Challenge to Lassie Review

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It’s time for another Lassie film and this one is definitely ready to give you that emotional punch. Fortunately it focuses on the humans taking their Ls again instead of Lassie which is definitely the right way to approach it. It certainly works for me at least although Lassie still does get injured a bit here and there with all of the big jumps. I would say that it doesn’t end up beating the last film but still beats the average Lassie experience.

The movie starts by showing us how a guy named Jack raised Lassie for a long while. She was a small pup at first and then gradually grew into full size. She had a really good upbringing and it all turned out well but Jack was an old man. He was already breaking down and it only got worse when he was beat up by a bunch of thugs. That really accelerated things and he ends up dying. This forces his friend John to look after Lassie but it won’t be easy. She wants to always be with his grave but the grave is located among church grounds where dogs are not allowed. Now the cops have been alerted and since John has no formal license to Lassie, she is in a lot of trouble and may get the death penalty. Can’t anything be done?

I would say the weakest part of the film is how a lot of the characters are super unreasonable. This is a dog after all and a rather harmless one at that. The whole putting him to sleep business makes no real sense. They try to explain how it is necessary because that’s just how the law is, but it feels rather forced the whole time. There is no real reason to be this stringent about it. When the kids ask the judge about why he has to pass the law, the guy can barely even answer. Deep down he also knows that this is all a bunch of nonsense.

The basis of the law is that because John doesn’t have the license, he isn’t able to get one after the fact. Instead of waiting the usual 3 days for someone to pick up the dog, they can skip right to the execution. It’s a case of the process being put ahead of the logic which is where the whole thing breaks down. If a rule doesn’t make sense then you have to find a way to agree with it or just ignore it entirely. Now you do have to put some real effort into understanding the law first as you shouldn’t just break laws that you disagree with but this was a very clear example.

So I can’t say that I really liked any of the policemen or judges here. Then you have the church personnel who aren’t the best here. At least the big preacher at the end seemed reasonable and wouldn’t rat him out but the main guy wasn’t the nicest. You can understand why Lassie wouldn’t be allowed on the church grounds since there could be a lot of cleanliness issues but in this case you should just move the body then. Put it somewhere where Lassie could visit it and you would solve all of the problems at once.

I’ll give John credit for fighting pretty hard to save Lassie the whole time. He went to court and risked his reputation the whole time as well. It’s definitely not something that just anyone can do. His son the young lawyer was also pretty solid here. There were a lot of limitations on what he could really do before he was fully certified but he was always ready to help as well. Even the kids weren’t bad here as they were all on Lassie’s side. It was nice to see the whole community supporting him like that.

As I noted earlier, an issue is that Lassie still goes through a certain amount of grief. It’s nothing as crazy as in the earlier films but she is pushed to her physical limit the whole time as she has to scale mountains and constantly be on the run. You can’t forget the emotional burdens as she wants to be with the old owner the whole time and keeps on being prevented from doing so. Her dedication was definitely second to none but of course those scenes aren’t very fun.

That is a common theme with a lot of the Lassie films which is that they generally aren’t very fun to watch. This one has some fun dialogue and reasonable characters but it is mainly lacking a big hook. One framing device that could have really helped it would have been to have the film start in the court-room and have that continue as the present throughout the movie. We then see the scenes spread across as several flashbacks. Have more and more of the characters enter the court room as witnesses and then we see the scenes from their perspective. It would have turned this into more of a courtroom thriller film which always tends to work pretty well. It would have given the movie a bit of a boost.

Overall, Challenge to Lassie is a decent film for the most part but I wouldn’t say there is much reason to watch it. In some ways the last one is still a more satisfying overall picture with Lassie mainly getting the sweet end of things. In this one, Lassie may avoid a lot of the physical trauma of the original films but still has to deal with the emotional trauma of the fallout that occurs from the owner dying. It’s not like he returns at the end or anything like that so in the end it’s still a net loss for her. The fact that she still goes to the grave every evening to mourn also shows that she isn’t really over the loss and perhaps never will be. I like to think that eventually she would change and not have to visit the grave but it’s hard to say. Either way if you’ve seen all of the Lassie films then you may as well check this one out. Otherwise you can give it a skip.

Overall 5/10

Sonic The Hedgehog Volume 8: Out of the Blue Review

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With this volume we really finish the metal virus arc and I can definitely say that it had a really good run. It was definitely an arc with a whole lot of action and excitement so it sets the bar rather high for the next storyline. Even though this is more of an epilogue we do get some good action here as well. There is one plot that is rather rushed but ultimately it worked out since I was ready to see the character return sooner than later.

After the events of the metal virus arc, Sonic has disappeared and the heroes have to try and regroup. It will be difficult though since Eggman has decided that this is the perfect time for him to rule the world. He’s not wrong, most of the heroes are on their last legs and are still exhausted from the fights. Additionally, The Deadly Six are on a rampage. The world needs Sonic the Hedgehog and may just end up falling without him.

The first story is an anthology though as we see what different characters were doing during the big invasion. For example Big was chasing Froggy around and beating up on the metal zombies. We see two radio broadcasters and how they handled the invasion. One panicked while the other stayed on the line but eventually they both banded together here. We get more details on what was going on with Team Chaotix as well as the jewel fighter. It’s a pretty nice anthology although by default it is the weakest point of the volume. These are side characters for a reason after all and it’s why these story beats could not make it to the main title. They are fun to see but aren’t exactly at the top billing.

