The Outfit Review

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Whenever you have a gunman going up against some kind of a criminal syndicate you figure that they have to be absolutely doomed. There is just no way to outwit these kind of fighters right? You’re basically fighting off a whole army and yet that’s exactly what happens here. The Outfit got so used to winning that they are rather overconfident by this point. Definitely a dangerous spot to be in.

The movie starts out with the gang murdering Earl’s brother. Earl isn’t happy when he finds out about this after being released from prison. They try finishing him off as well but Earl was too fast and turns the tables. Now he wants revenge and so he’s going to start attacking “The Outfit” and stealing their money until they agree to his ransom demands. It’s an ambitious plan but he has a good friend willing to help him out. The only wild card here is his girlfriend. He wants her in the mix but she could end up being a liability. Will Earl’s stubbornness really get him into trouble?

Now this is at its core a film about villains fighting other villains. There aren’t really any heroes in the story, after all Earl was doing fairly heavy time in prison for his crime. So you have to decide if you’re rooting for Earl and his revenge or if you think the syndicate should win. Additionally you could just root for them all to be defeated and arrested by the cops but of course that is a bit of a longshot.

The movie also does make sure to show that Earl isn’t a particularly nice guy. His relationship with Bett is super toxic the whole time. He gets physical with her rather quickly and so again you are reassured that he is a total villain at heart. He is not some super nice guy or anything like that. The villains are all corrupt as well so it’s basically a wash. To an extent you don’t really mind whichever side gets it.

When a car tune-up goes wrong thanks to some false allegations from a scorned lady, we do unfortunately get some animal violence as a dog is murdered. That was definitely the low point of the film. The movie definitely did not need that scene and finding a way to avoid it would have helped the film greatly. There was enough tension and loss in the film without having to go that far. The whole plot there was really a bit out of nowhere and you could have just skipped the scene as a whole.

The film is at its best when it’s just about Earl and Cody taking out villains at every base that they stop at. It does make the Outfit look rather weak though with how they don’t beef up security or do much of anything. The leader himself can’t even be bothered until it all finally comes close to home. Still, you’d think there would be some communication going out and alerting everyone of what’s going on though. That would have made sense and then the main two would find it harder and harder to break into the bases. Instead the difficulty never really goes up as the Outfit doesn’t adapt at all.

Earl even laughs about how easy it is at the end of the film. He’s not wrong either since the whole thing was super easy. This is the kind of film that I’m surprised didn’t have a more somber or ironic ending like the two betraying each other or not. I guess ultimately they just made it through the situation and would be ready for a sequel. This time they’ll probably want to avoid adding any more characters because Bett definitely made all the rookie mistakes you could imagine. It’s always annoying to see characters just breaking the safety rules because they got upset or impatient. Not a very good business move.

Aside from the toxic romance parts, Earl works decently well as the main character. It’s just a big thing to try and put to the side. Not having any romance plot would have definitely been a good thing for the film because it’s not like it really served any kind of purpose here. Cody was a good friend and definitely came through a whole lot of times. If Earl had been on his own then he would never have been able to get as far as he did. For all of his skills, one man alone would not beat an organization while just having one more makes this a whole new ballgame.

As it is there is still a considerable amount of plot armor here. At one point the villains trap them inside a fairly small room with agents posted everywhere and they manage to shoot their way out of there. Even the main villain comments on how crazy this is. I’d be upset too since the organization had the element of surprise and the numbers advantage. When you still find a way to lose with all of that on your side, well there is no real coming back from that. It means that your organization is seriously lacking in skill and it goes back to how complacent they’ve become. They rely on their reputation over skill at this point and it really came back to bite them.

Overall, I would have appreciated a tougher end for the main characters. At the end of the day they were still full on villains after all. Not even the sympathetic kind but the full blown villains kind with punching out secretaries and being quick to fight. I was not expecting the ending at all though so that definitely took me for a spin. The movie made some critical errors at key moments so without that this would have fared better. If you really want to check out a big Noir title then you should watch this one but the genre is already stuffed with plenty of good films. So you could do better with one of those.

Overall 4/10

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) Review

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The original Pelham film was definitely a solid one and I had pretty good hopes for the remake as well. The story has a strong foundation after all so I don’t see any reason why the remake would be any different. You’ll be pretty engaged the whole time with what’s going on and while the original would still take the win, this one can definitely hold its own. The film has to succeed in spite of the technical aspects that threaten to hold it back though.

