Armed Emeth Review

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I wrapped up the next Kemco game just in time with the big Christmas batch coming up. This one has a lot of the fun parts of the Kemco formula but it also dropped some of the fun quality of life features that had always made these games stand apart. As a result I would not call this the strongest title in the lineup but you’ll still have a good time with this one. You’ll also feel the RPG horror of maxing all of your characters to level 99 but still being unable to defeat some of the bosses. Whenever that happens you know things are getting tricky.

You play as a guy who is a golem bounty hunter. Basically it’s like being a normal bounty hunter but he also goes after golems and will use them in order to fight. Think of them as old time mech suits that you can use to dish out a whole lot of damage. Well one day he comes across a Golem/Human hybrid who says that the hero’s mother has been kidnapped by an evil organization. The two weren’t particularly close but the hero still can’t let this stand. He will have to trust this golem for now and head out. Along the way he will meet a bunch of allies who are here to help him out for when the going gets tough.

The game does utilize the golems into the gameplay which I thought was a good idea. It helps make the story hit a bit more since you actually see what it’s like to be fighting in a mech. As you can probably guess the mechs help you deal a whole lot more damage than when you are out of it. One thing that I liked is when you r mech is destroyed you can keep fighting as a human rather than instantly dying as well. It is almost like having a second health bar. The golems also have their own equipment and everything so you want to train for them in addition to your actual character. They don’t have level ups though so you don’t need to worry about that.

As I mentioned, getting to Level 99 is not enough for you to win every fight. It helps a lot but the best equipment on the block is something that you will need in order to get further. Additionally it helps to buy items from the store that increase your stats. It takes a while to earn the shop currency though so make each purchase count. I recommend buying the double EXP items as soon as you can though, you can worry about the rest once you’re actually level 99 and not before. You have your basic attacks, supers, and combo moves here as well. It’s a classic turn based combat strategy and you should pick it up before long.

The game is reasonably long although there is a bit less replay value than usual. I ended up platinuming the game right after beating it which is certainly rare. There were still a few more guild missions to complete that weren’t needed for the platinum though so that’s always something that you could do for the championship. Just saying, it is definitely an effective way to go about it! Not like you need that though, the main game is still long enough where you’ll feel the value was worth the price.

One thing that’s missing here is unfortunately the characters don’t have illustrations for the cutscenes. Usually you see a character portrait which is nice because it stands out and you get to see how the characters are meant to look outside of the sprite. This one just goes back to normal text so there are no cinematic cutscenes like that. I feel like they’re a benefit so I would have liked to have kept that. In some ways this one just feels a bit older than some of the others. The map is unlabeled so sometimes it can be extremely difficult to know where you are going. I got lost on several occasions which was unfortunate.

A map is really important in any big adventure game like this so I was hoping it could have been better. Ah well, most of the other quality of life features were here like the auto battle and speeding up effects. So it’s not like it lost all the charm or anything like that, it could have gone a bit higher but I can’t really say much in the end. The gameplay itself is still a lot of fun after all.

The graphics are good even f they’re missing illustrations and of course the soundtrack is great as always. These Kemco games always have incredible soundtracks so I was not surprised that this one was also really good. There are a ton of great fast paced themes all throughout the game. So you’ll never find a slow moment here. The game’s story always feels like something is happening so you’ll be engaged all the way through.

Overall, I may have had some issues with the game like removing the illustrations and having a map with no locations marked on it but it still had all of the core fundamentals that I would expect from a Kemco game. I appreciated the smooth gameplay here and the series in general is always just very enjoyable to read. I’d recommend picking this one up if you’ve liked the other games by them. These are almost like light novels where the titles may be shorter than a normal RPG but they still pack a punch regardless.

Overall 7/10

2022 Christmas Haul

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With Christmas over I have compiled all the games I got. It was a pretty good haul of 20 games this year with a lot of high powered titles here. I’ve attached an image below as well as a written list of all the games. It’ll definitely be a little while until I have completed all of these of course so this should last a while. It’s a good variety of games among different consoles.

As a console milestone, the 3DS caught up to the Switch as I now have the same amount of games for each console. Pretty impressive I must say but ultimately I see the Switch winning this one as they just have a lot of games that we haven’t gotten yet. No other console took a lead yet but PS4 got the most new games here with 8 so that console continues to rise quickly.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening
Mario Party Star Rush
Detective Pikachu
Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds
Final Fantasy III
Children of Mana
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
He Man and the Masters of the Universe
Madden 23
My Little Pony Maritime Adventure
Doug Flutie Maximum Football
Astria Ascending
Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Remastered
Nexomon Extinction
Trial of Mana
Need for Speed Payback
Star Ocean The Last Hope International
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge
Rengoku The Stairway to Heaven

Cuphead Review

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Cuphead is one of those games that made a lot of waves when it first came out. This was known as the ultimate platformer with a high level of difficulty. You don’t see too many crazy hard platformers like this nowadays and Cuphead lives up to the hype. It is very difficult and some of the bosses will take a whole lot of tries but the game is so well designed that it’s never frustrating. It’s always difficult in a fair way where you know that you can defeat the opponent eventually and the levels aren’t very long so you don’t mind retrying over and over again.