When we get back to the main story is when we really have the hype. For example we get to see Shadow vs Metal Sonic which is always a great matchup. I admit that I would usually expect Shadow to do a little better but I can definitely buy into his being weakened and exhausted which made this tougher. Additionally it’s not like Metal Sonic is a slouch, the guy is a credible threat at all times so I am definitely fine with him getting a win every now and then. He’s earned that much. I’d say it was the highlight fight of the volume.

It was also nice seeing Silver and friends take down Zavok. That guy may be the power hitter of the Deadly Six but at the end of the day I wouldn’t really expect him to last all that long. Then of course we have Sonic vs Eggman but it’s so short that it’s barely a fight. Just enough to remind you why Sonic is the crucial piece for the heroes. As long as he is around you can bet that the villains will be put on notice. They won’t be able to keep up with him. Sonic looks great as always too with all of the confidence that he has.

The subplot I referenced earlier was after sonic gets amnesia so he hangs out with Blaze for a little while. It’s a fun enough moment but ultimately ends real fast so it doesn’t really add much. It’ll be fun to have her join the crew for some adventures soon though. Her fire powers were always a lot of fun to see after all and she is definitely powerful. The heroes can always use more help with how much destruction has occurred. It feels like damage from the Sonic Forces storyline is still in effect with the world constantly in rebuild mode. Throw in the whole metal saga and it could only have gotten worse.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a last hurrah for some of the big characters like Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver so they can show off some of the other characters a bit. The Sonic verse has a ton of characters after all and while this one had a whole lot, there are still others who will probably want their screentime. Not to mention that we have all of the new IDW original characters to think about as well. So long as Sonic is there, it’ll always be a good balance.

Some characters can probably use a power up as well. This comic showed once again that when Sonic is not around, Eggman actually has a reasonable chance of taking over. The rest of the characters may be strong and skilled in their own ways, but for some reason they need Sonic as the leader to take charge. I wouldn’t want to ever have them write Sonic out to put that to the test but it is a great excuse for a training arc at some point. Realistically Shadow and Silver should have the world really well protected but Eggman’s only weakness continues to be Sonic himself.

As always the art is really good here. The colors are super vibrant and the characters are all really well written. Part of what makes the comics so fun is how they really flow together. It feels like an ongoing story where everything has been carefully planned out. This would make for a very good video game. The characters are still some of the best characters in all of gaming after all and that translates really well into the comic realm. Now I just need Infinite to show up.

Overall, There are definitely no negatives to be had with this Sonic comic. There is a little less to talk about than usual since it is in epilogue mode but it’s an excellent wrap up to the arc. If you’ve read the previous volumes then you really need to check this one out as well. There’s a ton of great content to be digested after all. I also doubt they are going to try and have another end of the world plot with the whole cast teaming up again for a long while so you really need to savor the experience. This kind of grand event is always worth the wait but that wait can feel awful long. Regardless, I have yet to read a bad Sonic arc and I doubt the next one will change that.

Overall 8/10

Blaster Master: Enemy Below Review

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Nothing like an old game to remind me just how lucky I am that I grew up in the modern age of gaming. I am reminded quite often how I probably wouldn’t have been a huge gamer if I grew up way back in the day. Or at the very least, I would have really stuck to a select few franchises and called it a day. Yeah, game boy color isn’t actually that old but I would have been so sad if I had spent any money to play this game. How are you going to make a Metroidvania style game without a functioning map? Why would you ever do this? I can see why people love Castlevania and Metroid because they slaughter the copycats. I really like the modern Blaster Master games but the old ones are clearly not ready for the gaming world.

There’s not much of a plot here but the intro says something about bashing up the monsters. So the core gameplay is about navigating through a massive maze in your tank. There are 8 massive areas, each one has 3-4 other areas inside it and then there are portals that lead you across the areas. They are not sequential so don’t even think about going from area 7 to 8. No sirrrrrrr! You have to go from 7 back to 5 back to 4 back to 2, to then go to 8. You are constantly back tracking and running across the screens but the worst part is that there is no quick travel. Yes, a staple that both Metroid and Castlevania had for years is not present here. They also had maps while this game does not.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not the biggest fan of Metroidvania games but at least those knew what they were doing. This game? Yeah it has absolutely no clue what to do. There is no indicator of what you need to get either or what is in the area. If I wasn’t using an online guide, I wouldn’t know to go take down the boss or even which areas had one. Then some areas have 1-2 keys you have to find so if you don’t have that then you’re toast. Good luck finding it too. Some areas have close to 20-30 rooms and each room has multiple exits and is absolutely massive. Without a proper map you will end up spinning your wheels and going in circles constantly.

I ended up going backwards by mistake more than a few times. We haven’t even gotten into the weapons yet. You need certain upgrades in order to proceed so if you forgot that then you better find the room that has it. There is a ton of trial and error here which is not easy. It’s not always obvious that you are missing a power up either so hopefully your intuition is on point. Then we have the boss fights….oh boyyyyyy. Most games show you a health bar or at least have the villain flash when you attack so you know which attacks are working and which aren’t right? Yeah….there’s none of that here.

You just have to hope you are attacking the right point and you never know if you are making progress or not until the villain loses. That is absolutely insane! You can see how this makes no sense right? Every indie game has some kind of indicator and if they can do that without a budget then this game should absolutely be able to pull it off. It makes the boss fights extremely annoying because they just don’t end.

