Zero Hour Review

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It’s time for an old airplane thriller and I can safely say that this one has withstood the test of time really well. The drama is solid and the characters are pretty good throughout. The movie itself is fairly short but still manages to cram a lot in. As long as you are a fan of the old time films and the retro style of writing then you should have a good time here.

The main character here is a man named Stryker who is haunted my memories of the past. One of his missions did not go well and his decisions directly caused several people to lose their lives. Stryker never forgave himself for this and unfortunately this has taken a toll on his personal life as well. His wife has decided to leave with their son and Stryker just barely manages to follow them onto the plane. He has to find a way to save this relationship but how can he pull himself together? He won’t have much time to worry about this as a poisoned seafood dinner knocks out over half the crew as well as both of the pilots. Stryker will need to land this plane down along with his wife’s help but nobody has any confidence in him. Especially not his old Captain who will be walking them through this from the ground level.

Now it is naturally going to be hard to get past trauma and we see this first hand with Stryker. The flashbacks just come in fast and hard. Even when he is working on landing, he still sees other planes trying to shoot him down. This leads to multiple encounters where he nearly ends up destroying them all. I admit that by the end this definitely gets pretty annoying because the stakes are much too high for this. It’s not like you can just stick the trauma in a pocket and ignore it but hopefully you can at least suppress it long enough to get everyone to safety.

Meanwhile his wife really isn’t helping with how she keeps talking about how he has no chance. The doctor has to spell it out for her that everyone is going to die otherwise so it’s not like things can get worse. I don’t think you should need to be reminded of the stakes in a situation like this. By the end she begins to respect her husband again and stops being a debbie downer but it sure took a while.

The best character here has to be the doctor. He quickly gets to business when he finds out what is going on. He never panics and manages to convince everyone to do their parts in getting through this situation. Without him then everybody would have absolutely been dead. They’re really lucky that a doctor was on board. Meanwhile the Captain may be an almost antagonistic force at times with how much he doesn’t like Stryker but you can totally understand.

Stryker doesn’t seem to do well with authority and the whole past events that started the trauma in the first place would naturally be something that makes the Captain have some negative feelings towards him as well. The captain is still professional all the way through though and knows that his mission is to try and save lives. For that reason there is just one part that makes him look bad.

Near the end of the film there is a ton of smog so the captain tells Stryker to keep the plane in the air despite hearing that most of the crew only has minutes left to live. Obviously staying in the air isn’t a good idea at that point and so you just have to risk your life and try for the choppy landing. The captain should have been getting on board with that plan a lot sooner even if he does get some credit for recognizing that Stryker is in control right now. So he doesn’t drag the issue once he sees that the plane is coming down anyway.

The film is pretty short like I mentioned before but the pacing is definitely on point. The events happen really quickly and there is never any dead air. The airplane also makes for a good plot location because with everyone restricted, that just makes all of the tension even greater. There is no escape for anybody, they are all just having to hope for the best here.

The writing is also pretty good which is no real surprise for a film from this era. The writing always had a certain level of class to it and I like how sophisticated everyone is. These guys were clear professionals the whole way through. If I had any issues with the film it would just be that I thought Stryker’s PTSD was a little too strong. I feel like it should have gone away by the end of the film because the current disaster should be way too stressful to be thinking about anything else.

It’s easy to fall into mental traps when you’re by yourself and have no distractions. When you’re piloting a plane that is about to crash into the Earth? I just don’t think there is enough peace and quiet to get into your own head like that. It seems like it would be a stretch to me at least and the film didn’t exactly need any extra drama. It did make for a pretty cool visual where we see the controls turning into an enemy fighter jet. That was pretty good, definitely impressive for the 50s in terms of special effects.

Overall, I would recommend checking this film out. It’s a strong film all around with good characters and no big issues. There is a lot of replay value here and in a way you should watch it before checking out the original Airplane film to really understand all of the gags. Airplane is naturally the much better film but I can see why it took so much inspiration from this one. The better a film is, the more effectively you can make a parody out of it since you need a good foundation for the gags to be thrown on top of it.

Overall 7/10

Heat 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

There’s an old saying that a good movie will become a great movie with enough length but a bad movie will become a terrible one if you extend it. I tend to agree with that in theory and this film’s a pretty good example. It has a nice set up but coms with several problems and those problems just start to get worse and worse as the film goes on. It really needed a checks and balance system in order to prevent things from getting out of control like this. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and so this one really sabotages itself. There’s a good film somewhere in here but it is buried deep.

The movie focuses on a master cop and an ultimate thief. Both of them have really put everything into the job to the point where their lives away from the job have really become a mess. It is the lot they have chosen in life though and neither one has any regrets. They will have to face each other though as only one of them will be able to walk away from this in one piece. Will the victor be the cop or the crook? You’ll find out by the end of the film.

Right away the biggest hurdle for the film is just how unlikable the characters are. For the main two the film is trying to show us how they are just trying their best but can’t find a happy middle between the job and their lives. The problem is that it sure doesn’t look that way from the outside. They’re just jerks who make each situation worse so I’m not seeing any great effort there.

Lets take the main character Vincent. This guy is already on his third wife and things are not going well because he refuses to tell her about his work at all. So he goes out there for incredibly long hours and when he gets home then he doesn’t want to talk. In fact he goes out of his way to push her out because that’s just the way that he likes things. When she calls him out on it, he has no real good response to this. She decides to end up cheating which is obviously a terrible thing to do and then Vincent keeps on going with his routine.