The game starts off with Mugman and Cuphead getting a little too overconfident and making a deal with the devil. If they win the game then they’ll get rich but if they lose then he will claim their souls. Naturally they lose so all hope is lost but the devil gives them a deal. If they steal the souls of a bunch of people who escaped then they can get theirs back but an elder warns the heroes not to be fooled a second time. So instead they will get the souls and then try to defeat the devil, but do they have the power to pull this off?

One thing that stands out about this game is that it’s basically a big boss rush. You constantly go up against all of these absolutely massive bosses and you have to defeat them before they defeat you. There are no health upgrades or levels to grind. You have to use pure talent to try and overcome the boss. The only thing you can switch up are your weapons and much like a Mega Man game you will find that some weapons are best for different circumstances. None will deal extra elemental damage but the way they work is different.

For example you have the homing gun which is really weak but will go after an opponent anywhere. So if you are confident in your dodging skills you should use this one. It will prolong every fight but you can focus completely on dodging while holding down the shoot button since it won’t matter what direction you’re facing. I used this one for a pair of bosses because it was handy. Then you have the shotgun spreader which does a ton of damage but it super short range. I liked using that one as my sub weapon near the end so when the boss would gloat or stop moving I would run in and start blasting.

I didn’t use the rest of the weapons though. For the vast majority of the game I stuck with the normal peashooter because it’s really a terrific balanced weapon. It’s like using a Mega Buster in Mega Man and gets the job done. Additionally I think it’s the best for practicing your fundamentals because you have to fight carefully in order to use it well. I would say to usually use the first round or two to just focus on learning the enemy attack patterns and then after that you can really go in and start playing aggressively. You just don’t want to do that at the start because you’ll be taking damage like crazy that way.

As I said the levels are short though and they’re a lot of fun. You really feel a sense of accomplishment when you go through the bosses and learn how to get around their attacks. There is also a parry system to block but I never got too good on that one so I really focused on dodging instead. For me at least that seemed to be a better approach. There are also a few normal platformer levels which are always fun to play through. They were never as difficult as the boss battles but they still had their own challenges to be sure. The enemies all keep on respawning there so you have to do your best to work around them.

The graphics here are really solid. The game is bright and colorful as it goes for that very retro appeal. The cutscenes are also drawn like a very old Disney cartoon. If this gets a sequel I’d like to see more fully animated cutscenes but the game really focused the attention on gameplay and that’s never a bad move. The soundtrack is also really fun. I like the little intro quotes from the narrator at the beginning of each boss battle and the characters have great intro animations as well. There are a lot of small touches like that which help to take the game to the next level.

The physical version of the game even brought the DLC along with it so that was cool. It’s pretty short but more content is always a good thing. I don’t think I’ll be getting the Platinum for this game though. You’d have to S rank every boss which sounds incredibly difficult. I didn’t get a single S rank after all so I was quite far from that. It does help the overall replay value of the game though. It’s not the longest title out there but the sheer difficulty should extend the playtime. I consider myself to be a master of bullet hell and platforming games and even I had to retry some bosses a significant amount of times. So don’t worry about trying to blast through the game and just enjoy each attempt. Failing and trying to improve are part of what makes the game so much fun after all.

Overall, Cuphead is a great game. I definitely had a lot of fun with it and I’d really be up for a sequel at some point. There’s a whole lot more that you can do with the Cuphead mythos after all and nobody else has really jumped on the idea of a platformer game that focuses on bosses so Cuphead can still grab that as its main gimmick. Who doesn’t like boss fights right? I’m sure it’s difficult to create so many unique ones like this one did but it worked perfectly. I definitely recommend playing through this one 100%. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Overall 8/10

Ranking all of the RWBY Volumes based on episode rankings

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This is it guys! The moment of truth, I’m going to take the average scores of each RWBY volume based on their episode placements from the comparisons. So that each volume has an equal amount of episodes and placements I am only using the first 10 episode comparisons and then the finales as they are the 11 instances where all 9 volumes were active. I’m going to first list the episode rankings by each volume and then we’ll get into the actual placements.