Also, the game is crazy hard. I don’t even know what counts as a save point but I assume that it would take you back to the start of the area or something. I’d have died hundreds of times in the levels because it is extremely hard to dodge any of the attacks and there are so many of them. One of the levels near the end is also like something out of Super Meat Boy as there are spikes everywhere. You have to jump absolutely perfectly or you will get hit by them. It’s an extremely tedious section which took me many tries because then you also have the enemies trying to attack you and they keep on respawning.

There really aren’t many positives to say about the game. I suppose the graphics aren’t terrible. Most of the areas look almost identical in order to intentionally mislead you so you do have to get around that. It’s not the worst thing though. The weapons aren’t always clear but I suppose I don’t have any other problems. The soundtrack is definitely forgettable though. You do have a lot of replay value here though because it’ll take you ages to beat the game. It’ll be so long that you will have forgotten the intro and can play it again. I mean I couldn’t picture picking it up again, but I’m sure the game has its fans. It is definitely a lot longer than you would expect.

Overall, Blaster Master is one of those games that makes you shake your head. I feel bad for any kid who started with this as their first title because that would be absolutely traumatizing. Would you even be ready to pick up another game after this one? It forgot the most important part of being a video game which is that it’s supposed to be fun. The most fun you will have with the game is the first 20 minutes and then it’s all downhill from there. It needed dozens of quality of life updates before this game would really be ready for the Metroidvania treatment and even then I would be super cautious. But remember, you shouldn’t ditch the franchise. Just dive into the modern Blaster Master Zero games because those are actually excellent and even have a real story mode. Now there is a game you will be playing all the way through because of how satisfying it is.

Overall 2/10

The Wild Robot Review

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It’s time for a movie that is very much like Wall-E. It’s an emotional story about a robot trying to connect with an animal and along the way we even get some action scenes near the end. There’s a lot going on here and while the beginning does tend to be a little on the slow side, it picks up as the movie goes on. I would say that the movie had a good balance of good and bad things happening throughout while maintaining a positive tone. Ultimately I would recommend checking it out.

The movie starts with Roz landing in a forest area within Earth. As a proud robot belonging to a massive corporation, her mission to enrich the lives of those around her and fulfill their goals. The problem is that there was an accident and she was never supposed to land in a place like this where there are no humans. She tries to help out the animals initially but can’t understand them so she trains until he is able to do so. Roz then ends up assisting a little bird named Brightbill when hatching and so the bird thinks of her as his mother. A local fox named Fink initially appears as a tricky antagonist but quickly ends up helping her out. The two of them need to help Brightbill learn how to fly and survive on his own. This little bird was the runt of the litter and otherwise would have likely died without any help.

It’s a pretty heartwarming family story going on here with Roz and the gang. It’s got a good message the whole time with the characters all pitching in to help each other out and it has a very strong sense of community. The whole climax is about getting everyone to band together after all. Now this will never be perfect in a forest setting as the cycle of life and the food chain will force some tough realities into existing. That said, it’s still nice to at least see everyone band together against a common enemy.

I do want to underscore again that this is not an action movie. So don’t let me trick you into getting the tone wrong. This is a family movie first and foremost about the bonds of friendship. The climax at the end does give us some action but it’s not played super serious for the most part and these are hardly the strongest foes out there. The main villain A.I. is pretty impressive though. She is certainly persistent and has quite a few methods available to use in attacking the heroes. It really ended the film on a high note.

The literal ending of the film I was not a big fan of though. We got a heart warming moment but I thought Roz made the wrong call here. Hopefully a sequel would address this. Back to the characters though, Roz makes for a fun lead. She can be a little slow on the uptake initially, but then learns what it really means to look out for other people. It becomes less about the programming and more about her individually which was really nice. It was the kind of character development you like to see.

As for Fink, he brings a lot of the heart to the film. His quick wit is always a lot of fun and he brings up the film’s energy. Now it is fair to say that he does take some of the gags a little far. You get the feeling that he actually was serious about ending Brightbill for a little while in the beginning. Still, he turns over the leaf and becomes a force for good which is ultimately the important thing. The film would lose a lot if he wasn’t there because he just brings a lot of depth to it. You could argue that he definitely had the roughest upbringing among the characters.

Finally for Brightbill, well I wasn’t a big fan of his. I thought that the other two characters were considerably better. He’s earnest and means well but I didn’t like how easy it was to turn him against Roz. I felt like that plot development needed to have happened a lot sooner for it to be believable. For it to have happened so late in the game just makes him look absolutely terrible. Yeah, I was not really a fan of that at all. It was tough for him to recover, which may sound a bit harsh but I consider this to be a kind of betrayal which is never cool.

I’ll give the film props for also not making the bullying too overdone or anything. Brightbill got teased quite a bit for sure but it’s not like they were beating up on him the whole time. I guess the closest to that was when they started dunking him in the water and Roz quickly broke that up. The film just feels fairly realistic and you could substitute the animals for humans and quickly understand the message just as clearly. It is a well written film, I could stand by that 100%.

As for the animation, it looks decent. I wouldn’t say I was crazy about it but I don’t really have any big complaints. It’s not going to touch the hand drawn animation for the last 30-40 years but it can hold its own with the average CG production. I would just say it’s a film that will be relying more on the writing and story than any technical elements. There isn’t much of a soundtrack either with the exception of a song or two in there. Nothing in particular to really write home about though.