It’s a toxic relationship all the way around with both parties looking super bad. I just don’t get why he was completely unwilling to compromise and talk to her before that point. I understand really enjoying your job but there’s no reason to be like that socially. Being with him just seems like it would be an incredibly hollow experience. Vincent is at least good at his job so I’ll give him that but that’s about all that I can give him.

As the film goes on he gets to interact with Neil who is the big gangster on the other side. The conversation is decently interesting but I don’t really get why they would even slightly respect each other. The hero/villain dynamic can work with respect but you usually still have to earn it in some way. I didn’t think that Neil did anything to earn that respect here. From Vincent’s point of view he should just be another villain to overcome. He wasn’t super impressive. Vincent’s group had him dead to rights early on if one officer hadn’t dropped his water bottle.

As for Neil, well he’s worse than Vincent. The big problem with Neil is that he makes a whole lot of mistakes throughout the film. The whole thing wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t lose track of the mass murderer outside the deli. I don’t know how that guy escaped in the first place, clearly Neil has no peripheral vision. At least he was ready to get revenge for the rest of the movie but I would have written it a bit differently so the escape wasn’t completely Neil’s fault like this.

Additionally Neil is always willing to compromise and is a villain through and through. You could have had a villain with a really strict honor code which explains why Vincent doesn’t mind him but that’s not the case here. Neil’s too busy covering up for his allies who are just not good people. At one point he threatens the cheating wife of one of his subordinates about how she needs to stay with the toxic guy for a while longer. Neil just wants to complete his mission and he can’t even stick to his own internal rules in the end.

So yeah he’s just another random villain. At least that’s how it should seem to Vincent. As per usual the romance throughout the film is more on the weaker side. This one is really going by the classic rules of how someone is eventually going to cheat out of loneliness or boredom which always means that you picked the wrong person. The film also has a mass murderer named Waingro running around. I thought he was rather unnecessary to the film but is mainly here so Neil isn’t as bad in comparison.

That part is true as this guy is obviously the most evil character. We see him murder quite a few people and he basically has no reason to do this. He just enjoys the violence and that’s really all that you need to know about the guy. That’s why any victory by the end is going to be rather hollow because of the body count. The climax is nice and action packed but it does feel like the villains have a lot of plot armor. They are outnumbered at least 20 to 2 and are mostly taking all of the heroes down. I don’t get how you can miss so many shots in close quarters like that.

What I can give this film as a positive is that the writing is generally solid. The plot is engaging and you are interested in seeing how things will wrap up. There are a lot of traps and counter traps going on. Each side is really able to fight well and even if the supporting characters don’t have huge roles there, they get enough scenes to be more than nobodies. I would have just used some of the film’s exceptionally long screentime to give them some more memorable scenes and fights.

Overall, Heat is one of those films that is very ambitious but messes up on the fundamentals. In theory it’s interesting to have two main characters who are set up to eventually have to fight each other. That’s always going to be a fun idea but you need to actually have both characters be likable first. Until you actually do that then the film is really going to be doomed. It’s also a little too drawn out. Perhaps if this was more of an ensemble cast with 4 factions then it could work but the film is very clearly centered around the main two. I’d recommend checking out a different title instead for your dose of action.

Overall 3/10

The Social Network

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It’s time for a film about the creation of Facebook. This movie really got well known as everyone seemed to be having a good time with it. It’s easy to see why as it has a very fast paced writing style so this doesn’t feel like a stuffy bio film. That said, if the film was trying to make any of the characters likable then it definitely did fail. The characters feel realistic as you could picture all of this going down and the film doesn’t try and hide their personalities either You’ll be entertained throughout though.

The movie starts off with Mark Zuckerberg going on an insane rant to his friend as he shifts topics a lot and gets defensive about everything. Unfortunately he thought he was talking to his girlfriend but she reminds him that she already broke up with him. He decides to write a blog about how awful she is and then turns on all women so he breaks into various websites and leaks their contact photos to a site where you can rank girls against each other. The site becomes a big thing and he realizes that it may be time to launch Facebook. There are just two hurdles; Money and another group already having a similar idea. Mark will have to beat out both groups.

Now I’m going to assume that all of the events in the film are heavily dramatized but that in broad strokes this is fairly accurate. The film’s strongest point is the dialogue like I mentioned before. While Mark isn’t likable at all, I do like his smug way of talking and just how much he is able to cram into every sentence. That’s not an easy feat and it just makes for good banter. Even when he’s wrong, the guy just has to talk really fast so it can sound like he’s right. At first he seems to be overly emotional but tries to look out for his friends while by the end it is clear that he has become super corrupted and will turn on anybody. Power corrups after all and so this would be no exception.

Owning one of the largest companies on the planet before becoming a full adult is a lot of pressure to deal with after all. That also brings with it temptations and those can be hard to fight on your own. He had a best friend in Eduardo but we see how there was a lot of tension early on. Mark seemed to resent Eduardo’s success throughout the movie and so it was only a matter of time before he turned on the guy. The friction between them would only grow worse and worse as the movie went on.