Volume 1

3 7 7 5 3 6 6 6 6 3 4

Volume 2

5 6 9 2 5 8 7 4 5 8 6

Volume 3

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2

Volume 4

7 9 6 9 9 3 1 9 9 9 8

Volume 5

9 2 8 6 8 4 8 3 4 4 5

Volume 6

4 8 5 7 2 7 3 8 8 5 7

Volume 7

8 4 2 8 7 9 4 5 3 1 3

Volume 8

6 5 3 3 4 2 5 2 2 6 1

Ice Queendom

2 3 4 4 6 5 9 7 7 7 9

Now lets get into the rankings and really dive into these stats. I always like looking at stats, the whole thing is just fascinating and this is a good way to really see how things stack up on a more detailed level than me just saying how I would rank the volumes.

9. Volume 4

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 7.1

It’s not too surprising to see Volume 4 here. It came in last place 6 times out of 11 rankings after all and it only placed higher than 6th twice. It’s really the price for being more of a lore volume. At the end of the day it’s tough competition going up against the other RWBY volumes too. Still, it did make it to 1st once which is already impressive on its own. That Tyrian vs Qrow battle really helped bring the average up quite a bit. It was the first big fight against a pro villain from the cabal after all so there was a lot of hype there.

8. Volume 2

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.9

Volume 2 never quite managed to come in first as 2nd was the best it could do but it was still fairly consistent. It had only one last place finish but for the most part it was still just placing too low to get much higher than this. This volume introduced us to some of the really iconic villains like Neo and the food fight was iconic. This would be the last volume that was more of a 50/50 action and comedy split as things would continue to get more intense from here. Definitely a volume that you don’t forget and I always note the really solid animation improvement from volume 1 with the colors and shadows.

7. Volume 6

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 8
Average Placement 5.7

I guess the evenly numbered Volumes are losing out so far. Volume 6 was more stable than the last few as it didn’t come in first or last place so all of its placings were between 2 and 8. Even with that it only had a narrow edge over Volume 2 with the average placement. It has some sow moments in between the big battles which allowed the other volumes to gain ground but the climax with Adam was really intense. That’s the kind of thing that will help the volume big time if this had gone past the initial 10 episodes. In some ways being a longer volume actually holds you back in this kind of thing which is something important to note.

6. Volume 5

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.6

Volume 5 did come in last a least once but never in first which kept it from going higher. The climax is spectacular but of course that isn’t factored in here so all told this one really did quite well. I always think of Volume 5 as the big plot volume. 4 had the lore, 5 developed all the plots, and then 6 would get us back in on the action. I talk about the budget enough so I’ll avoid that here. All in all I still had a great time with this volume and it’s the first one that I got to watch live so that’s always a very memorable part of the experience.

5. Ice Queendom

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.4

Much like the actual show you can see how Ice Queendom started out near the top but then by episode 5 it quickly started to plummet into the lower rankings. The original plot could still be fun but was a lot weaker than the actual RWBY plots so maybe they should have stuck to those a little more. We did finally get more Weiss fights like her vs Ruby and then against Blake so that was cool though. I’d like to see the heroes spar more in the future and the anime is still a great introduction for the few who haven’t started watching RWBY yet. This is your chance!

4. Volume 1

Highest Placement 3
Lowest Placement 7
Average Placement 5.2

The most balanced volume yet. It never reached the top two spots or the bottom two. Volume 1 was always closer to the middle and that worked out well for it. I’d say it tracks well since it was just a really fun volume. Its peaks are lower but so are the drops and that’s why it’s a great way to get hooked on the series. There are no points where it loses steam or you start to lose interest. It’s a great way to get into the series and introduces the characters well.

3. Volume 7

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.1

Despite being so high, Volume 7 was one of the extremes where it came in first and last. Taking any 1st place away from Volume 3 is always very impressive so that’s definitely something to keep in mind. The climax was fantastic with the fights against AceOps and a lot of great Ironwood development. To date he is probably one of the most well developed characters in all of media. You really see how his character arc goes through its processes and while Volume 8 may have mishandled some parts, he was perfect in this volume. Just enough moral gray thrown in there where you didn’t know if you should trust him or not.

2. Volume 8

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 6
Average Placement 3.8

Volume 8 was very strong from start to the finish. For the most part it would just stick to placing in the top 3 and only on occasion would it drop further than that. That’s when you know that a volume is really up there. In a way this was the next big Volume 3 moment as all of the villains showed up to cause a lot of chaos and put a few thorns in the heroes’ path. That’s not something that can be easily done. The music was top tier and it was really a great end to the journey. Volume 9 will likely be taking the heroes in a different direction as they’re stuck on a different world so we have to see how that’ll go.

1. Volume 3

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 2
Average Placement 1.2

Volume 3 has arrived! Never coming in lower than 2nd is absolutely crazy. It shows just how broken this volume was in a good way. Just about every episode had a massive fight and lots of great things going on the whole time. It is and has always been my favorite volume for that reason. The series just wouldn’t be the same without this one and the heroes really got taken to their absolute breaking point. It was when characters like Adam, Qrow, Winter, Ironwood, and a bunch of others really got involved. This was the ultimate groundwork for the ultimate series.