As a final note, the film also did good with the supporting characters. I liked Brightbill’s mentor who taught him how to really fly with a high level of skill. I also liked the elder who did his best to try and help Brightbill fit in. There were a real number of characters all doing their best here and the film did a good job of establishing their characters. There would probably be quite a few new characters if they ever did a sequel to this one but I’m confident that they would work out well enough.

Overall, The Wild Robot is a good movie from start to finish. Yes, it can be a little understated and I will admit that I tend to miss the humans a bit from time to time. The first half was a bit slow as Roz is getting used to things and the fox could have used one more character to help him with all the snappy quips and such but at the end of the day the positives outweigh these. You will be entertained and I would recommend checking it out if you are looking for a fun family film. It’s definitely quality content and the movie goes by quickly. The climax is also fun since you may not be expecting things to get quite as explosive as it did. Ultimately that makes for a fun film and I’d definitely check out a sequel.

Overall 6/10

The Sun Comes Up Review

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It’s time for another Lassie title! This may be the best out of all the Lassie films which may not be saying much…but we take those. I was a little unsure of how to score the film at first because it can be a little dull but does avoid most of the negatives. I had a good enough time with it. It’s not really the kind of film that you would go back and rewatch to be honest but you don’t have to re watch everything right?

The movie starts with some singing as Helen reminds the world why she is a premiere singer. Her skills continue to amaze the world and things are going well until her son is destroyed by an incoming truck. Helen retreats to the country-side and takes a break from singing. Initially she is going to ditch her dog Lassie but is forced o take her in. Helen doesn’t want to be around kids anymore since they all bring back her ptsd but she is shamed and pressured into letting the kids hang around. Will this town break her spirits until she is back to normal or will she go back to singing in order to leave this place behind?

Most of the film is really about Helen desperately trying to fit in no matter what she has to do. Whether it is driving the kids around or memorizing lines that the shop owner gives her in order to fit in, Helen is ready. At the same time, it can also be a little annoying because she is constantly doing everything to please them and it feels a little overdone. It would have been better if she could have been herself and they would gradually get used to her instead. I would also say it’s a bit rough that even to the very end she was planning on leaving the town never to return and didn’t even tell anybody. That’s a pretty big knock against her.

Also, the town is one of those old fashioned places where they figure even the quickest show of friendship means that a romance has to happen. A neighbor puts a lot of pressure on Helen because she didn’t immediately start dating the landlord when he showed up. I suppose normal friendships between adults just can’t be a thing right? The adults were definitely annoying here and the fact that the neighbors initially gave Helen the silent treatment instead of talking to her also comes off as rather petty.

Even the shop owner, who was the most entertaining character wasn’t the nicest one. Quickly letting the cat out of the bag to intentionally force a problem wasn’t a great move. I cut him a lot of slack though since Helen’s decision to keep everyone in the dark was even worse. We do have a dramatic fire at the end to allow the situation to work out for the characters but otherwise I’m sure there would have still been a lot of sore feelings around.

Naturally I didn’t like Jerry either. Definitely an annoying character who was always running off and making things even worse. He constantly panicked and he was also quick to forget his chores and cause problems for Lassie. Jerry needed to be better at clock management and making sure he took care of his responsibilities. It may be a hard thing to hear but at the end of the day, that is what is to be expected. So Jerry just kept sinking the more that the film went on.

Meanwhile the songs aren’t particularly good but that is to be expected when you see that the tag is part musical. It’s well known that musicals tend to have songs that aren’t as good as standard or concert type titles. Musicals are the weakest link after all and these songs will have you shaking your head. Okay most of this sounds really negative so what are the positives? Well, for one thing the movie plays it pretty safe like I said. There aren’t any real bad scenes or moments where Lassie is put through the wringer. This time the humans are given all of the trauma which is absolutely the right way to go about it. I’d prefer the humans have to take the Ls over the animals any day. That’s the right way to do it.

While I didn’t love any of the characters, the writing is good enough so they don’t get too far onto your nerves. The film is short so the pacing is reasonable. In some ways the film has aged a bit too hard in the wrong directions like Helen being such a passive main character but it is also nice to see a small town where everybody just helps each other. So there are some positives about the case like that. Lassie may not be the biggest character here but it’s the first time we see her having fun the whole time which is really nice.

Perhaps the final important thing to note is that it’s just an easy film to watch. You can plug it in any time as a pleasant watch to have in the background. It can be a little boring at times but sometimes you need an uneventful film to unwind with. The film could have probably added some kind of a rude townsperson to add some drama though and that could have helped to elevate things a bit. A lot of what ifs to think about but at the end of the day, this film destroys the average Lassie film and that’s something to be proud of.

Overall, The Sun Comes Up has its share of weaknesses but in the end it is still a good film. The main moral I would give here is that when you’re trying to move on from something, a new environment may actually be a bad thing since you won’t have much time to yourself. Ultimately things worked out for Helen but the town didn’t always make this easy. She had to deal with quite a lot of people the whole time.

Overall 6/10

Hills of Home Review

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You ever start watching a film and almost immediately start thinking to yourself, “Get this stuff off of my screen!!?” Well that is what happens with this film as it is definitely a thumbs down almost immediately. It makes every kind of mistake in the book as it puts Lassie through way too much. There aren’t really any redeeming values to be had with this film and so it ends up being a heavy thumbs down. Definitely a title that you will want to skip at all costs.

