Duke (2012)

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It’s time for one of those really dramatic Hallmark titles. Typically when you turn on the channel you can expect to see a really wholesome Christmas type flick or if it’s from the hall of fame then it’s going to be a much more serious title. This is definitely one of those so get ready for the waterworks.

The movie starts with Terry returning home after a tough deployment in the army. He was badly injured which is why he’s back home and now he has a severe case of PTSD as well as some survivor’s guilt since he wants to get back out there and fast. Unfortunately the doctor says that he will not be cleared to go back and so he must stay as a civilian. He really doesn’t have a say in it and his only solace is in a stray dog that popped up. One day it all becomes too much for him though so he abandons his wife and kid as he and the dog drive off. Many years pass and their lives seem fine enough but his dog Duke gets super sick. Terry drops him off at a vet and dashes off again because he isn’t ready to handle more death. Thing is, the vet can heal him and so now they need to find Terry.

As you can tell there is a whole lot of dashing going on around here. Now Terry is dealing with a lot so you don’t want to be too harsh to the guy but he definitely did cause a lot of trouble for himself here. Ditching the family was really bad, especially when we find out that his wife died shortly afterwards from cancer. So his daughter was really on her own trying to pick up the pieces. Fortunately things went well for her but that was a tougher situation than it needed to be and Terry has to take direct responsibility there.

Then we have the second time where his dog was dying and Terry couldn’t be there for the experience. Yes, it’s tough but that’s the job. When you have a pet you gotta be there until the end and so I couldn’t really cut him any slack there. He made too many mistakes throughout the film but at least he’s in a better headspace now. Terry has finally gotten past his issues, but it was really quite the ride to that point.

It’s very fortunate that he had such a solid circle of friends around him. If they all weren’t so supportive then it would have been far worse for him. He wouldn’t have known what was going on with Duke without his friend bringing up the subject. The film has a fairly small cast the whole time since this is definitely more of a personal story. His daughter gets a small role but she’s mainly just trying to find Terry and set things right. She definitely gets a lot of credit for sticking her neck out in order to push things forward. Considering the circumstances, I don’t think anyone would have blamed her for not wanting to find Terry at this point and just continuing on her way.

The film is about his trauma after all but she likely has a lot of her own. She may blame herself for not noticing sooner which caused Terry to storm out during the party, playing a lot of what ifs in her head, etc. All of that can really add up as well. Meanwhile the vet definitely looked real good here. Technically speaking it’s not like they had to take Duke in. It was against their rules and everything but they still went ahead and did the right thing as needed. Definitely a good way to lead by example here. They fulfilled their duties as doctors and treated the injured animal in front of them.

I would note that Duke himself does play a bit of a back seat to Terry as the lead though. This is definitely not a case of dual main characters as Terry is clearly the star. Still, we can definitely say that Duke is the MVP here as without him Terry would have been in real trouble. He gave his owner someone to think about at all times and was a good distraction on the whole. Duke stayed strong and didn’t falter no matter how tough things got.

The film is fairly short and the plot is very direct so there isn’t a lot more to get into with this one. Mix that in with the fact that it’s got a small cast and that’s about it for the movie. You should know based on the premise if you’ll enjoy it or not because this isn’t a movie about plot twists or anything like that. It’s a very direct film after all. The writing is solid and the movie never drags on so you can put those feathers in its cap as well.

Overall, Duke is definitely an emotional film that definitely focuses on a lot of the sadder aspects of dealing with PTSD. It’s really about nonstop trauma and getting past it. As a result there aren’t very many happy scenes in the film. The whole thing comes across more as a very exhausting adventure about a veteran having to find his road to recovery. It’s a good message and definitely something that is good to keep in mind as it’s never too late to get better. Of course a good message doesn’t always translate into being a fun film and that’s exactly what’s going on here. You definitely have to be ready for a pretty intense movie here.

