unlocking Dry Bones so I have 3 characters left to go through.

In terms of graphics, the game definitely looks nice and modern. I definitely have no issues there, no corners were cut here. Of course without much of a story it’s not like there is much to really test the game with either. For the soundtrack, it’s a bit more forgettable. I can’t say that any of the stage tunes really stood out to me. Fortunately this game really just needs fun minigames in order to succeed and those were good. I may not have been all that thrilled with the Wii tier motion controls running around but the traditional games were fun. There’s a really good soccer game and a lot of fun platforming ones. Running through a maze filled with bananas for example made for a very memorable stage. I certainly won’t forget it any time soon.

Overall, There are enough minigames here to keep you busy. So mix that in with the general replay value and you have a lot of bang for your buck. The fact that the game has a lot of unlockable content here is a pretty good trick to keep you interested for a long while. None of the unlockables are particularly grueling in terms of time to unlock either. So since you’ll be having a good time, it will fly by as you play through the next levels. Throw in the online modes and that’s pretty nice since it’s still a fairly new concept to be able to challenge people online. I’m not sure if it’s quite $60 good, but if you can get a bit of a deal on this game then I definitely recommend buying it.

Overall 7/10

The Man in the Moon Review

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All right it’s time to talk about a sci-fi film about the moon right? Wrong! This film has nothing to do with the moon and the title is only really used at the very beginning and ending. It doesn’t have much to do with anything but I suppose it’s a catchy title. Ultimately this film is about the sting of betrayal and how it’ll always stick with you. You need to be careful about making the wrong move for short term pleasure because it is usually accompanied by long term pain.

The film starts off with Dani being rather upset because Maureen is super popular around the guys but nobody takes notice of Dani. Everyone just says to wait since she is the younger sister and will eventually catch up but time is going by too slowly. Well, one day they get a next door neighbor named Court and Dani realizes that this is her chance. They bond right away and Dani is determined to become more than fiends. Court is more apprehensive about this because he feels like Dani is too young but as always in these films his willpower is about as solid as a plate of jello.

So for Dani she is on cloud 9 as she is quickly seducing the guy and her life is really starting but one day Maureen gets home early and meets Court. You have to keep in mind that Court has the attention span of a chocolate bar that was just thrown into the oven and so he immediately starts making passes at Maureen and downright ignoring Dani. Maureen knows that Dani likes Court and so now it’s her turn to say that she can’t betray her sister like that. You must always stick by family in a situation like this and it is extremely taboo to go with someone who is connected to your family.

There’s just one problem though, Maureen has no real willpower either and after her extremely half hearted attempt of saying no, decides to get together with Court right away. No need for a long romance either, they immediately hook up and aren’t super subtle about it. Karma hits Court like a truck but basically the film is really about how betrayal’s just not a good thing. You just gotta do the right thing and can’t be making little excuses on why you have to crack. It’s not the way to go…not at all. This is one of those films with no real likable characters which is unfortunate. After all you already know that this means the entire film is doomed right?

So Court is an awful character for having no real moral standards and being so flippant about who he’s with. I give him a complete thumbs down all the way. Just disgraceful tbh. Then for Maureen, I can’t really cut her any slack. The fact that she knew Dani liked this guy and still went ahead with it is no good. If Dani never forgave Maureen, she’d just need to live with it because that was an awfully big mistake. Then for Dani, she was really rushing into things too much. She should have settled for just being friends.

It’s why you always gotta be careful when someone says that they just want to be friends. Dani just said that to get Court to lower his guard and then went after him again. Ultimately that’s now really going to work if you see the person as more than friends. Yeah you can live in denial and if you have a really good poker face you can pull it off but then you have to be extra vigilant on when you hang out. Never 1 on 1, certainly not swimming together, etc. Even without the betrayals I couldn’t root for Dani and Court so it’s not like the film had an alternate exit where things turn out well. The romance was always going to be sub par.

Then for more drama, we also had Dani’s mother getting injured when running around during the storm. I was really glad that the film didn’t go down the extra edge route of losing the baby or something. Would have dropped this film close to a 0, let me tell you. That said, we didn’t need the part where Dani’s father takes it out on her. This family sure is really emotional in this film. If they could all be a bit calmer and more rational about things then most of the film wouldn’t have even happened.

Even if we take all of the awful romances and betrayals out of the mix, I don’t think this film was going to ever be anything great. Mainly I say that because the story wasn’t very interesting. You have scenes of the grownups talking like Dani’s mom and her friend about the old days and it’s all a bit on the cringe side. the friend apparently liked the guy that the mom married and jokes about how she got lucky. Yeah it’s just banter between friends…but I’d be getting a bit defensive about having her around to be honest.

Then we have the party where it turns out that the guy Maureen went with was a creep and then his father was also being rather iffy. It seems like every movie I watch lately reminds you to never take a drive with a guy unless you know him super well. I wouldn’t say that this even adds anything to the film either and I would have at least liked a scene of those two being told off but we never got that. The film really put all of its eggs in one basket with the whole love triangle and when that failed, there was no plan B. It just meant that the whole film went down with it and that’s unfortunate.

Overall, Man in the Moon is a film that I would advise against watching. Often times these “Coming of Age” movies tend to be on the negative side. It’s as if the average movie creator figures that to grow up you gotta go through some kind of tragedy and get burned in the love game. Why don’t we get one instead about a kid who doesn’t want to grow up and just tells the world this is how it’s gonna be. Something like…I dunno Peter Pan. Now there’s a character who was always on top of things. You of course can pull off a dramatic film like this but you’re already stacking the deck against yourself by trying to throw in a romance plot because the characters just feel too young for that. You already know it’s not going to be anything too serious and it’s way too young to be worrying about fighting over a guy. Leave that kind of plot to the pros like Nisekoi.

Overall 3/10