So there goes it. That’s how the volumes rank based on the episodes. This was definitely a really fun project to go through and nothing beats watching all of the RWBY episodes yet again right? Hopefully I bought enough time to make Volume 9 come closer. Some people think it’ll be coming out in around 2 months or so. I’ll be hoping that this is the case because the adventure must go on!

Ranking all of the RWBY Season Finales

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So this is it, we’ve made it to the finales for each volume. It’s been a fun ride but now we can see once and for all which volume ended in the best way. It’s going to be a battle for the ages and it’s nice to see all of the volumes back in action for this one. I’ve already done the breakdown for most of them so I’ll probably keep it short on the reruns.

9. Ice Queendom

Ice Queendom had a lot of big fights and action towards the end but the final episode is more of an aftermath which puts it at a considerable disadvantage here. It just doesn’t quite have the fight scenes needed to get a higher spot. The food fight was cool but it was more stylistic than actually combat based like in volume 2. It was a great way to cap off the journey regardless though and I hope we get a season 2 at some point because there are lots of other adventures to be told here. We can’t just let it end like this.

8. Volume 4

Volume 4 ended off with the big fight against the Grimm that took out Ren’s village so it was definitely personal. It was a good fight that used a lot of strategy up but this was when they were still finding their footing with the new animation engine and so it couldn’t quite keep up with the newer fights. You also never felt like the heroes were in much danger from a Grimm no matter how big and strong he was. They still had the speed advantage the whole time and sheer numbers. Ending off with finally getting sent over to Haven was good as it felt like the journey was complete. Volume 4 may have had a lot of exposition but it was still a very complete adventure.

7. Volume 6

Volume 6 would have been higher if this was just one episode earlier with the Adam fight. Ending with the giant mech wasn’t quite as intense although I know it was fairly strong. Getting Ruby to finally master using her eyes was definitely her biggest achievement here and the song was a lot of fun. It’s still a very climactic way to end things off and 6 was a really fun volume. The finale may be a little low in the ranks but ultimately it still puts up a good fight all the way around. It was great seeing all of the heroes team up again like the good ole days. Going forward the team would finally be united instead of being split apart.

6. Volume 2

Volume 2 allows us to see a bunch of characters all fighting off an invasion which was cool. We saw how the students would step up as needed to protect the city. None of the individual fights may have ever had the heroes in danger here but the fight itself is still rather large scale. When Coco shows up she certainly makes a splash in the power levels with how she downs so many Nevermores with a single strike. Her machine gun is really quite impressive, there aren’t almost any weapons that could keep up with that. Surprisingly Team RWBY doesn’t get quite as much to do since this is a showcase for the other characters but they’re still taking down a lot of Grimm in the background. Deep down you figure RWBY could have solo’d the invasion eventually.

5. Volume 5

Volume 5 closes out the big battle with Hazel here as the heroes gain the upper hand. Unfortunately almost all of the fight is off screen. We get a nice conversation with Yang and Raven though. Yang may have been pressing her luck a whole lot there but at the end of the day Raven isn’t so evil that she would destroy her own daughter here. Raven’s definitely a villain and one who has made the wrong calls over the years but she has also done a great job of surviving. You probably want to have her on your side at the end of the day. It was also nice to see Adam a bit as always although unfortunately I wouldn’t say that he was super impressive here. I suppose he stalled Sun for a second or two but is that really something that’s big enough to really praise like that? His dialogue is always top tier though.

I always have some issues with the volume’s climax and how things were handled but at the end of the day it’s still fairly high up in the ranks because the story is just that good. You are super invested in what is going to happen next and that is absolutely a very impressive thing to be proud of. Not every title could say the same.

4. Volume 1

The original volume is here at last! Ending things with a solid Blake vs Torchwick battle was great and of course we got to see Sun fighting a bit. This was the best fight of the first volume and the final episode ended things on a high note as you would expect. I also liked that Torchwick could actually fight a whole lot. He isn’t just someone in the shadows who gives orders but someone who could go out there and dish out the pain as needed. The episode may be shorter than the average finale but there was no shortage of action and it’s super nostalgic. This one absolutely earns its place near the top for those reasons.

3. Volume 7

We get our next big maiden moment here as Cinder goes up against the dying winter maiden and Penny gets the powers for a bit. It’s a solid way to end the volume and I liked that Ruby was ready to use her silver eyes right away. With the heroes no longer on the same page as Ironwood and the Ace Ops it really made you realize that the future was only going to get a lot harder for them on all sides. The episode also had a really dynamite ending song to show just how fierce the villains were looking. Cinder has had her share of losses over the years so this was a great way to get her back in the mix as a top threat. Even without using her maiden powers all that much she was overwhelming Winter who is one of the most skilled fighters here.