The movie starts by showing us that Lassie is on tough times as she is owned by a rather cruel owner. He traumatizes her into being deathly afraid of the water and fortunately her next owner ends up being a doctor named William. He is kinder but also in a rush and initially tries to sell Lassie off. Fortunately his conscience wins out and he keeps her. William is pretty busy as the only doctor around with a never ending stream of patients. He is getting older too but the guy doesn’t complain about it and just keeps on working as hard as he can. Will he be able to cure Lassie of her fears or is this one mission that will be too difficult even for him?

I won’t say that he’s a perfect character though because he does betray Lassie a few times here. Aside from selling her the first time, he also yells at her at different occasions and isn’t very patient with her fears. You would think as a doctor that he would know how difficult these things can be to get over but instead he doesn’t act all that sympathetic. He’s a fun enough character when it comes to interacting with the other humans, he just doesn’t seem like he’s the biggest dog person.

He’s also not that smart as he lets one of his “friends” get away with not paying him back on a lot of loans and then being tricked with Lassie. For starters that isn’t a good friendship and he probably should have asked for some serious money in the end. He let the guy get off easy despite being a major thorn throughout the whole movie. The guy’s son is an aspiring doctor to be but the path forward is made a lot more difficult because of this guy’s objections. Basically the way I would explain it is that the father is very old fashioned in an annoying way.

The aspiring doctor Tammas is okay but way too soft spoken and doesn’t really stand his ground. He gets pushed around so easily and so I never really grew to like the guy all that much. He’s okay at best but that’s a main problem for the film as a whole. The characters don’t really stick out and can come across as boring. You certainly aren’t all that invested in any of the characters, I can tell you that much. They come and go without a ton of impact.

As for Lassie, well like I said the film is rather brutal to her the whole time. It’s just so mean spirited and you get the feeling that none of the characters really knew how to handle a dog both in and out of the movie. Whether it’s Lassie being forced to lay down and clearly not wanting to or the whole water trauma moments, it’s all rather distasteful and holds the film back in a massive way. Even throwing in the big time skip at the end as if this was an anime could not save the film. That’s because there was no saving it by that point.

The writing itself isn’t terrible I suppose. We have some nice dialogue at times but there just isn’t much of a point to it all. Even for a complete slice of life film, you are expecting some dynamics to keep you interested and things like that. Instead you have nothing to hold your interest until the storms start setting in. Even when characters get sick you find it hard to care because of how unlikable they are.

Put it this way, even if we remove all of the animal violence, this film would have been probably stuck around a 5-6. It’s just not interesting enough and I tend to enjoy old time films like this one. Well, this time it wasn’t enough to carry the film which is a really big blow. In my opinion it’s not very hard to make very compelling characters in a setting like this. You just have to make them likable so they shouldn’t be doing anything crazy.

The movie is also fairly short even if it can feel long at times. So there isn’t a ton to talk about here beyond what we’ve already gone over. I suppose the final thing is that if you live by a road that is submerged during all big storms, you should probably have a better backup route rather than trying to swim through with your horse. That just seems like a terribly dangerous way to do this and there has to be a better way. There just has to be, because with this way people are going to die sometimes. I didn’t blame the big city doctor for panicking because the whole thing seemed absolutely crazy.

Overall, Hills of Home is definitely a film to stay far away from. It’s incredibly mean spirited and doesn’t really have anything to it. All of the characters have moments where they are acting like big jerks and you get the feeling that they all probably hate each other. After all you don’t just forget the comments so quickly. Whether it was one wife blaming the doctor for not doing well enough, another guy saying his new method for knocking out someone was terrible, everyone laughing at him at the bar, etc.; they were all taking some major shots here. Lassie doesn’t really get the respect that she deserves at any point which is a shame.

Overall 2/10

Lonely Are the Brave Review

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Lonely are the Brave is definitely a film that took a much different direction than what I was expecting. Initially it plays out as a very low key drama and then all of a sudden it becomes more of a thriller as the second half is a big chase scene. It’s an interesting story but does start to really fumble in the second half and unfortunately ends on a whimper. The final scene is stretched for quite a long time only to make the wrong decision in the end.

The movie starts off with Burns coming back into town to visit his old friend. Unfortunately his friend is doing two years in jail for helping get some people who jumped across the border illegally. His wife is quite upset at this and so Burns decides to break his friend out. After all, for a Cowboy such as himself getting thrown into jail should be real easy. Burns has never agreed with modern life and still lives life on the wild side. Unfortunately that works against him as the cops don’t want to deal with the paperwork of arresting him. So Burns is forced to seriously upgrade the felony by striking a policeman. Now when he escapes prison he is really going to have to hustle!

I think the film could have focused more on Burns’ lifestyle instead of turning into a big chase film. The chase itself is solid enough but at that point the premise doesn’t really matter anymore. The chase would have been the same regardless so it seemed like a really odd decision. We could have also gone a bit more into Burns’ psyche on why exactly he doesn’t want to modernize. We got a brief speech about not liking restrictions and fences but you could go deeper.

Where the film faced its first big pitfall was when Burns was leaving for the big police chief. He convinces his best friend’s wife to cheat with him “just once” as a parting gift. Now this is terrible for a bunch of reasons but the most obvious one is that cheating is never justified. You see this kind of thing all the time. The guy was coming off a bad break up, he seemed depressed, lost his job, etc. All of these sob stories to try and somehow convince people that cheating is justified now. I’m here to report that the context doesn’t matter. It’s still cheating and a complete betrayal to his friend who is in jail. It was just an awful move to make.