The film starts with Ryder and a bunch of other terrorists running into a train and taking it over. These guys are professionals and trap it in the middle of a tunnel. It will be difficult for anybody to get in there and do much of anything now. Their demands are simple, they want 10 million dollars and they want it in 1 hour. The MTA employee who gets the call is Garber and so you can say that he’s really drawn the short straw here. He’s been dealing with a lot himself as he was demoted after being accused of taking a bribe. Garber declares that he is innocent but the investigation is still ongoing. If anybody dies during this event, it won’t exactly help his case.

There is a lot of tension the whole time since the majority of the film is really about the conversation happening over the phone. Garber is trying to prevent anyone from dying but of course he ultimately doesn’t have much control over that. He is dealing with somebody who is absolutely crazy and so you can never tell exactly how such an encounter will go. There is a professional hostage guy here to help out but even for him this is ultimately a bunch of guesses based on prior experience. The same tactics don’t always work.

Over the course of the film the villain begins to feel a connection with Garber as two men who were betrayed by the system although he never actually gets through to Garber to see it that way. Garber won’t let himself be pulled into the lies and the only time I would say he really faltered was when he allowed Ryder to dictate the terms and make him confess to a crime. I was originally thinking Garber would just fake it in order to appease the guy but I guess in the end he just wasn’t very innocent here. That part was too bad since it would have been nice if he actually did have everything together and didn’t make such a big mistake. Everyone is entitled to make mistakes of course but it would have been a good way for Garber to break away from the narrative that he was similar to Ryder in any way.

Regardless since it’s under duress I assume the confession couldn’t be used for much. Garber definitely takes a lot of real chances during the negotiations and of course it is a lot easier to backseat drive than to be in the situation. Ultimately I think you can never go anywhere with terrorists and you have to try going out fighting. Take out the gun and at least nail one or two of them. Inside of the train, one guy ultimately can’t think of a plan and just tells the villains to shoot him. They oblige and it was nice that he took the bullet for another passenger but if you’re going to die anyway, I say you should at least make a play for the gun.

Your odds are slim but at least they’re not 0 like when you give up. The instant you give up is when it is all actually over. You have to prolong that period for as long as you can. I would also bring up the numbers advantage but realistically you can’t count on any of the passengers. Odds are that they will fold or back out when the going gets tough. So if you make a move, it’s with the understanding that you really could die there. Not an easy thing to have to contend with.

As for the villain himself, Ryder was definitely real unhinged. The guy was smart enough to have a big plan and everything but it was definitely clear that he wasn’t afraid to die either. He was taking a big swing and absolutely did not want to live through any outcome other than victory. So he really made sure that winning or dying were his only two options. Most of his speeches ultimately come down to the crazed ramblings of your average villain but they’re still entertaining enough. The film did a good job of showing just how unhinged the terrorists can be.

The Mayor also has a fun role here. He’s definitely not the nicest guy but he has quite a bit of backbone in this version and can back up his tough talk. The guy has a lot of unhappy constituents but he does try to help in the end. Additionally I appreciated that he had Garber’s back in the end. It seems like otherwise everyone was going to railroad him even after helping out during the adventure which would have been annoying considering just how many risks he took by this point. It would have been such a bad look for everyone.

I will say that part of the ending was a bit contrived though. The film really wanted to finish off on a personal note but it relies on plot armor with the cops not making any kind of move. Realistically I would have expected either Garber or both him and the villain to have been shot. It’s rare to see the cops just standing around while actual gunfire goes out. I get the overall message but they could have implemented it better.

The only particularly weak part of the film is the soundtrack and directing though. The opening song is so bad that you’re just rolling your eyes the whole time. Then for the directing, there is way too much slow mo to the point where you think your TV is starting to lag. Then you have the zoom ins when people talk as if this is a comedy show. The film is doing a whole lot but none of it really services the film. I would have removed all the freeze frames, all the slow mo, and definitely had less camera shaking during the event. These things just felt like elaborate distractions and they did not pay off.