2. Volume 3

Volume 3’s finale is really iconic. I’ve seen it many times as the ultimate ending to my favorite volume. Seeing Pyrrha go up to the roof to fight Cinder even though she was outmatched was excellent. It really showed how she had a hero’s drive through and through. Nobody was going to stop her from doing her best to try and stop the incoming threat. We got to see all of the students band together here and the ending felt like a true ending to the original saga. This was the turning point for the series to really become very story based. Throw in the ending with Salem’s true reveal and the amount of hype here just could not be contained.

1. Volume 8

Isn’t it fitting that Volume 8 should win this round? The series really ended things off on the highest note imaginable and it’s why the wait for Volume 9 has felt so long. It’s going to be hard for 9 to top this one but we’ll see how that goes. Cinder takes on basically the entire cast in this episode and we really see just how far she has come along. I have major issues with Jaune taking out Penny though. It was the wrong call then and it’s still the wrong call now. He has to be able to find another way and just say no in that situation. Then of course we have the Ironwood vs Winter fight with a lot of spectacular dialogue the whole time. You can feel how frustrated Ironwood is the whole time with everything caving in around him. It would have been cool if he fired one shot to take down Cinder though. It wouldn’t have worked but I’d have liked the attempt.

There was a ton of drama and intensity here all the way through. Not only is it the best season finale but it’s one of the best episodes in all of RWBY. I’ve seen the fights here so many times since it came out. The music, the animation, it’s all flawless. This is exactly why you would have picked up the series in the first place. Volume 8 capitalizes on everything that you could ever need.

So there you go, we’ve now ranked the episodes from each volume for each episode number. It was quite the journey but no worries, RWBY will continue! Expect a post soon taking the average scores for each Volume so we can truly see how each one ranked. I’ve always said that Volume 3 is the best volume, but will the numbers support this or have I been underestimating one of them? Either way it’ll be fun to check that out and see how this goes. See you next time!

The Christmas Contest Review

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It’s time for the next Hallmark Christmas movie! This time we get a contest between exes who did not split up on the best of terms. As a result there is a whole lot of bitterness in the air and you can tell that things are going to get a little tricky for these two. I like the premise since a contest is always fun and it’s a cool change of pace. Some parts of the film definitely don’t work as well as they could have but at the end of the day it’s still a wholesome movie with a lot of fun parts.

Lara is a girl who is too busy for Christmas nowadays. She’s a super successful business person now and has even become the COO and she just doesn’t look back at the past. Unfortunately she will need to confront it now as her mother asks her to enter a Christmas contest. So she reluctantly enters and of course her ex Ben is there as well. Now she really needs to win this contest to make sure that he doesn’t get the last laugh but it won’t be easy. This guy is also really good at Christmas trivia. Still, if she doesn’t defeat him then she will never know peace from her past.

The contest has different phases. The first round was a quiz show, then you have the baking competition, a singing competition, and the final one is to decorate a Christmas tree. I actually thought it made for a fun contest even if some parts of the contest weren’t too well thought out. For example, last place gets the same prize as third place which is $1000. Why would that possibly be the case? What’s the incentive to coming close to first? That was a bit of a mistake if you ask me because there is just no way that this should be right.

Then towards the end the film starts to get a little cheesy as the characters feel that competing at Christmas against each other isn’t something that they want to do and it really feels like they are throwing the contest under the bus. These guys worked hard to set up this Christmas contest and did their best to make it a lot of fun. You’re going to throw it all out just like that? That’s just bad sportsmanship and the company shouldn’t have let them get away with this. Sure, it’s likely that the contest was rigged by the time the finals were around since the check was already printed with both of their names but it just doesn’t feel deserved.

If I was the guy in charge of the contest, I’d have handed them an empty check. If they don’t want to properly complete the contest that they signed up for then they don’t get to have any real money. It’s as simple as that and it would have been 100% justified. That’s the crazy part here. It’s still meant to be a feel good moment of course but I was a little salty on behalf of the competitors who tried their best but lost out. They didn’t lose just to see this happen.

It goes without saying that the romance is on the weaker side here. Lara and Ben were already together and it didn’t work out. Sure they’re both feeling festive for the holidays but that’s even more reason to think that this won’t last and this is just them being very emotional. It’s a super risky move to restart the romance again and I actually think it would have worked a lot better if they had just stayed as friends. Trust me on this, the whole movie would have really been executed to perfection if that was the case. Just make it a fun competition and they see that they get along really great as friends. It was never going to happen but I can dream right?