The wife looks terrible as well since it’s like she has no agency there. She should have just told him to get lost. Respectfully or Disrespectfully, I wouldn’t have minded either way she put it to Burns. That scene was just terrible and a really poor way to start off the chase scene. Yeah her husband made a big mistake and will be in Jail for a while as a result, but you still don’t just decide to throw him in the ditch like that.

Then my other issue is the super unnecessary animal violence. You could see this one a mile away to be honest. They built up from the start that Burns was really close with his horse Whiskey. So immediately if you’ve seen any movies before you know that Burns will be punished by having his horse taken away from him. It’s easily the way that you can hurt him the deepest so the film is going to take it. That’s just the way that it goes. The whole build up to that is just fluff and only delays the inevitable.

It all comes to a head for the ending which is why the ending is absolutely brutal. That final scene just stretches over and over. The actual chase itself is also rather drawn out. Perhaps it is because the movie is going for a super realistic vibe but Burns can’t move very quickly through the mountain so it’s one of the slowest chase scenes you will get. Really the only interesting part was the meanwhile with the cops.

I rather enjoyed the main chief with his sarcastic barbs the whole time. He seemed like a guy who would be fun to work with. Perhaps not the most efficient out there, but considering that all of his colleagues were complete scrubs, he seemed like an expert next to them. He was certainly the most effective and I can see how working with these guys would make him so sarcastic eventually. It’s like he was all alone out there.

There is another subplot with a truck driver but it takes forever to go anywhere so I wouldn’t worry about it. In general the film’s writing was pretty solid so I’ll give it a thumbs up there. The pacing was good as well until the chase scene. I don’t have any real issue with the film’s technicals. The backgrounds and such were fine. The movie just needed more likable characters and to remove the two weaknesses that I talked about earlier. It’s not like they were just small weaknesses either. We’re talking absolute film busters here which is the real problem.

We even have the corrupt cop who goes around beating up inmates with complete immunity. I can’t say that I was expecting that to happen in this film since it just didn’t feel like the tone they were going for. The absolute moral here is that if you don’t change with the times, you will be beaten and overpowered over and over again until you eventually submit. That is your only real option and the film isn’t shy about reminding you of this point.

Overall, This is a film that had some potential but ultimately squandered it. The ending just couldn’t be salvaged in the end and so this one won’t be a film for the record books. You’re better off choosing a different western to watch or just taking the chance to check out a big sci-fi film like some of the Terminator titles for that complete contrast. At the end of the day, change is always coming in and you have to adapt or fall behind.

Overall 4/10

High Cost of Loving Review

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It’s time for a classic romantic comedy title. It’s a fun enough film that has a nice plot. I would say the film restrains itself a bit too much at times and could have really drummed up the craziness of it all a bit more. Still, it’s an easy film for me to recommend to anyone and it’s fairly short so things tend to move fast.

The film starts off by introducing us to Jim and Ginny who have a really good marriage going on. They have no real problems and Ginny is finally pregnant after nearly a decade so they are ready for fun. The only problem is that Jim’s job has been taken over by a new company and they might be letting some people go. When almost everybody except for Jim gets an invite to a luncheon, he figures that this is game over. Should he talk things over with the bosses and see what’s going on…or should he crash out? Time for Jim’s toughest call!

Now a lot of this film does rely on Jim not making the smartest choices time and time again. He jumps to conclusions quite regularly and doesn’t put himself in a position to succeed. It’s a story that we have all seen many times before but it can be pretty funny. I would have liked for things to have been more extreme like I mentioned in the intro though. Like one misunderstanding that worked super well is when someone jokes with Jim that he won’t be ordering the boxes because he might mess it up. The guy was just having some fun and Jim didn’t pick up on it because he was so stressed.

Beyond that, we don’t have a ton of big misunderstandings going on though. So a lot of it is Jim really just overthinking things and I feel like it’s because the film wanted to stay very grounded. You could have really had it both ways in this case though. Also Jim does look pretty bad throughout because of how callous he was when the shoe was on the other foot. At the beginning of the film he talks quite happily about how some guys will get fired and that’s just how life works. He talks a lot about survival of the fittest and all of that. It makes it ever so slightly harder to root for him here because you know first hand that he would not really care if someone else was fired.

He took his safe standing within the company for granted to the point where he didn’t even imagine not having the job. It’s why his friend Steve is comfortable about joking how he would be super depressed and end it all if he was fired. Nothing wrong with the jokes but then you have to be able to take it when you’re the one going down. Instead Jim was super defensive and panicking the whole time. It just didn’t do wonders to make him likable and then of course when he’s frustrated he is very quick to start taking it out on his wife. Being snappy, irritated, etc.

Jim doesn’t talk about things until it is forced out of him and it’s jut such a standard move but it is always a character killer. You can’t be so close to someone and then immediately still get so upset like that. He needed to talk things over and calm down. Ginny is also shown to be super reasonable the whole time so it’s not like there was any risk of her being upset. There was no downside to talking things out with her instead of straining everything like when he wasn’t acting very concerned about her pregnancy results coming out negative.

His friend Steve seemed a lot more reasonable and was a good guy to the end. He prevented Jim from making any career destroying decisions the whole time. His wife Syd may have been someone who just wouldn’t start talking but at least she wasn’t actually trying to cause harm. So I won’t really dock her any points there. She meant well and of course this goes back to how the characters don’t mind smack talking everyone except when it effects them. The double standards are where things really start to get dicey.