To an extent the newcomer Sean helped to fan these flames but I think it would have happened regardless. They just had very different views on the company and those were never going to be squared away peacefully. The film ultimately still ends on a happy note for most of the characters as they each got a healthy slice of the pie. There was plenty of money to go around after all but that certainly doesn’t help to recover the lost trust. That is something that you can’t simply buy back. It has to be earned and I don’t think any of the characters would risk trying a second time.

Eduardo’s girlfriend is probably the only one of the girls to stay on as a supporting character for a while but I wouldn’t say that she looked very good here either. She was a bit too friendly with Sean which rubbed Eduardo the wrong way the whole time and then she seemed to go completely crazy like when she set a fire in Eduardo’s room. Now she is gone for just long enough where we don’t see what led her to this level but it was definitely not a good look either way.

I may have actually preferred the villain group to the main characters in this case. The two Winklevoss brothers for example were fun antagonists. At least in the film’s portrayal they seemed to be the victims here with how they were manipulated by Mark’s emails until he had Facebook up and running. They also lose in the big Olympics that they were training for which just made things even more tragic. While Eduardo was naive in signing a contract that would come back to bite him, the brothers didn’t really have a chance since they were caught by surprise. You can’t really predict everything.

The film has a habit of jumping back and forth with the court cases and that’s one tactic I wasn’t a big fan of. I would have much preferred to see the early days and then build up to the two court cases at once. Especially because the characters don’t even look any older so with the events being that close you may as well do everything chronologically. The film had a lot to cover which means there is a ton of jumping around as it is. Throwing in flashbacks and flashforwards is just a distraction at that point.

Then the film has the usual kinds of issues that go on with trying to make all of the characters “realistic” and everything. We’ve got a lot of fanservice, super weak romances/one night stands, etc. The characters all seem incredibly shallow and not the type of people you would want to hang out with. I was really glad that the ex girlfriend from the very first scene of the film didn’t walk back to Mark after all of that. A lot of people may have succumbed due to the overwhelming amount of money at play but she stuck to her principles.

Overall, This movie certainly gives you some good insight into the origins of Facebook but does tend to get distracted a little too much by the social drama. That’s what ends up dragging this film down into the red. I suppose that is always going to be easy to translate into movie-mode which is why you include those scenes but I’d have liked to focus on the court stuff more instead. Facebook has no end to the amount of lawsuits that are around and so focusing on those would be much more interesting to me. The other stuff really just tends to be there for shock value or to remind yourself that all of these rich people are totally corrupted. In either event if you are trying to find out about Facebook then this might be a fun way to do that. You just need to get past all of the drama stuff so in that way you may be better off reading the Wikipedia pages.

Father of the Bride Part II Review

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It’s time for Part II of this saga. Unfortunately, it falls into what I call the Airplane II trap. This film decides to just reuse all of the jokes and gags from the first film before calling it a day. You ever know someone who told a great joke once but then they got too much praise for it so after that they began to keep on using the same joke over and over and over again? That’s usually not a good idea because eventually the joke’s not going to work and that’s this film in a nutshell. In general it’ll probably be a bit better if you haven’t seen the first film but I would make the case that the premise is weaker in general.

The film starts off with George explaining that he finally has some free time as Annie has left the roost with Bryan so now he can do all the fun retiree stuff. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last long as his wife gets pregnant and will be having her baby around the same time as their daughter Annie. George must now deal with both of them essentially being out of commission but he’s rather old at this point. Can he look after them and basically go without sleep until the babies arrive? George may have to work with Franck on this.

So right away we have all of the recycled jokes. Annie and Bryan have another 2 minute fight about some nonsense that doesn’t make any sense. George is all upset again even though having a baby is pretty normal by this point in the relationship. Then Franck show up for a baby shower event where he spends all of George’s money again. What did George do to deserve all of this? George is absolutely more out of line in this film but still does step up to take care of his family when it counts. He even got a fun new hairdo and everything but doesn’t really get any support. That’s gotta be rough. He just wanted to prove that he wasn’t so old yet.

The whole expensive baby shower part also doesn’t make any sense. That’s really not a super popular thing compared to weddings. Everyone does a baby shower, but an expensive one with a 5 course meal and all the same trimmings as a Wedding? Cmon that’s just not a thing and doesn’t make any sense here. You’ll just be shaking your head the whole time and for good reason. Franck did not need to return and his scenes tend to be rather painful.

I can’t really fault Nina or Annie much this time. Ultimately they are pregnant for a good chunk of the adventure and that does mess with the mind a whole lot. They’re naturally going to be sleepy and having random cravings for most of the adventure. Maybe Nina could have been a little more considerate when George was unable to get a proper place to sleep because of the two guard dogs but that’s about it.

Mainly the film’s problem is that it just isn’t all that funny. I thought the gags were a step down and of course the reused ones won’t hit as hard this way either. It’s the kind of film that’s not really going to have an antagonist so in that case you need a different kind of hook. This time the film was unable to come up with one and that became the problem here. Just a little hook would have gone a long way here like maybe Annie wanted to have a special doll for her baby’s birth. So George has to go on a journey and find it or something like that.

A little goal would have gone a long way. Or perhaps having more arguments with the In Laws about the baby’s name. That doesn’t end up being a big part of the film as George doesn’t care a whole lot. For once Nina would have been on his side otherwise though and it could have made for some fun tension. Maybe both families keep trying to outdo the other one and it becomes a crazy competition? I could see a lot of potential there.

