Gridman Universe Review

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Gridman Universe is one of those films that is a great reminder on why crossovers are awesome. It really takes every fun aspect from the two shows and brings them together here. You’ll have tons of easter eggs and every character gets something to do. One of the best scenes in the film is when someone whips out the “Domination” ability because that thing is super overpowered and for a minute you’re wondering if they remembered that some heroes can use it. It’s really a trip down nostalgia lane and the film has a pretty long climax. It’s all just excellent stuff.

The movie starts with Yuta still feeling the effects of the Gridman show. At the end of that adventure, Gridman left and so Yuta got his body back. The problem is that it means he didn’t get to really keep the experiences of what happened during the show. He had gotten close to Rikka at the time but in a way it didn’t count and he’s having a hard time approaching her. Things have gotten a bit awkward again and he is also having a hard time contributing to the big school play that they are working on. Well he has no time to worry about that when a Kaiju attacks the city and Gridman returns. Yuta merges with him to fight off the invaders but something feels different about these attacks.

The Kaiju are very real but Akane isn’t around anymore. Who is this new threat? Additionally, the universe appears to be colliding with another one which brings in Yomogi, Yume, and the rest of the new cast of Dynazenon fighters. They don’t know why they’re here either but are ready to help as soon as they get their mechs back. Can Yuta save the world and also express his feelings to Rikka or is that too much to accomplish in such a short time frame?

Yuta’s predicament is definitely a super understandable one because in a way he did lose part of his life there. It’s not easy to reclaim any amount of extra time. I’d say doubly so because it’s not like it was due to a villain or anything like that. There isn’t someone to blame, it just sort of happened and Gridman didn’t do anything bad either. Everyone seemed to really like Yuta during that time so it’s a lot to live up to. The film handles this whole character arc really well. Yuta may not be my favorite character because of how timid he is the whole time but he’s still likable enough.

Meanwhile Rikka’s also in a tough spot here because it’s like she has to get to know Yuta all over again. I’d say she does a good job of putting on a brave face and acting as normal as possible though. She is doing her best to put on a great school play for everyone and keeps good relations with the main characters. Utsumi has a little less to do than the main two but he’s also contributing to the play and doing well. He’s a solid friend who is always there for Yuta when he needs some support.

On the other end, Yomogi is pretty solid. He’s definitely gained confidence since the older days and is way more self assured. He’s quick to notice when someone’s not feeling well and gives Yuta some nice words of encouragement which was definitely nice. He does a great job of holding off the villains at one point and basically does what he can to save the world. Likewise Yume mirrors his confidence and helps Rikka by not beating around the bush either. Yomogi and Yume’s dynamic is definitely pretty solid and they’re long past the point of having any doubts which is great. It would have been nice for them to have gotten a bigger role as the film definitely skews more towards Gridman than Dynazenon but their role was still good.

You may be curious about the big villain, Mad Origin. Well he’s a pretty solid villain. At first I was worried that he was showing up too late and wouldn’t get to do anything but at the end of the day he still did get to have a standout fight and lasted longer than I expected. Naturally that boosted him up the ranks for me quite a bit. He basically wants to destroy everything and you gotta respect that. If not for basically every hero in existence showing up to team together against him, the guy really could have won.

Akane only gets a small role here but it’s definitely a really good one. She was always a fun villain in the first story and she’s still shown to clearly be one of the most powerful fighters here. At this point she shows up whenever she wants to deal out some damage which is a fun role to have. Also the film doesn’t shy away from the twist in the first show that it’s all a fake world that is manipulated from the real world. The characters have had to contend with that, at least the ones who know about it. After all if you found out that you’re fake, what would you do about it? You’re still you after all so on a grand level it shouldn’t matter but that might be easier to tell yourself than to actually believe.

Each show gets to bring their whole supporting cast so as you keep watching you get rewarded for how much you remember each character. Meanwhile the animation here is really excellent as you would expect. The fights really pop out and the colors are very striking. The characters all have very distinct designs and then you’ve also got a really great soundtrack. The domination theme is excellent and then you’ve also got a lot of good general action themes and even a good insert song. The technical aspects were definitely on point here and never faltered. It goes without saying that the story and writing are also very good here.