Overall, This was a pretty fun movie. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time and the writing was really solid. In the ending I would have liked Garber to have gone home with a whole gallon of milk but you can’t have everything. It takes a very different approach from the original film in different ways and that does help to keep things fresh. It means that you have a good reason to watch both versions of the film since they won’t be ultra similar to each other. As long as they can keep it fresh, I’ll welcome more versions of the story.

Overall 7/10

Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising Review

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Now we have made it to the second big Cobra Kai title! This one switches things to 3D and was definitely a very ambitious title but alas it wasn’t meant to be. The game absolutely folded under the might of its ambitions and so this won’t be remembered too fondly. The game itself is good but you can really see the potential that just got knocked away.

The game starts off by letting you decide if you want to play as Cobra Kai, Miyagi Dojo, or some bird related team. I went with the Cobra Kai of course and basically you have to find 5 allies to go with you to the big tournament. The game lets you choose from a bunch of stage options to recruit fighters and each recruitment opens up more stages. Once you have enough players you can go ahead and enter the tournament to begin the climax of the game. I actually didn’t realize you could jump into the tournament so soon or I may have even gone in earlier since I recruited over 10 fighters.

The combat is about what you would expect. You have your standard moves, super attacks, and chi moves. The special attacks have an interesting gimmicks. Every character has 4. The top one gives you money when it lands, the bottom XP, the right more power, and the left is health. But they each do something which is nice. Naturally I spammed the XP one but sometimes the health part could be crucial. You fight through waves of enemies and then there is a minigame for each of the recruits. Sometimes it is as simple as defeating them but most of the time it involves a more unique task. Each level has 3-4 people to recruit.

Once you’ve recruited them, you can level them up at the Dojo and also rank up their moves. Again it’s pretty ambitious but most of the menus barely work and switching between characters can get a bit tiresome so I ditched the skills early on and just did the level ups. You can also level up the dojo itself which lets you house more people and make them happy. If a recruit isn’t happy then he will leave and you have to try and re recruit him. That mechanic was annoying, why would you let people just leave like that? I hope they at least keep the level ups that you gave them. It would be annoying to have to get that back again.

The tournament is the hardest part of the game by far. You have to win 7 rounds in a row without getting any health back. Each round can force you to KO the opponent 6 times so that’s around 50+ victories. You can get more points by intentionally stalling the match to land a 3 victory strike but it is risky since of course it gives the opponent more time to hit you. This one took me several tries to finally complete and I definitely felt triumphant afterwards. Unfortunately the game glitched shortly afterwards so I wasn’t able to play through the final level.

The glitches are definitely going to be remembered as the game’s legacy. For one thing the frame rate is crazy bad, the game will lag on you constantly. At times it will be as if you can’t even move. I haven’t played a game dropping that many frames in a long time. Maybe ever, at least for console releases. Naturally the huge glitch sending me back to level 1 is another one to look at. I literally didn’t beat the game as a result of it. Moving through the menus can be glitchy and sometimes enemies don’t die when they should. I even had the game freeze twice and I had to restart.

So unlike Sonic 06 where you are unlikely to really encounter the bugs on a normal playthrough, you will be seeing a whole lot of them here. Just beware of that because it’s definitely bound to be a bumpy ride for you. That said, the gameplay itself is still solid so I’d still end up giving it the thumbs up in the end. Without the glitches it would definitely be an even higher score. They really jam packed this game with loads of content like the upgrade tree and how many levels are in there. Having 3 different teams to play as is also really good. It’s lazy in some aspects like seeing your character in the background while you’re fighting but that’s probably more of a budget issue.

The graphics are not particularly good. The game doesn’t have a ton of details and the character models feel more like something out of PS2. The soundtrack is fun enough though, definitely some fast paced tuned all the way through that get you into the Karate fighting spirit. Of course there is a decent amount of replay value with the trophies…provided that you are able to get them. I see that the Platinum rate is at a literal 0% which is probably a pretty bad sign. There has to be a glitch preventing a Platinum from being possible which is pretty crazy. I definitely won’t be trying for that one.

Overall, Cobra Kai delivers on what you would expect in the action department. It’s a fun game and you will have a good time going through it but unfortunately it did need a lot more polish to really be out there in the market. I do have to dock points for literal game breaking glitches after all. That does put a damper on the overall fun environment that the game is going for. It pains me to do it but that’s how it goes. I’ll still check out the Karate Kid game at some point though. I expect that will have more polish and at this point I’ve been playing through quite a few of these retro styled beat em ups so why not right? Especially when the price is so cheap hehe. $5 is less than even getting a Big Mac at McDonalds nowadays.