In this film Bryan and the In Laws don’t actually get to do much anyway. The cast is pretty small and we also get a whole subplot where George sell the house and things go crazy from there. The joke being that George loses even more money when he has to reverse the charge and you realize that he can never possibly win. At least that was a different angle though so I’ll give the film that. It made for an interesting, albeit somber plot. I wouldn’t have minded the characters moving to a new house in the end to really show that a new chapter was beginning.

George had a point that the house is rather big for just him and Nina. Of course now that they have a baby that will be a little different but I do think that the overall point stands. They could downsize a bit and still be really comfortable. That may have been a better final goal to really go with. The emotional beats of the film also ring a bit more hollow as George already had his final goodbyes to Annie’s kid self. He had moved on so the extra flashbacks here don’t really do anything. I suppose I can use this film as an example of an empty sequel. It’s not bad by any means but just feels a bit pointless.

Overall, Father of the Bride is the kind of film that didn’t really need a sequel but I can see why you would want to explore what happened after having a kid. So nothing wrong there but the film didn’t really think it through much beyond that. The double baby angle may help to up the drama but there aren’t a whole lot of funny jokes to associate with it. This is a movie that you will watch and be fairly ambivalent about by the end. It happened and it’s not a bad film but nothing really stood out. There are many alternative plots you could think of like the kid being a few years older so George and Nina have to babysit him which means missing out on a fun retiree vacation or something. Well, if you missed the old characters then you should check this one out.

Overall 5/10

Father of the Bride (1991) Review

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It’s time for a remake of a very classic movie. The premise for Father of the Bride is pretty solid right away. Anyone can empathize with a father who wants to make sure that his daughter doesn’t end up marrying the wrong guy. Along the way we have a lot of crazy shenanigans going on but at its core this is an uplifting movie. I do think that the end of the movie becomes a little more mean spirited than it should have been though.

The film starts off by spoiling the ending of the movie which is always a horrible way to kick things off. George talks about how he was initially against his daughter’s wedding and it was a real tough event but he hopes to laugh about it in the future. It’s a rather long monologue that tries a bit too hard to be funny and you’re just really waiting to get to the start of the actual adventure. So from here we get a flashback where George’s daughter Nina shows up and explains that she is engaged. Moreover, she plans to marry this guy named Bryan right away. George’s wife Nina is super excited so it looks like George is the only one left to add some rational thinking to this situation. Can he do this without alienating his whole family?

Right away there is a big problem with this which is that I don’t understand why Nina was immediately on board with this. I get the whole trusting your kids judgment thing but you do need to put that into a bit of context. Annie and Bryan have not known each other for very long so you just have to be practical about this. The film could have still had Nina be supportive without being blind about everything. I’m betting they just wanted a strong contrast to George being 1 billion percent against the wedding but it does end up hurting Nina as a result.

She gets her big victory against George in the end while she forces him to make a long apology after he is arrested. After that George is still punished further by running into a string of bad luck and having to miss every important event. He also loses so much money as a result of this wedding and that’s where you just have to be rooting for him the whole time. The wedding planner is clearly a hack and is overpricing them on everything. George is the only one trying to stop him and it’s portrayed as a bad thing.

George made his share of mistakes to be sure like snooping through the in law’s checkbook, general snooping, and being a little overly mean to Bryan. The guy isn’t without fault but half the time he is saying some reasonable stuff and the film is making him out to be the bad guy. Bryan’s job definitely did sound fake and I would have assumed he was lying too. Bryan tries to say all of the right things but I can also see how it would all sound fake. Bryan didn’t make the best first impression.

At the end of the day it’s George’s job to look after Annie and I’d say that he did a good job. I also don’t see why he should have to waste so much money on such a fancy wedding. It doesn’t make sense and anyone can recognize that he was being used here. They were wrecking his house and making a true spectacle of things. Nobody was thinking about George at all during this and that’s what felt bad. He was cut out of the celebration in the end and so the film felt rather sad there.

Now while I have all this to say about how the film treats George unfairly, the film does succeed in being an entertaining experience. The dialogue tends to be really strong and I enjoyed the humor. George’s various internal monologues are handled really well. I thought they were definitely funny the whole time and the film’s absurdist style makes for a lot of funny moments throughout the wedding. The pacing is good as well and the writing is solid.

Also while some characters can annoy me, they are ultimately all still likable except for the wedding planner. Annie may seem a little overly emotional and defensive throughout the film but deep down she also knows that the whole situation is crazy and a little absurd so that makes sense. The scene where she and Bryan decide to break up was super rushed and completely unnecessary though. That made both of them look bad but mostly Annie for being the one to rush out. I get the feeling Bryan was no being aggressive or doubling down at all.

As for Bryan, well he seems nice enough. The guy is moving rather quickly which is usually a red flag but if you think that you’ve found the right person then it makes sense not to hesitate. No reason to go slowly at all from his perspective. So while it looks harsh to everyone else, it doesn’t make him a bad guy. Likewise I think Nina’s being naive here but I get that she wants to support Annie. So even the worst characters have motivations and actions that make sense from their point of view.

Overall, Father of the Bride is a pretty good film. It can be a little frustrating at times because there are several scenes and moments that could have been a whole lot better with just a little tweaking. At the very least you have to remove the opening scene because spoiling the entire movie is never a good idea. How can you feel any drama for when the wedding gets called off when you already know that it’s going to happen? This is really filmmaking 101. I would also have at least given George a small win at the end to show how he finally learned to let go and is rewarded by seeing the wedding up close. The writers had other ideas this time but either way I would recommend checking this one out. I’d give the older adaption the slight edge but this one is impressively close.