If there are any other main issues here, it can be that you feel like there should have been another angle to the film. Either make the jokes a bit bigger like I mentioned or introduce another plot. Even though the film isn’t all that long, it feels like there isn’t anywhere for it to really go. So it’s a serviceable film but not a super memorable one. It’s nice to see a married couple without too much drama but in the meantime their scenes tend to be a little on the boring side. Showing how close they are in the opening also backfires because of how easy we see Jim turn on her later on. You may as well cut out the intro at that point.

I did like the fact that Jim’s immediate boss had his back. Often times in these things it feels like the main character is on his own throughout management but since he was such a good worker, it makes sense that some people would have his back. It would have been annoying if the boss was just looking out for himself or something like that. The top executives were also pretty solid. They asked the hard questions and pressed Jim a little. They did seem really good at their jobs and it’s not like they take joy in letting anyone go. They are just doing their jobs and doing them well. This is an example of a movie that didn’t really have an antagonist but ultimately didn’t need one anyway.

Overall, High Cost of Loving is a good film. It hits enough of the right notes to skate on by and it’s one that you could easily watch because it’s just light entertainment. It has good replay value in that way. It does reinforce why you should always have proper communication channels open with everyone. If you don’t, then it opens the door for misunderstandings and panic. Also, perhaps keep the jokes to a minimum if you would be upset if the same thing happened to you.

Overall 6/10

Matewan

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It’s time for a film based on true events. Those always hit extra hard when you don’t really know about the events beforehand. The whole strike was new to me so that made things nice and unpredictable. It’s definitely an intense film where there are no easy victories. We have the heroes holding back for most of the film but eventually once it is time to fight, they do deliver. It covers a lot of ground and so overall I was definitely satisfied with it.

The movie starts with Joe moving into a small town. It’s really in a difficult spot here as the mining company is making people perform back breaking work with no real pay or benefits at all. They are treated as disposable tools who can be replaced at any time. In the movie they even mention how a lot of the miners keep dying left and right. You may wonder why they put up with this but there just weren’t many options available to them at this point in time. They took what they could get and that’s really all that there was to it. There is a union, but it is incredibly weak here and the company has been successful in setting off race wars among the miners so they don’t work together. Well, Joe is here to tell them that there is a better way but will he be successful?

One thing you have to remember about strikes, particularly back in the days is that it was incredibly dangerous. Often times you are up against an entity that is much more powerful than you are. They will have more guns, people, and typically even the law on their side. After all, the legality of striking in general can range from technically being legal to being completely illegal. Then at that point you have to hope you can hold out. So during the course of the film you have people being forced to live in the wilderness since all of their assets and homes were taken away. It’s an incredible challenge for all of them.

Then eventually this escalates into full blown violence and you also have people who will be tempted to go traitor or look out for their own self interests. There are so many factors in place that it makes sense how difficult it is to have everyone on the same page. Some characters can be rather gullible though. At the end of the day it is always important to remember to hear both sides of an argument, especially if you are friends with someone. It’s unfortunately realistic though. Often times you’ll hear someone spreading around rumors and lies about your friend and instead of asking them what’s up, the person will believe this right away and continue escalating.

If you are actually friends with someone, then you should face them and ask about what’s going on. It’s the only way to avoid misunderstandings like this. One of the heroines here definitely made a huge mistake there. I also thought the traitor got off super easy here but I suppose depending on what we know about him from the real life event, it’s not like the film could really just make something up. I mean it could, but probably not a good idea if you’re trying to really be a full adaption that is true to life.

The best character by far is the sheriff though. He was a true standout from the start. I figured that he would be useless at best and an ally to the company at worst. Fortunately neither of those two options happened and he really looked after his people. He wasn’t about to be overpowered in his own town and really fought to the end. The fact that he could actually fight was also good since it showed that he wasn’t just all talk. The climax is very impressive and ended things on a high note. Every scene with the sheriff in it was quite good.

The mayor was not nearly impressive though. Even by the end he’s whining about how he just wanted to talk but it’s obvious that this wasn’t an option. He’s the kind of character who will still be talking as he’s getting shot. In some cases you have to make the first move because if you don’t, then you’ll end up being dead. It’s one of those topics that i shard to debate though because everyone is pretty firm on their sides. I’d just say that for my take, in a life or death situation you can’t afford to wait.

This is my issue with Joe at times here. He keeps telling everyone to be patient and keep on waiting but after a while it’s clear that this is not working. The mining company is not above breaking the law and doing whatever they want. If you wait too long then you will eventually fold. There are times when waiting is good to be sure and Joe does help on different occasions but he does start to get annoying by the end. You can only stick to the same plan for so long before it starts to become a burden. Joe didn’t really adapt with the situation and that’s what held him back here.

At the end of the day, the film reminds you that a union is only as strong as its members. To stand up to a whole group like this, you need a lot of fighters and muscle to back them up. If the sheriff didn’t have his guns, then all of Joe’s tough talk wouldn’t have mattered at all. The villains made it clear that they would have just shot him and had the whole situation done with. Joe doesn’t seem to factor that part in though which is when you shake your head.