The movie also did a good job of making up for some previous weaknesses. The two shows did have a bit of a fanservice issue at times and this movie really didn’t have any of that. Maybe a quick moment somewhere but it wasn’t an issue in the film which is great. The movie also came up with a good villain for the end which helped to end things on a high note. It’s really fundamentally sound on every level. The movie is also long enough to give the human characters a chance to catch up and talk a lot outside of the fight scenes. Maybe at most I’d have liked the main two from each show to have gotten to talk a bit longer. I’ll take what I can get though.

Overall, This was definitely a great film. I can’t imagine you will have any real complaints as a fan of either show. The movie went above and beyond to include every possible reference and plot point that it could. There is a lot of great action and also time for character reflection. It also works as an excellent end to the franchise. Naturally I’d love to see more installments in the series but if it ends with this then that’s fine. You can probably watch this even without seeing the shows first but I don’t think you will get the full experience since the big cameos and such won’t hit as hard even if there are enough context clues to figure out what’s going on. Now I suppose I need to wait and see what the next film crossover will be. There are endless possibilities for fun crossovers in anime after all.

Overall 8/10

Diamonds Are Forever Review

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It’s time for another James Bond adventure and unfortunately this is one of his weakest. As always it does have a ton of problems like with the fanservice and Bond being a terrible main character but I dare say it falls into the traps even more than the others. It’s fairly close I suppose since the films are known for this but there’s just not enough time to have fun on the proper spy stuff. At least I can take solace in the fact that Bond looks like a chump for most of the film.

The exception is the intro scene as we see Bond systematically murdering everyone who works for Blofeld and getting on his trail. This climaxes with Bond murdering some of the henchmen and even Blofeld himself. Now he is ready for his next mission involving a bunch of diamonds that are being smuggled around the planet. There is something going on here and meanwhile we have two assassins who are murdering anyone who has even come into contact with them. Will Bond be able to stop them?

So lets get the obvious negatives out of the way first. The film is loaded to the brim with fanservice in just about every scene. The whole opening credits have a lot of this as expected and then you’ve got a bunch of different heroines running around here. You figured that Bond might tone things down after he got married but that’s not the case. Instead he is back to his old ways completely. So much for becoming a loyal guy. This is why it’s always hard to root for James Bond.

He’s living the fantasy all right, but that’s usually the villain’s job. Then Bond does look really bad on several occasions. The worst is when he let his guard down around the diamonds and got thrown into a coffin to be cremated. He had to be saved there since he was really about to die. Then later on he is knocked out again after walking into the most obvious trap of all time and is only saved by the villains’ ineptitude. Bond doesn’t feel like an ultimate secret agent with how many times he messes up.

I know that he’s only human and can’t be expected to be perfect but I also expect him to be putting up some real fights. For example at one point Blofeld has him at gun point and tells Bond to walk into a mysterious room. Bond does, where he gets knocked out but why do that? Take your chance and rush at Blofeld because the room would obviously be an instant death otherwise. It’s why in real life if someone tells you to get inside a car at gunpoint you make a break for it. Because going in the car will just be a more painful death or something worse, whereas if you mess up on the run, at least you’ll be dead quickly from the bullet. It’s not guaranteed but your odds are absolutely better.

So Bond loses all of the goodwill that he got during the opening scene which is a shame. At best it can be morbidly humorous to see him flipping the script on some of the ladies who seduce him by having his fun and then just lying afterwards. Why they would actually believe him is something I’m still wondering. They’re all just real desperate I suppose. Also it’s worth noting that Bond was getting absolutely crushed by two ladies in the climax which was another embarrassing moment for him. One of them had a super long wind up to her big attack and he still took the whole thing to the face. Definitely a low moment in his career.

It was fun to see Blofeld getting more of a role here though. His plans may not always be all that great and he is wildly overconfident but after so many films of being in the shadows, it was great to see him take center stage. His body doubles were also pretty fun. The way he goes out is perhaps not the dignified ending people would expect but these villains often do have a way of crumbling as soon as the going gets tough. It’s a tale as old as time.

Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are two villains who get old really fast though. I was actually annoyed at how much screentime they got and how often they kept getting the best of Bond. It’s not even like they’re super tough but Bond just forgets to take anything seriously half the time. We got the whole book-end scene with Bond’s wine knowledge coming into play but you mean to tell me that he was otherwise going to start eating/drinking a meal from room service that he didn’t order? I swear Bond has absolutely no survival sense whatsoever. He gets lucky so many times because he should be dead over 10 times in this film alone. Kidd and Wint just have the charisma of a stick of butter and that weakens the whole assassination plot.

Tiffany is the main heroine out of all the heroines but I can’t say that she’s very good at all. She is ready to help out by the end of the film but also makes a ton of mistakes the whole time and comes off as way too easy. Tiffany shouldn’t be degrading herself to be with a man like Bond that doesn’t even care about her. I won’t fault her for messing up by switching the discs though because from her point of view that actually made a lot of sense. If anything it’s impressive that she was able to switch it out without alerting anybody. She wasn’t so lucky a second time but the attempt was worthwhile.

The fights we do get are pretty fun here. There is a solid amount of action throughout the two hours and some good physical stunts as well. That’s why the Bond films tend to be tragic. The action that we do get is very sound and the plot is engaging if not a little overly convoluted. The diamonds switch hands so often that you start to lose interest after a point. I dare say that the film did as well because it doesn’t really factor into the space laser all that much. I think it may have doubled as a power source or something but yeah it wasn’t super focused.

Overall, This is definitely a James Bond film. It is quite direct about what the appeals of the film are meant to be and unfortunately they haven’t aged well. I like a good ole power fantasy as much as the next guy but Bond is really a different kind of fantasy and it doesn’t make him look particularly likable. The films would eventually improve once we got to the newer ones but this was a real low point in the franchise. You should skip this one as quickly as possible and just go with a different Bond adventure.

Overall 2/10

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad Review

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It’s time for a bit of an odd film. This one has two story segments to it. The first one I’m not really familiar with but the second is a take on the headless horseman. It’s a fun enough title although I don’t think it ever gets quite interesting enough for me to put it higher. It makes for a quick watch but as with most anthologies, the segments themselves are not long enough to really hook you before they are over with.

The first one introduces us to Mr. Toad who is super irresponsible and he has a very addictive personality. Once he gets into something then he will get complete tunnel vision. He has basically wasted away all of his money and even gets tricked into buying a stolen vehicle which lands him in court. His friends do their best to save his reputation and prove his innocence but the Toad is not helping at all. Can they help him resist these urges or is it just a complete lost cause?

It’s definitely the latter. Obviously this is a comedy through and through but it’s hard to root for the Toad the whole time because of how desperate he is to throw himself in a car and cause more trouble. Even right to the end he’s up to his old antics. So you know maybe being put behind bars will be good for him. Even if the Weasels did mess with him, the Toad is clearly a danger to society and must be stopped.

Then with the second story, we have Ichabod show up to a small town to become the best teacher they’ve ever had. Everyone thinks he is really awesome and the guy certainly enjoys the attention. Well there is one guy who doesn’t like him, Brom. Brom is upset because the girl he likes is quickly falling for Ichabod and so he quickly begins to do everything he can to discredit and humiliate Ichabod. The problem is, the harder he tries, the more his efforts backfire. Can he stop Ichabod or is it game over?

Interestingly it’s not like Ichabod’s a great guy or anything. Right away you can tell that he’s not a very humble chap and he certainly likes money. He seems a bit greedy if anything and so for once you can feel bad for Brom…to an extent. Look at the end of the day if a girl likes someone else then you may want to consider giving up. Even if you convince her, it comes across as a little desperate right? I do think this segment beats the first one though as the story is more compelling. My only issue is that the Headless Horseman doesn’t show up until near the very end of the movie.

You’d have expected him to have had a much grander role instead of just being for the climax. That said, the role is still pretty fun though, he’s not about to lose in a chase and the guy plays for keeps. The very ending hints at a possible happy ending for one character but since it’s only rumors, you could probably interpret it in whichever way you’d prefer the film to have ended. The chase was certainly fun and ended things on a good note.