Overall 7/10

Geostorm Review

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It’s time for a good ole disaster film. This one is fairly unique by starting off with the disaster and then handling it off screen. Then in the present…the disaster is happening again. Due to the story the film wanted to tell it probably had to happen this way but I have to admit that I still found it just a little bit funny. This is a pretty good movie all around though.

The film is centered around Jake who successfully built a weather satellite station that can control the weather and prevent disasters from happening. It worked very well for a long time but then Jake got fired for talking back to the government. Several years passed and now things are going wrong. The system is creating the disasters that it swore to protect. Jake is reluctantly asked to come back and fix things but it’s awkward since his brother Max is now the new boss. Jake feels like Max betrayed him by taking the position and not fighting harder to get Jake back into the mix earlier. Can they get past their sibling drama to save the world?

So right away I will say that the weakest part here is definitely the brother drama. Neither character looks great by the end of this. Jake should be taking responsibility for how he was acting towards the government and should realize that there was nothing Max could have done to save his job. Jake very thoroughly burned every bridge that he could and so the end was inevitable.

The drama would have been better if Jake had acknowledged this more but it never really comes up. I don’t think Jake’s attitude of not really wanting to be a people person is inherently bad but it does come with its share of weaknesses. Particularly in jobs where you do have to answer to other people while staying calm. Jake knows what he is doing but just being the best at what you do is really not always going to be enough in these situations. Also Jake loses a fight after having the element of surprise and two free shots which was incredibly embarrassing.

As for Max, well I still blame him for going out of his way to be a jerk about things at times. He seemed to really resent Jake for a large part of the movie and does lie to his face on different occasions. I imagine that over time the rift between them just kept on growing so it made for negative feelings on both sides but one of them needed to be the bigger man. So they both just end up looking rough.

Also I wouldn’t say that he handled the romance with Sarah particularly well. He acts shocked when she has to go on last second assignments but that is the life of the secret service which is fairly similar to his line of work. Most of their dialogue just tends to be banter otherwise which is fine but that was the one moment where you definitely look at him sideways. Sarah is a much better character than either of the main two.

She is very quick to use her elite skills to fight off the villains and actually takes down a whole squad. That helped to put some more action into the film and without her they would have all been doomed without a doubt. I’ll also give the President a thumbs up here for being on the ball real quick and not just having a shocked face the whole time. He had to endure some pretty big twists with no warning and handled them well.

Geostorm is at its best when it just embraces the crazy setup here. It was nice looking at all the big disaster scenes and the film is very fast paced. Something is always happening whether it is Jake’s investigation in space or Max’s on the ground. There is a good amount of conspiracy here to keep the tension and intrigue high at all times. The action scenes are also fun and having a human opponent helps a lot as opposed to it just being humanity against a bunch of natural disasters.

Realistically if we ever made a giant weather machine over the globe, it makes sense that someone would try to use it for nefarious purposes. Whether that means destroying it outright or just sabotaging it, that would only be a matter of time. Even as the film ends, things are going to be really rough for humanity for a while. The body count was rather huge by the end of the film so it feels like they only put of the disaster by a bit. Ultimately humanity cold not fight back against nature.

If the film wanted to fix the brother plot I think they would have needed both of them to be on the space station. Have them be forced to work together and slowly becoming close again. I would cut Jake’s kid out entirely because there’s just no way to fit that plot in and it makes the film over crowded. She didn’t end up having much of a point in the film. Then when Jake and Max save the days, you’ve got a pretty complete ending right there. Of course you don’t even need that drama in the first place. You could have easily just made Max another one of the government bureaucrats that Jake doesn’t like and he’s forced to learn how to play nice by the end. With how this film ends, you could make the strong argument that Jake didn’t learn any lessons and will blow up at Congress during his next meeting.

Overall, Geostorm is a pretty good movie and I would recommend checking it out. It covers all the bases you would expect from a thriller film and executes the plot well. Whether you haven’t seen many disaster films before or if you’ve seen them all; Geostorm holds up. I’d be ready for a sequel to this one. It’s also got just enough high tech elements where you could really have any number of plots within it.

Overall 7/10

Manhattan Murder Mystery Review

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It’s time for an old fashioned murder mystery. The film is a comedy first and foremost but does still manage to have a body count here. The writing could use a lot of work though and the film suffers from all the usual issues of a Woody Allen film. Namely that the dialogue is laughable at best and the characters are quite weak but at least the case itself is pretty interesting.

The film starts off with Larry and Carol returning home and chatting with their neighbors. Larry finds the whole experience to be painful but Carol doesn’t want to be rude. It turns out that would be the last time they see one neighbor as she died of a heart attack. The husband is taking this as well as can be expected…perhaps too well. Carol believes that he murdered his wife and now she wants to investigate the whole thing. Larry doesn’t really want to entertain this but has no way of stopping Carol. Meanwhile both of them are being pursued by would be suitors who don’t care about their married status. Can Larry and Carol stay strong here?

So right away the film does lose out on the technical elements. The writing only succeeds in making the characters as annoying as possible. The general plot about the murder mystery is solid enough but technically tends to be more of a backdrop. I do appreciate that it gives the film more of a plot in general though as a lot of the other Allen films just tend to be rather aimless. This one also does deliver with a pretty solid climax.