Life is Beautiful Review

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It’s time for a film that has a really big tonal shift midway through. The initial half is a rather silly romantic comedy and then the second half brings a lot of nonstop tragedy. It’s definitely a bold approach as very few films can pull off such a stark change. Well this one puts in a pretty big swing so we’ll see how things turned out.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Guido who is a chronic liar who likes to have a lot of fun. He rolls constantly and falls in love with a lady named Dora. Dora already has a fiancé which would make things tricky for most leads but Guido doesn’t care. He figures that stealing her away will be easy enough and continues flirting nonstop in order to get her attention. Eventually she does decide to go with him and they have a kid. Unfortunately the Nazis invade and split them up. Guido has to keep his son safe but also find a way back to his wife. Can he pull this off or are they all already as good as dead?

Now even once the film changes genres, it is safe to say that it still keeps a lot of the chaotic energy that it had before. The movie will still allow Guido to pull off pranks and tricks the likes of which are just hard to picture. For example he ends up intentionally mistranslating everything the German commander was saying and nobody noticed. Then at one point he uses the loud speaker to declare his love for his wife and to let her know he and their kid were okay. Guido was always a man who was good with his words but this is definitely taken to the extreme here.

Throughout the film he does succeed in tricking his kid Giosue into thinking that this is all some kind of training camp/tournament in order to win a tank. Of course even for a kid that’s a bit of a stretch so you either enjoy this craziness thrown in to keep the film from getting too grim dark or you quickly believe that it is going too far and it weakens the film for you. As someone who enjoys some levity, I’d say it works well enough for me although the actual film is still dark enough where it’s not really my cup of tea.

Additionally while the first half is showing how determined Guido is and how he never gives up, I do think it’s a bit dicey on how he steals Dora away from the fiancé. Yeah he didn’t seem like the greatest guy but they liked each other enough to get to that stage. While not as bad as going after someone who is absolutely taken like in marriage, this is close enough where it gets into very dubious territory. So that prevents me from being able to say I was 100% into the romance.

The film also used the humor to punctuate a particularly sad scene for the lead. At one point he recognizes one of the guys at the German camp which was a professor he used to get along with. The guy acts like he is getting ready to help Guido escape and there are quite a few scenes building up to this. However, when the time comes, it turns out that he just wanted help with a riddle. It’s a call back to the riddle solving days from earlier so it was all one big joke but this time Guido isn’t laughing because lives are on the line. It showed that he couldn’t rely on someone that he thought he could and so of course that didn’t go over very well.

Meanwhile the kid was okay but definitely makes a number of mistakes. He is very young so you can say that is to be expected to an extent but man did he put the lead through a lot. Speaking when he shouldn’t, causing attention to be brought to himself, etc. The last thing you want to do is be in the spotlight here. Meanwhile his wife did good at being hidden to the point where she basically vanishes for the whole second half. She kept her head down and waited for the right opportunity.

Ultimately the ending also doesn’t go for as happy a tone as you might expect. Some things go well and some do not, definitely a tough situation all around. Additionally for the supporting characters there is a lot of tragedy as well. Ultimately the silver lining is that the situation does have a resolution so at least the tough period is over. The amount of casualties was just astronomical in the process.

Overall, I wasn’t quite sure if I should format this as a review and if there were enough differences for a score or if it should be treated as a based on real events kind of story. Ultimately I figured there was probably enough here where I’d make it a review. At the end of the day this is definitely not my kind of film but I appreciate the attempt on a very different take on the situation here. In a way it probably works better than if it had been serious the whole time since that would have made the film an even darker watch. The first half just didn’t click well enough with me since I couldn’t root for the romance. If the heroine had been single the whole time then the whole thing would have flowed better but otherwise even the early flirting doesn’t make any sense. You shouldn’t even be entertaining any of that if you’re already dating. Then naturally the second half isn’t exactly an easy watch. The lead does his best to try and minimize how bad the situation is but even he can’t quite reduce that to 0. It’s pretty obvious to the rest of the characters that things are getting worse and worse as the climax approaches.