After all the best part of the movie is when they are having a lot of banter at each other. The two characters can’t help but constantly take shots at each other whenever they’re on screen. The shots never go too far though and it’s just enough to keep them on their toes. Lara may have been reluctant to enter but ultimately she does a good job and makes for a solid heroine. She really wants to win and ultimately stays classy about it like not badmouthing Ben in front of his mother when her cake gets sabotaged.

Then we have Ben who is a little more openly manipulative like with getting kids on his team to win brownie points from the audience. That’s why it took me a little longer to realize that he would be the main love interest and not the mean ex who gets defeated by a childhood friend. Gradually Ben starts to be a little nicer and I guess we can just interpret it to his being desperate to win. It still makes for an odd subplot though because it’s hard to root for Ben since he doesn’t seem to care about the kids nearly as much as he should. Not exactly the role model of the year right? Well he knows his Christmas knowledge at least.

One of this film’s strengths though is that it takes up a decent amount of time to give the side characters some development as well. I could have done without the subplot for one of the kids who was worried that he would mess up and cause trouble for everyone. The plot barely went anywhere. Then we had Ben’s mother who was always very set in her ways and didn’t want to make friends. This was a good story arc as Ben shows her that you’re never too old to shake up the routine and have a good time. I’m not sure I picture myself making any new friends when I’m older but you shouldn’t be cut off to the possibility.

Then we have Lara’s mother who was always very business focused and tried to get the heroine on that path. I thought she was solid and at one point Lara is too dramatic with how she tells her off. This is a trend I’ve seen in more than one Hallmark film where the leads blows up on the parent(s) for being too controlling but the problem is that the movie never showed them being anything other than super nice so the moment kind of falls flat a bit. It doesn’t feel as earned as it could have been.

As always the film is fairly short and with so much going on the pacing is on point too. While I had some issues with the film, you could say it’s also because I was really invested in this one. I always love contests and the writing was really good here. You still get your usual Christmas backdrops and baking but with the addition of some fun banter. I’d say there was a lot more of it than usual due to the story and that was a big plus.

Overall, The Christmas Contest is a pretty good film. Hallmark delivers as always and even if you know how the film will play out, you will enjoy the journey there. At the end of the day that is always the most important part for any movie since you need to be able to enjoy it. I’d definitely change the ending but would still recommend it to anyone looking for a fun Christmas movie. You may even learn some Christmas trivia. I assume the trivia here was legit but you’d probably want to look it up just in case the movie is messing with you.

Overall 7/10

Obsession Review

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Obsession is a pretty interesting mystery/thriller. Things get a little trippy at times and there’s a whole lot going on. It’s got a very unique vibe to it where you just don’t know if you’re expecting a happy ending or not. It’s got that retro atmosphere to it that works well and while the final twist is big and yet not, I wasn’t sure how to feel about that one. It makes some earlier scenes a bit iffy. So all in all….this film is all over the place and you won’t be forgetting it at least.

The movie starts with Michael going through a big tragedy as his wife and daughter are kidnapped. There is a ransom but the police tell him not to pay it so he grabs a suitcase of plain paper and tries to fool them. This doesn’t go well as there is unfortunately no good plan here at all. The cops follow the villains to the base but beyond yelling “Hands in the air” don’t seem to know how to protect the hostages. The wife is murdered in the car crash while Michael’s daughter Amy was left in the house and then vanished. She is presumed to be dead though.

Many years later Michael is trying to restart his life and things are going well on the job at least. On a trip to Italy he meets a lady named Sandra who looks a lot like his old wife. He figures that this is a perfect chance to go on the rebound so he asks her out and the two are getting along really well but is this almost too good to be true? He starts to get obsessed into turning her into his wife as he searches for the part of his heart that is still missing.

You could maybe go deeper into the plot but I like to think of this as the general synopsis before then plot goes deeper or any twists in there. One thing I liked about this one a lot more than Vertigo which had a similar plot was that the main character doesn’t seem as deranged. Yes Michael starts to really go off the deep end here as you can see with him asking Sandra to start walking and talking like his late wife did. The difference is that it doesn’t seem as threatening. In Vertigo you felt like the guy would snap at any second while here I didn’t get the impression that he was downright dangerous. It’s a thin line of course but I don’t think he crossed it.

It does make him look bad regardless though. Michael is clearly still going through a lot of trauma and this is how he’s coping but it’s not a healthy way to go about it. Then of course he also has a lot of regrets about how he handled the original kidnapping case by not bringing the money and wants a chance to do it right this time. The climax gets really intense for him in this angle. He makes a lot of mistakes but you can sympathize with how rough things got for him as well. If he could have kept more of a clear head then the movie would have likely gone very differently for him.

Then you have his business partner Robert who is doing his best to keep the company afloat. He wants Michael to move on and hopes this trip to Italy can help. He’s always rather understanding even when Michael is starting to go crazy but Robert does put the company first. He gets a fairly big role in the film and makes for a very intense character. I would say he is one of the standouts here. The guy does very well in his role.