The strongest part of the film is the climax which homages the James Bond film with the Golden Gun. The shootout is solid and definitely more action packed than you may have expected. There is also no real cop out at the end so it’s not like the adventure was a bad dream or anything like that. I was half expecting the film to have some crazy explanation to distance itself from the story. Not a dream but something along those lines that would have resulted in a ton of misunderstandings. After all the film is always trying to go for a certain kind of realism that I ironically think makes it end up being less realistic because most people don’t act like these characters.

As for the characters, well lets start with the most desperate ones first. Marcia and Ted. So Marcia basically just wants some action so she tries to seduce Larry but is never able to get tough to him and settles for making Carol jealous by helping out with the murder mystery. While Larry never really faltered, I do think he needed to put more space between them. Keeping yourself in a tricky situation is always a recipe for disaster.

Then we have Ted who is far worse than Marcia with how direct he is. He basically confesses to Carol in the film aside from all the obvious hintings. This guy just has no class and honestly she needed to remove him as a friend. It’s one thing to have a friend who may like you deep down but one who is this upfront about it? That’s trouble and for that reason all of the scenes make Carol look extra bad as well.

Carol even goes as far as to try and make Larry jealous about this with how she keeps comparing his lack of enthusiasm in the mystery to how Ted is jumping at every opportunity. That basically forces Larry to have to get more involved when he knows that this is a bad idea. Also since the lady is dead, the situation is different than if they thought he had kidnapped someone. In that case then you have to act even without evidence.

Larry does still tend to get the funniest scenes of the film but his jokes still miss more than they land. I just enjoy the nervous, fast talking kind of humor that he has. With good writing then the film would probably be in a pretty good spot. Larry’s take on the situation is certainly more rational than the others. He has a point that heart attacks can happen for any number of reasons and jumping to murder feels a bit drastic. Even the lying could easily be explained by the neighbor just not being comfortable enough around the main characters to spill his beans.

Now granted, everyone seems to love giving way too much information to each other in these films but this could have been an exception. A neighbor is far from being a friend or a member of the family after all. Perhaps I’m just being anti social here but I wouldn’t want my neighbors barging in with snacks and drinks to randomly start talking. Especially in the evening I’d be relaxing and playing video games by that point.

It sort of goes without saying that all of the “romance” in the film is pretty weak. I’m not even sure if you could call any of it romance. The main leads are married here even if they seem to just love taking pot shots at each other the whole time. The side characters seem to just want to claim victory but I couldn’t detect any true passion there at all. Finally with the neighbors things obviously didn’t turn out well by the end and there was some extra drama after a twist or two.

The characters end up being too easy and just try to enjoy the moment without thinking of the ramifications. These are characters who might be fun to hang out with in a very limited time frame but you could not trust them as friends at all. They will always be putting themselves into dicey situations that are absolutely going to lead to dangerous habits and tempting arenas for cheating. If you were to stick with them then you’d be doomed. In some ways I could see these films being interesting watches for people who are stuck in areas outside of civilization like posts in the Arctic. It would give you a really interesting view of society if you didn’t live in it.

Overall, This is definitely not going to be a winning film. Even though it has a bit more of a plot going on than some of the other Allen films it still ends up being more noise than anything else. The kind of film that you might have on in the background while you’re doing chores or something. The film still needs more of a central focus for me to ever even begin to start calling it a solid title. Throw in some good writing as well and then we have a chance. If you really love the Woody Allen films then this one is worth watching. At the very least it does try to have a serious climax and to the film’s credit it really does play this straight. That’s the only real piece of credit I can give to the movie though because otherwise there’s just a lot of nothing going around. You are really better off with many other slice of life type titles.

Overall 3/10

Baby Boom Review

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It’s time for one of those films that tries to explain why you don’t want to be team corporate. Unfortunately, it does not make a strong argument and the film doesn’t live up to its full potential. The ending comes across as more tragic than wholesome and you will have a hard time rooting for the characters by the end. That’s just how it goes sometimes I suppose but you do feel like the movie could have really gone for a bolder ending that would have landed a better message for the film.

The film follows JC who has had a very solid career so far. She works for one of the biggest companies in the market and is getting close to being promoted as a partner within the firm. Her personal life is going well too and so JC feels like she has conquered life. Unfortunately a distant relative dies and now JC is inheriting a baby girl. Her boyfriend says that JC should give the baby away to an orphanage but she can’t bring herself to do this. Unfortunately this baby is quickly destroying her career and everything JC has spent her life building is being knocked to the ground. Her boyfriend runs off as well and so JC realizes that she may have to restart her life in a small town. Fortunately there’s a rebound guy here but can JC really be happy away from the rat race?

Unfortunately I am going to have to start this review by defending corporate here. Her boss actually seemed like a decent guy but of course he had to cut her off from the big projects. JC completely stopped being reliable after the baby entered the picture. JC would end up being late to meetings, forgetting deadlines, etc. At first the incidents weren’t major but they kept getting worse and worse so the boss had to give JC’s junior the position instead. Now it’s clear that this junior had been waiting for the day to get all the jobs over JC but at least he wasn’t cheating or anything.