Overall 4/10

Alex Kidd In Miracle World DX Review

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All right it’s time for a really retro platformer. Alex Kidd is a title that just about everyone has heard of at some point but I would say a lot of people have probably not actually played it before or have seen what the gameplay is like. I can’t say that I knew much about it myself and so it was time to finally change that. This game is fun but the sheer lack of length and replay value does hurt this one somewhat.

The story follows a kid named Alex who was minding his own business when Janken the Great shows up and starts a lot of chaos. He invades the kingdom and defeats the King while also kidnapping the prince. Alex is the only one who can stop this menace but to that end he will have to take down the 3 Rock/Paper/Scissor fighters. See, it’s a play on words with Janken being some of the words in the Japanese spelling of the classic game. Fortunately Alex excels at everything he does.

First lets go over the good things about the game. It looks really solid. A lot of polish went into the modern graphics so it stands out and the game even gives you the option to switch back to the old style at any point. That was definitely impressive and I switched a few times for fun but the modern graphics are definitely the way to go. The levels are all bite sized with check points except for one really long level which was really difficult to beat. It takes a while to really master the controls and mechanics but there was a good amount of thought put into this one.

If the gameplay weren’t so slippery then this would be even better. As it stands, you will probably die more than a few times to what looks like a normal jump because the air carried you too far or something like that. Unlike most platformers, this one has momentum as a factor so if you jump forward and try to stop, your character won’t stop unless you pull back. As a result it is easy to overcalculate and even to the end this was difficult to work around. Expect to die a lot but eventually you will get the hang of it.

The soundtrack isn’t bad although it is mostly forgettable. i can’t think of any really hype tunes off the top of my head. It’s definitely going for a much more down to Earth kind of vibe. Nothing wrong with that but for any kind of sequel I hope they do decide to go all out a bit more. The game should also provide more explanations since basically nothing is elaborated on. You just have to figure it out the hard way.

Items are virtually useless in the game so I would recommend ignoring them. They don’t regenerate when you lose a life meaning you will lose this almost immediately. The items really didn’t make a difference here so I wish I had skipped them and could have gotten a nice trophy out of it. Perhaps you will find them to be more useful but I think they could stand to be buffed a little more. At the very least they should stick with you until a full game over.

The difficulty level for the game is fairly high but definitely not impossible. You really need to master jumping as soon as possible. Once you have that down then you can really start moving and not only will the levels get shorter but you can focus on the boss battles. While the rock paper scissors mechanic for each boss fight is not possible to know at first, they always follow the same pattern. So just memorize what they pick for the first two turns and you will beat them on all future runs. That’s really the only way to approach this.

As for the actual boss fights, they can be hard but they all lack in durability. So the best thing to do in every fight is rush in and try landing some hits. You just need to survive for around 10 seconds and your punches will take care of them. It doesn’t sound that bad when you put it like that right? Honestly the most annoying thing will just be in having to complete the stage again in order to get to the boss fight.

Even when the levels are short you can still feel the repetition. Getting all the trophies for the game will also take some time so that adds some replay value. All in all, this is probably not a game you would want to get for full price but on sale it is a good bet. The gameplay itself is fun after all as you run and jump across obstacles and levels. You can even punch but the range is so short that it is also easy to bump into an enemy by mistake and take damage. In fact, that is easily the toughest part of the game and how I suffered a ton of deaths. After a while you get the hang of the range though.

Overall, Alex Kidd is all about trial and error. The game is fairly unforgiving as one hit from any attack will take a whole life from Alex. That being said, you can also beat a lot of enemies in one hit. Play slow and steady as often as you need because there is usually not any kind of timer anyway. You can worry about speed running and everything after you beat the game. So that’s the game in a nutshell, some questionable game design decisions to be sure but it is a game that’s fun to play. Even when you die a whole lot, it never feels totally hopeless or anything like that. If they make a new Alex Kidd game at some point I do think it would be a lot better. There are easy ways to make the sequel a lot better after all. Put in a solid story as well and I’ll definitely keep an eye on it.