Finally you have Sandra and of course she is a pivotal player here. The romance may seem a bit easy and she definitely gives Michael too much leeway in ordering her around though. At first things were okay so the instant he started to be a little off she needed to call him out and put a stop to that immediately. You can’t let things escalate and then you’re on a good path. She barely even knows this guy too so letting him take too much control would put things in a really bad place.

Now of course the twists at the end of the film can change some or a lot of what I’ve put in below as far as context goes. I won’t give away the big twist here but basically it was a very longshot plan. Things had to happen just right for this film to really happen. One character in particular had to look very bad unfortunately. I’d say the romance itself also got very iffy by the end of this. The ending is memorable with more explosions and tension than I was expecting though. The film really ended up having a grand climax.

In general deciding whether to give the kidnappers the money or not is always tough because if things go sideways then you will wish you had done the other thing. No matter what option you pick, there is no guarantee that things will go well and that’s what makes it a tough choice. So throughout the whole film you have that undercurrent of regret. The movie is well written and my only real issue would be the weak romance and how Michael starts to quickly deteriorate as a character. On the whole it’s good though.

Overall, What you think of the twist will likely impact how effective the film is for you. Personally I do think the movie tipped its hand to the twist really early on if you pay attention to the opening scene but the good part of that is the film isn’t pulling this twist out of a hat. So it really makes sense both in the moment and in hindsight. The writing there is solid and at the end of the day you will be intrigued by what’s going on. There was a lot of planning here in the movie and it would help in a re-watch as something to think about. Maybe not the greatest thriller out there but I would recommend it to see what you think. It’s a cautionary tale on why you don’t want to ever get to obsessive over anything or anyone.

Overall 6/10

See How They Run Review

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See How They Run was a really fun mystery film. It’s poking fun at the genre a bit while also delivering on a very solid murder mystery. You’ve got solid music here and a really solid opening. Throw in the good cast and this is a movie that you don’t really forget. You don’t see a ton of mysteries compared to other genres so it’s always fun to pick out a winner. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

The movie starts off with Leo narrating as he talks about how the murders are always predictable and he takes a ton of shots at “The Mouse Trap” which is a play that’s being turned into a movie. The guy holds nothing back but then he ends up being bumped off himself. It made for a nice twist since the film had been leading him up to being the main character but that wasn’t the case. Instead Inspector Stoppard and Constable Stalker are the main characters as they take on the case. Yes, Stalker is actually her name which was another bit of fun by the film. Can these two solve the case or will their differing styles come between them?

The Inspector is a hardened detective type who likes to slowly gather the clues and figure things out. That’s his style and he’s rather good at it. Constable Stalker is more about quickly gathering the clues and jumping to the ending. She likes the thrill of the chase and means well but tends to jump to conclusions as a result which annoys the Inspector a lot. This makes for a fun dynamic with a whole lot of banter though so I definitely enjoyed that. A big part of why the film succeeds is because of these two characters who really steal the movie.

The Inspector has a whole lot of obstacles in his path like the police commissioner who is more worried about optics than what is actually going on. That guy is easily caught up in jumping to the end as well and gives promises that he can’t keep so he’s not exactly the highlight character here. The Inspector has to succeed in spite of him and does a good job. Even Stalker tends to get in the way sometimes but at least she also has a large list of contributions to offset that.

It was a bit underhanded that she wrote down a private conversation between the two of them and used it against him later on though. She nearly got the Inspector in a whole lot of trouble. Yes she was just trying her best to do the right thing but that’s why it’s important not to jump to conclusions. That nearly got very dicey for sure. At least she doesn’t let it get her down though, Stalker never lets her enthusiasm for the case wane.

Then we have Leo who may have died early but keeps a large presence in the film through a bunch of flashbacks. Basically every time the characters meet a suspect we get to see how this guy did something mean to them. Leo is basically as antagonistic as possible. He messes with the characters, tries to get characters to cheat with him, is full of himself, etc. He goes out of his way to antagonize every character in the movie which is impressive…but of course that is also what led to his end.

It was also fun to see Agatha Christie also get to appear here. For a bit there I thought they were going to keep her off screen throughout the movie but she actually has an active role in the climax and gets to interact with the characters. That was definitely a really intense moment and I like how she picked up a few things from her murder mystery novels. She actually came close to having the villain on the ropes.

As for the actual villain, of course I can’t say who that was, but the reveal worked well. The villain had a good motive so you can see how the villain cracked in the end and started bumping everyone off. There is something almost funny about the explanation too and how it led to all of this. It’s true that the reactions to the murders in a way incentivized them to keep on going because the intended effect wasn’t working. “The Show must go on!” is a powerful mantra that is used a lot but of course if someone is trying to stop the play then that means they will have to keep on going over and over again until it actually stops.