I will say that the movie also doesn’t hold back on just how rough corporate is. They literally go around slitting throats and burning churches. It may almost seem cartoonishly evil to an extent but I have no doubt that these things would have happened. The company would act almost like the mafia to get its way. Even nowadays we see mass firings when different places try to start a union. Sure we may be past the point of rifles and everyone being shot on sight but corporate has never lost sight of trying to stay on top of things.

Overall, Matewan is definitely an interesting film. I’d imagine it was a pretty faithful retelling of events as it wasn’t pulling any punches. The film didn’t mince words on how much the miners suffered even as they got their licks in. There was a ton of collateral damage but at least they did change the system in the end. Change often comes at a high price after all, it’s not something that just happens. If you are interested in the situation then you should definitely check out the film. Just remember that it is an intense journey all the way through.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

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It’s time to look at one of the longer games that I’ve played recently. This one took me nearly 70 hours to complete and that’s considering that I didn’t do all of the side quests. I did complete each character’s bond story though, mainly because I really needed the power ups and job classes that came along with them. Without those then things would have definitely been a lot tougher. It’s a very complete game that doesn’t have many real weaknesses and turns out to be a top tier RPG.

The game starts off with the King being assassinated and then the Prince is cursed. He is presumed to be dead but his loyal followers hide him away. A battle for the throne begins among the Church and the leader of the military. Meanwhile the main character (Lets call him Terry) is instructed to find a way to break the curse for the prince. Seemingly the easiest way to do that will be to bump off the curse caster, Louis. Will it be that easy though? Also, there is no definitive proof that the killer is Louis so that could get a little dicey. With a game this long, you know it won’t be as straight forward as all that though. Additionally, until he can find an opening, Terry will enter the running to become the next King.

It works as a popularity contest of sorts. The characters have a few months to rally people to the cause and whoever has the most popularity on election day is the winner. The top 3-5 candidates are also protected by the King’s magic so they can’t be assassinated. That was a really clever ploy by the previous King because otherwise this would just become a big battle of strength right off the bat. He really prevented that. Sure, it doesn’t apply to all candidates but that makes sense too since you would just have a lot of people entering only so they could be protected.

The world building here is quite good and of course you have a fairly large party of characters who all get a significant amount of screen time. It’s one of those things that makes RPGs so engaging. What other form of media can give you 70 hours of content like this? For a movie series that would be at least 35 movies. For a TV show, we’re talking 200+ episodes, which happens but it’s still rare. A video game gives you all of this in one shot and so you can tell early on that this will be an elite game. The more you play, the more the plot really begins to expand more and more to include everything that is going on.

The graphics are naturally really good. The game has 3 different kind of cutscenes, the ones that are completely hand drawn, the pre rendered full cinematics that take place in game, and then the text box versions. Nearly the whole game has voice acting as well so it becomes a really cinematic experience. It’s always super impressive to see this because it takes a lot of budget and time to include all of this in one game. Then we have the soundtrack which may not be one of my favorites but it does have quite a lot of tunes. They definitely didn’t cheap out on the budget here or anything like that.

The gameplay is your classic turn based combat style. You can swap characters in and out as you land your attacks. There are multiple classes based on the robot you have chosen for your character and then each of those have their own special abilities. You can use your magic currency to swap them in and out so there is a ton of strategy involved. Even 70 hours in you won’t have enough energy to unlock every class for every character, at least not within 70 hours. The final area is an excellent grinding spot though so if I spent maybe 10 more hours there I could have probably done that.

I had to train for around 5 hours at the end to defeat the final boss. Make no mistake, the game goes really hard on that one. The jump in difficulty is considerable and you will be challenged way more than any other boss in the game. That’s how it should be though, you want to end with a bang and since there is a good place to train, I had no problems there. There is one point in the game where you are attacked by a powerful boss and auto save prevents you from fighting any minions to level up. That was the only rough patch in the game because it’s possible that you could have really been soft locked there.

It felt like a big oversight for such a polished game and all comes down to the day system. My only negative with the game is the fact that it grabbed the Pikmin styled clock. Every mission is related to days of the month. So lets say you have 10 days for chapter 2, you have to try and beat as many side quests and tournament battles as you can before the days are up. If you are not strong enough to beat the boss by then, you will have to replay the whole 10 days or find a good place to grind. This means that it is not possible to complete every side quest and bonus material that you want to accomplish.

Perhaps there is some kind of perfect planning that would make this all possible but it would definitely not be easy. I had to skip on quite a few quests as a result and it also did make training a bit harder at times. Removing the day system would be a net positive in every area because it doesn’t provide any benefits to the game. All it does is ultimately hold things back which is not a good idea.

Like I said, that was really my only main issue though. The gameplay is on point and I liked the UI. The hub world is easy to navigate and likewise the quests all make a lot of sense. The game was very well thought out in all the other areas and the sheer amount of content and gameplay mechanics are so vast that I can’t even go into them all. I don’t see myself ever attempting to get the Platinum in this game because there is so much content and it would take forever, but it is there for the extra replay value. When you consider everything, then this is definitely a full 100+ hour game and you don’t see a ton of those.

Overall, Metaphor is definitely an excellent game. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good title. It can definitely get rather dark so you should know what you’re getting into. The story is very captivating though and it’s never going for try hard edgy the whole time. The villains do sometimes get off rather easy considering the scope of their crimes though. Some might disagree with me on what it means to get off easy here but a last second redemption arc does little to redeem a character in my eyes after a certain point. I’d definitely be up for a sequel to this game someday. Just take away the calendar system and this will really be perfect.

Overall 9/10