Overall 6/10

The Shaggy Dog (1959) Review

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It’s time for a retro dog film with a good amount of fun cheer to it. The Shaggy Dog is one of those titles that moves at a quick pace and delivers on a fun premise. It even randomly throws in a big climax with high stakes and I hadn’t been expecting that. It’s a very retro experience that knows how to have a good time even if the cast themselves are a bit on the weaker side. Lets just say there aren’t a lot of likable characters here.

The movie starts off with Wilby messing up on another one of his inventions. He’s a kid genius but it does take him a lot of trial and error to get where he wants to go and often his father, Wilson has to clean up after him. Wilson is a nice guy overall except that he can’t stand dogs and even has a PTSD type allergy to them. He intends to shoot them all if they ever get into his house. Well one day they get a rich next door neighbor named Francesca who has a big dog and now this could be trouble. Wilby and his friend Buzz both like her and after a fateful trip to the museum, Wilby ends up with an amulet that turns him into a copy of her dog. How will he end this curse?

The way the magic works is also a little unique here. Ordinarily you would expect the human and dog to change places or something but that’s actually not what happens here. Instead the dog just vanishes from existence temporarily while Wilby slowly transforms into a lookalike. The transformation lasts a while until he turns back but it is difficult to predict when this will happen and for how long. So it’s definitely inconvenient for Wilby and even dangerous since of course Wilson will be shooting on sight.

Of course as a dog, most people don’t pay attention to Wilby which gives him a chance to hear some villainous secrets. So I enjoyed the whole gimmick here as the scenes were pretty fun. Wilby really got to show just how helpful it can be to turn into a dog. I do think he could have done a much better job of convincing everyone that he was actually Wilby though since the film didn’t really place any limitations on him. Wilby can still walk around and talk in human language so automatically you figure it shouldn’t be too hard. Wilby doesn’t try this much until the very end though.

As a character Wilby is okay but definitely a bit of a pushover. He gets taken advantage of by Buzz and is also easy to trick. The museum trip didn’t go well because he let his guard down too quickly and then even in the climax he’s put in the same boat as Buzz instead of being one step ahead. I don’t see the dynamic ever getting a whole lot better for him. Wilby needs to just focus on his inventions and hopefully make a real game changer at some point.

Meanwhile for Buzz, the guy is no real friend. He is always quick to blame Wilby when the lead isn’t around and quickly goes from girl to girl. Buzz is certainly not a serious character and so you really aren’t rooting for the guy. You hope that the girls will know better around him but until they figure out what’s up, it was up to Wilby to mess up the guy’s plans while in his disguise as a dog.

As for Wilson, he was a little too extreme in how he was actually shooting at the dog. Even ignoring the body swap, that means he was willingly shooting at his neighbor’s dog just for getting into the house. It’s just such an extreme response and makes him look really bad. Throughout the film Wilson is always proving himself to be the kind of guy who jumps to conclusions and then at the end he is basically just basking in the glory of something that he only played a small part in.

It all works well enough for some laughs but it doesn’t make the character super likable. Even Francesca looks pretty bad as she is quick to be tricked by Buzz and then even starts to go after Wilby just to make another girl jealous. The fact that she gave away her dog in the end was also absolutely crazy after everything he did for her. A really bizarre way for the film to end if you ask me.

Still, the important thing is that the film is fun like I said. The writing is on point with a really solid script all the way through. The retro writing style really works well for this movie and the pacing is good. I may not say that it’s laugh out loud levels of being funny but it didn’t really have any issues either. The movie never drags and it has plenty of replay value. I also enjoyed the sub plot with the one cop who was going crazy after seeing the dog so many times and then how the government shut down Wilson on suspicion of being a traitor. That was a pretty fun battle even if Wilby’s younger brother sold the dad out there.

Overall, The Shaggy Dog is a pretty good movie. I like the concept of turning into a dog as there are a lot of fun gags you can do with that. Clearly the industry thought so too since this wouldn’t be the last Shaggy Dog film. This may not be the kind of film that you walk away from every year to point out how awesome it was but it is something you could watch at any time. The intense climax also helps with the replay value. I’ll be curious to see if the newer films can really match this one and if they can’t, hopefully they will at least be close.

Overall 7/10