He evidently still did the work and did it correctly. So JC just needed a better balance here. It makes sense that it would be tough to deal with a kid when she has absolutely no experience but that wasn’t the company’s fault. I won’t fault JC for wanting to take care of the kid so in this case there wasn’t really a villain. Things just went the way that they were bound to in a situation like this.

The small town plot tends to fall a bit flat though and in general the second half of the film is a bit weak. So JC heads into this town but unfortunately the house that she bought was a complete dump. Nothing works and so she has to spend an enormous amount of money to fix it. Then the local vet falls for her and they hook up rather quickly. I guess the relationship with the old boyfriend wasn’t all that strong eh? JC just goes a bit too quickly here and same for the vet.

He basically says that nobody else in the town is within his age range which is probably meant to make JC feel better but it sounds to me like he’s just desperate. JC is somehow able to make her own business in this town to start getting money again and that was good. It showed that she was still a creative genius who could continue to succeed in any environment.

Now where the next issue of the film comes in is when corporate calls her over and makes an incredible offer. JC basically turns it down to prove that she doesn’t need anyone’s help and this feels like a really bad decision. Striking out on her own like this just doesn’t make any sense. In the film it is portrayed like she made the right move and that would have only worked if the offer was more narrow. The problem here is that the company went above and beyond in making an incredible offer so it just makes her look bad for rejecting it.

JC just makes it a bit hard to root for her. She’s too quick to act like a victim in all of this when she gave corporate no choice but to sack her. The romance is really weak in general but only makes her look worse when she protests a whole lot only to quickly come over to Jeff’s side. (The vet) If that’s how it was always going to be, then maybe she shouldn’t have been so antagonistic the whole time.

Then while she may have made the right move in looking after the kid, the kid was not very likable here. She was constantly getting JC into trouble like with all of the crying and throwing the toys around. JC gets more of the blame for not being able to control a toddler but there is enough blame to go around here. It was just one of those very unfortunate things. The baby may not be the main character as that would be even worse but she gets enough screentime to be annoying. The film was at its best during all of the work scenes.

Ironically I would also just say that the movie makes small towns look bad. Sure, it worked out to get together with the vet but before that we see how the whole town is super unhelpful. Nobody is too bothered by the fact that JC bought a scam house where nothing works. They all just leave her alone to her own devices and barely even offer any sympathy. I would have ditched that town so fast because it just seems like an absolute nightmare. The whole point of a small town is the strong community and I didn’t see any of that here.

Overall, Baby Boom is not really my kind of film. It is going for the classic Hallmark feel to an extent but with a bit less of an upbeat attitude. It is going for more of the “realism” angle which can work sometimes but not in this case. I also have to admit that the baby brings things down at times too. She’s just too messy and causes too many problems for JC. If the baby had just been a bit older then maybe that could have been different but as it stands she just ends up being an obstacle the whole time. Check this one out if you want to convince yourself that working for corporate is a super terrible thing. Otherwise you can do better with any of the Hallmark Christmas movies.

Overall 4/10

Greak Memories of Azur Review

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I have to say this is a game that I didn’t know about before it came out. It’s got a fun teamwork mechanic like the Trine games and makes for a pretty good adventure. After playing it, I’d definitely be hyped for a sequel. There were a lot of quality of life features contained within the map and gameplay as well. The only strike against the game is really just how short it is.

The title begins with the main character needing to find his brother and sister so they can all get off of a doomed country. The people of the kingdom are building a giant airship in order to escape but they will need some special artifacts before going. The three main characters will grab these before leaving but it won’t be easy. There are enemies around every corner after all and they are definitely not here to make friends.

Each character has a different gameplay style. The main character plays the way you would as if you were someone like Link from the Legend of Zelda. You have your sword and you slash away at the enemies. Then your sister has the ability to float and shoot energy blasts. Definitely a really handy power and in some ways she feels like the most powerful as a result. Finally the older brother can use a grapple hook to cross large distances and has a shield that can block any energy attack.

There are puzzles that you have to solve by using each character’s unique abilities. Digging, Grappling, Floating. The puzzles are handled pretty well and have a solid amount of variety to them. The game was never too overbearing in this way so I appreciated that. The combat is also good although it does get pretty easy once you figure out one simple thing. Touching enemies actually doesn’t damage you. I was trying to be super careful not to bump into any of the enemies while attacking and so I thought the game was very difficult for a minute there. There was just no way to time everything perfectly but since enemies don’t hurt, it quickly became a full 180.

The game becomes super easy by this point because you can run into enemies with reckless abandon. There is really no downside to doing so after all. So that was definitely surprising. This game is more about having fun than being a challenge which can be a nice change of pace. You get to just embrace your power here and the final dungeon is the only one that actually forces you to use a lot of teamwork among the 3 characters.

Part of the reason for this is that the final member of the trio doesn’t even show up until near the end of the game. The adventure is nearly over by the time that he joins so you would really need to pick up a sequel to get to play as him more. It is also worth noting that a lot of the trophies in the game are missable so you should be very careful before you embark on the last journey. There is no stage select or anything like that.

The trophies will definitely help for the replay value though. Getting them all will take some serious time since you will also have to beat the game in 3 hours. It’s definitely doable but will take some trial and error. There is also another one about beating the game while only saving 5 times or less. You could maybe do both of those trophies at the same time since not saving would definitely save you some time.