One thing I have to give the film a shout-out for are the visual techniques that are used here. You constantly get different boxes on screen at the same time so you see the moment from different perspectives. It’s almost like a comic book in some ways and it’s not overplayed. These moments always just help to enhance the scene and make it more memorable. It’s like going the extra mile for the actual mystery.

You also have a fair chance to try and guess who the murderer is. All of the characters have a good amount of screen time and have definitive personalities. If you’re really paying attention to the dialogue then you should have a good chance here. My pick ended up not being correct so we’ll see how it goes for you. The film is always ready to throw you a few curve balls as well.

Overall, See How They Run is a great mystery film. It’s got a lot of replay value and the fact that the movie is able to tie it into the original play while being different was very clever. The climax uses this really well and there was a lot of detail put into this one. The writing never falters and it works really well in being a bit self aware on what usually happens in murder mysteries while still taking itself very seriously. I was quite impressed with how this went and if we ever get a sequel that could be fun.

Overall 8/10

Ranking all of the RWBY Episode 13s

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We’re nearly at the end of the journey now. This is the second last episode breakdown and we are now down to only 4 volumes left. Most just don’t make it past the 12 episode cutoff. The next ranking will be for the finales though so all of the volumes will be coming back for one last hurrah. Still even if there aren’t many volumes in this ranking, you know that they’re all top tier!

4. Volume 6

First up is Volume 6. It was a bold move to end with the giant mech fight instead of Adam. I always thought the events probably should have been flipped. Instead the big focus here is on Ruby finally being able to activate her silver eyes at will. For the longest time this was not something that was possible. She could only activate these abilities while enraged and that was about it. Having them as an option is really a huge deal because now there is no grimm that can stop her. The music is good and it’s definitely a very solid episode all around but it does make sense that this would not be stopping the other 3 episodes coming up which amp the stakes up even further.

3. Volume 7

A lot happens in this episode like Ironwood firmly taking on the role of antagonist. Talks have completely broken down at this point and he considers RWBY to be just as dangerous as Salem. At this point he will do whatever he can to stop them. He even shoots Oscar which was a really huge moment because the whole time you just didn’t think that he would do that. It felt like a really drastic move. Still Ironwood is written masterfully here, it’s just the right amount of being an antagonist without taking things too far. It’s why I always give Volume 7 a whole lot of hype because he was such a great character.

Then you have Cinder taking on Winter and Penny which was a really good fight. Naturally Cinder is stronger than both of them because at this point only a maiden can really hope to beat another one. I do think that the old lady gave Cinder way too much trouble though. I had a really hard time buying into that. Cinder should be way stronger at this point, no matter how experienced the other character was. I just don’t see it being enough. We end things off in a big way here that’s for sure.

2. Volume 5

Then we get to Volume 5 which was an absolutely massive episode. The first ever Maiden fight was here and it really lived up to expectations with Raven going up against Cinder. Do I have some power level issues with the fight? Yes, Cinder should have not dealt nearly as much damage as she did because Raven is incredibly experienced with the Maiden abilities and is super strong even without them. Cinder just shouldn’t be in quite the same weight class but either way the fight itself lived up to the hype. Pretty much the whole volume’s worth of budget went into this episode and it was glorious. Definitely the kind of fight that you could watch over and over again. Yang showing up to stop Raven at the end is pretty hype although you feel like the heroine is likely doomed this time around. There’s just only so much that you can do against a maiden like this.

1. Volume 8

Finally we get to Volume 8 with one of the best episodes in the whole franchise. Cinder makes her move and she does so very quickly. She just shows up and immediately starts blasting away at people. I like how she is taking on the whole cast because at this point that is exactly how a maiden should look. Their powers are legendary and awe inspiring so taking on whole groups is not unheard of. The music is top notch here and of course we also have Ironwood breaking out to get his own fight. (Well “breaking out” might be a stretch but he’s free) Leading up to the fight with Winter was pretty big. It’s a classic speed vs power type battle. My money would be on Winter but it’s a good matchup.

I remember when it first came out a lot of people figured it should be a blow out but Ironwood is often underestimated, even by the characters within the show. This also led us to the big rematch with Neo as well which is something that I’d been waiting for for quite a while now. Volume 8 really gave us the payoff to a whole lot and having Yang fall into the abyss was intense. With only one character falling in you could still figure that it’s possible this would be a perma death. The rule for these things is that if anyone else falls in then you know it can’t stick so this was just the right amount of gravity and tension.

Volume 8’s climax really solidified it as one of the best but we’ll see next time how it fairs in the overall finales comparison. There are certainly a whole lot of episodes to go through after all and every volume has a fun final episode to kick things off. This has been a fun series so I will miss it but all things must come to an end at some point. I’ll see you there!