Overall 5/10

Princess Arete Review

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Princess Arete is definitely a unique title. It’s sort of like what would happen if you had an adventure film where the main heroine herself was actually captured for almost all of it. It’s definitely a way to stand out but at the same time I found the film to be a little uneventful at times as a result of this. Dare I say it approached being boring at times? I would say it’s a film that just focuses too much on set up for an adventure that never happens and you don’t have any loud characters to run in and shake things up. This could have used a Shonen lead type of character.

The movie first introduces us to Princess Arete whose life has been completely restrained by her father the king. He keeps her inside a tower and doesn’t let her leave the castle grounds. Instead she just has to wait as many suitors keep on visiting her over and over again. She has no interest in any of them and these guys all do seem pretty desperate for power. It might just be the animation style but she also just looks like a total kid next to all of these guys. It’s only natural that she won’t be interested. Well, unfortunately a wizard named Boax shows up and uses his magic to hypnotize Arete and the King so that he can marry her. He then takes her and locks her up in another tower so that she live up to the prophecy. Can she snap the mind control and get out of there?

It’s a bit of a long summary but I wasn’t really sure exactly where I should stop. In a way you could say this is where the main story begins but at the same time this is after a decent amount of time in the film has elapsed. You can also see why the whole thing is a bit annoying because Arete isn’t really getting to do much here. We do see that she is really interested in the outside world and so that’s nice but she wasn’t able to fight for her freedom there anyway. In a world of magic you’d think the King would have some defensive measures but the world seems to mostly be normal so maybe I can give him a slight pass.

I didn’t think the main villain’s plan made a whole lot of sense though. So the prophecy states that Arete will somehow undo Boax’s complete immortality so he locks her up to prevent that. At the same time we see that he is really lonely and is hoping to find another wizard. Maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely if he wasn’t immortal? In a way that’s what really makes it worse and of course he is also evil by hoarding the water supply. If he had friends then they could help him find more magicians.

Basically it doesn’t seem like Boax really thought anything through. He’s not a particularly interesting villain and the whole time you will be shaking your head at the guy. Meanwhile for Arete, I can’t say I was very impressed with her either. Yeah she made one attempt to escape the tower but I would have liked to have seen her be way more proactive. Honestly when the first guy broke in through the window, she should have knocked him out or tricked him and then used his escape method. Getting mind controlled isn’t totally her fault I suppose but it was annoying to see her basically be a zombie for a while there. It’s only in the climax where she gets to really help out.

There isn’t really much of a supporting cast to back her up either. Yeah you have the King from the beginning but considering that he is pushing for arranged marriages, he’s not the best guy. You have Ample who helps out with a lot of the exposition and letting Arete know the main facts. Not a bad character but not a very interesting one either. Nothing wrong with the writing either, there just weren’t any standout characters and even the designs were rather bland.

The animation’s okay. The colors are fairly washed out so the whole product ends up looking rather dated but the movement is good. The backgrounds aren’t bad and of course it’s just always nice to see things that are hand drawn. Meanwhile the soundtrack is more forgettable but on the whole the technicals aren’t bad. The whole thing just doesn’t pop out. It feels like the kind of film you my see a character watching in another movie. I was so ready for things to happen that for a minute there I was actually hoping Arete would go on the long quest to find the ruby that Boax asked for.

For a second there, the film was actually teasing you with the idea of a true adventure and I was all for it. This is what I’ve been ready for! Instead she turned back to accomplish her true mission and yeah that was the right call but it wasn’t the most entertaining one. I could criticize Boax further on why he would even suggest she go on such a mission when the hypnosis could break at any moment but perhaps nobody had ever broken it before so he didn’t see any potential risks in that.

Overall, Princess Arete feels like a film that is really missing a middle act. It could have used another 30 minutes where we see Arete escaping at some point and having a full adventure before being recaptured. I think that would have gone a long way to really making her a fun heroine and also livening up the film a bit. There just isn’t a whole lot of fun times for the film here and it feels too much like an ancient fantasy tale without the adventure. If you want to check out a more interesting anime title, you should watch Bleach instead. All of those films go hard!

Overall 5/10