The graphics are definitely pretty good. The art style is certainly charming and everything is very bright and colorful. The soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable but it’s not bad either. So on the whole there are a lot of positives to be had here. The technical aspects hold up well. As for the quality of life features I mentioned, the maps are very clear. Each character with an important conversation will have a yellow exclamation point above them. The item menus are good and the save points are spread across the world very well. There aren’t large gaps where you cannot save or anything like that.

The story may not be the most interesting but I was glad to have one in general. There are also little cutscenes at different points in the game. There is plenty of room for a sequel as well so maybe we will see Greak return some day. This time the characters would probably be together from the start so you could have the teamwork levels start right away. I can easily see that making the game more difficult.

Switching between the characters is seamless and all in real time so you could make for some really fun battles that way. The A.I. helps out a little bit when you’re not playing as a character but they tend to be lackluster. The damage that the other characters take also sticks around so if you don’t switch back right away then you’ll get a game over. Each of the characters have their own health bars after all as opposed to a big shared one. You have to eat different fruits and use items to get the health back.

Overall, Greak is a pretty good game. It’s what I would call a basic Metroidvania. There is a little backtracking but for a 4 hour game there isn’t a lot of time to be going back and forth like that. As you can imagine, the game is really over before you even know it. That said, the game is not all that expensive. So you should check it out and think of it as a fun proof of concept game. Hopefully it gets a full length sequel at some point. In the meantime this works as a perfect example of a game that is pretty fun and isn’t trying to be super ambitious. It’s meant to pass a few hours by with tight gameplay and succeeds in that mission.

Overall 7/10

David

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It’s time for a recent film based on the events of King David from the Bible. This one is particularly focusing on his rise to becoming the King. This makes for a pretty good adventure as that focuses on his strengths and his devotion to God. At this point we are only seeing the tail-end of Saul’s journey where he began to go crazy. Unfortunately being king is a huge burden and one that is far too much for just about any man after enough time has passed.

The film starts off by showing David being a good shepherd as he protects his sheep from a Lion. David was brave the whole way through even while knowing that he could be ripped apart by the Lion. David was not going to back down and that is absolutely crucial here. He would have to continue fighting opponents of a much larger stature than him like when he goes up against Goliath. That’s probably the most famous part of David’s journey so naturally it was going to be here.

Surprisingly it’s a fairly small part of the film though as a good chunk of it is really about dodging Saul’s many assassination attempts. I’d say this was a good idea because these are the scenes that you don’t see animated very often. It was definitely a really stressful time for David because having an actual king and his armies after you isn’t easy. Additionally, David’s troops continuously pressure him to murder Saul but David refuses. He refuses to go that far and will wait for Saul to see reason.

The animation may take you a little bit to get used to though. The character models and everything feels a bit off like this is almost a mix of 3D and stop motion. Still, the film does get the horror imagery across pretty well with how the Amalekite tribe looks. Their clothes really seem demonic and make them a clan that you don’t want to fight. David was able to put his trust in the Lord though and got everyone else to do this as they all began to sing and put their fear aside.

The film is part musical so there are different songs that play during the movie. On the whole I would say that the songs are good. None of them are going to end up being super memorable but they do work well in the scenes that they are in so I didn’t have any complaints there. Additionally, they don’t overdo it with the songs the way some musicals have one playing every 5 minutes. They are spread out pretty well here so there is always a purpose to the song.

The movie is also pretty straight forward so there isn’t a need for a bunch of twists and turns. Naturally if you’ve read the Bible before then you will know how the events play out so there wasn’t going to be much of a purpose in trying to keep anything hidden. Saul definitely feels like a very imposing character from the start who isn’t exactly oozing goodness so you’re not surprised when he ends up being a big antagonist.

It was good to see more of Jonathan as well since he was David’s best friend in the Bible and got a lot of screentime. Generally you don’t see him much in the adaptions though so this was really good. David’s brothers tend to appear a lot but this is the first time that his sister also got a role. So the film did well in expanding the characters and really fleshing everyone out.

It was also important to start off by showing David’s work as a shepherd. It’s a big part of his character growing up and sets the tone well. I was also glad about the fake out because initially it seemed like we would be starting the film off with animal violence which would have really been a rough beginning. It also would have completely undercut the first scene if you ask me so everything really turned out for the best here.

Finally David’s story is a classic example of how these situations were not ones that he could have solved on his own. If he had chosen to fight without God and just trust in his own skills, he would have lost. The odds were not in his favor and by any human metric David would never have survived this encounter. He would not have defeated Goliath with a slingshot under his own power. Nor would he have been able to evade Saul’s men for years and always find a way to make a counter attack. David was only able to survive this because he put his complete trust and control in God’s hands. While David would go on to have a rough adventure, this is why he is still looked up to as one of the men closest to God’s heart throughout the Bible. You tend to see him and Paul mentioned a lot in that respect. Paul went through a rough period to start things off while David hit the rough patch near the beginning. Ultimately they had to repent and confront their own weakness.

Overall, This was definitely a really good film and it’s clear that the writers were paying attention to the source material here. The animation may not be one of my favorite styles but you’ll quickly be drawn into the narrative so it won’t be a big deal. The film is really paying attention to details and has good pacing throughout. They cover a whole lot of ground here and the characters all act as they should. There is plenty of room left for a sequel should they ever want to do that but this one definitely covers the key events. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I definitely recommend changing that. Whenever we get a well done adaption of the Bible like this, you really want to see it as soon as possible!