As for the music across the segments, it was only okay. The songs weren’t really my thing and I wouldn’t say they aged particularly well. They’re not terrible or anything like that but even though they are supposed to be bright and energetic, they come across as trying a bit too hard for me. They end up not being catchy which is the real problem. The animation for the shorts has aged well though. It’s a very expressive style that works well for this kind of movie. The action on screen is very fast paced and fits in with how erratic the characters arc.

I’ll also give the film credit for writing fairly nuanced antagonists that you could root for to an extent. In both stories the main character was hardly a paragon of justice and would take things a bit far enough to where you could see why people didn’t like them. You may still root for them to an extent but perhaps not. In both segments I wasn’t rooting for the main character by the end of it. In the second I wanted the Headless Horseman to take the win and in the first I was rooting for the justice system. You figure usually this wouldn’t be the case because the antagonists would be written very extremely.

So I give the film full kudos there and the writing is on point. The pacing is mainly good but again the whole thing is just way too short to properly flesh out the ideas that are introduced here. A longer runtime would have absolutely gone a long way to making both stories more interesting. Although for the first story it would be difficult since I think you’re either really into the kind of whimsical lead that it had or not. For the second though, you could definitely add more foreshadowing for the horseman and maybe even show him taking out some more fighters along the way. That could have definitely been neat.

Overall, This is definitely a film you won’t really forget but at the same time it’s not like the plot was super detailed or anything like that. It’s all just so random and out of nowhere after all. The live action narration to introduce each story is probably unnecessary but that’s a tiny quibble with the film at best. The movie is very lively with all the music and the fast paced plot but it really needed better characters to balance it out. That said, while you’ll have a better time with most of the other animated films of this era, this is still pretty harmless fun. I have no serious objections against the movie and it is entertaining enough. So I’d say to check this out if you want to look at a fresh story or really like the headless horseman.

Overall 6/10

A Quiet Place: Day One Review

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That tagline is ripped right out of the Wolverine tie-in game for Gamecube. I can’t believe it. “Stay low. Stay quiet. Stay alive!” Still one of the more memorable superhero lines since I had to hear it over and over and over and over again since I died so many times on that level. It was definitely not a game for the faint of heart. Unfortunately that tagline is tough to follow for the main characters of this film who panic continually and can’t stop yelling. I didn’t like the main characters much at all and the whole film feels like a bit of a waste of time. They didn’t bother answering any of the important questions about what happened when the aliens first landed which defeats the purpose of a prequel.

The film starts off by introducing us to Sam who has cancer and it seems to be pretty far along as she doesn’t know how much longer she has to live. She is taken care of at a hospice along with a lot of others and one day the nurse Reuben says he is taking everyone to see a show. Sam gets lured in by the promise of pizza but once they’re there, the plans are changed as the government has declared a state of emergency. Giant monsters are showing up and eating everybody. Sam decides she will get her pizza anyway but along the way she bumps into a guy called Eric who is super annoying the whole time. Can she shake him and get her pizza or is it too late?

No offense to the characters or anything but who asked for this? We wanted a prequel to explain how the government possibly lost to a race of aliens that are extremely primitive and have numerous weaknesses? You can drown them, burn them, overwhelm them with sound….they’re not even bullet proof. So I was hoping this prequel would answer that. It could focus on the army the whole time as we learn some uncomfortable truths about how they were helping the aliens or something. No…once again we’re following some humans who are outmatched and outgunned here.

I mean the main heroine is dying of cancer, obviously she isn’t going to be able to fight these monsters. It’s just a really strange choice and I can tell you now that the film doesn’t bother even trying to tell you how we lost to these things. It’s just taken as a fact and you really have to stretch your disbelief here. Ah well maybe we’ll get a spinoff to the prequel one of these days that focuses on the army. That would be a good idea I’d say.

Okay so for Sam, she’s not a terrible main character or anything. She doesn’t have the best attitude but she’s in a pretty sucky situation as it is since cancer is rough. So I can cut her a bit of slack even if I think she still doesn’t handle the situations very well. Yelling through the rain is just not a good tactical decision and can get you in a whole lot of trouble right out of the gate. Also her final decision was not a good one. Yes, it’s always tempting to end things quickly with a decisive move like that but you have to try and survive for as long as possible. You can’t just give up no matter how rough it looks.

As for Eric, I have less patience for this guy. For starters, he keeps on following Sam around everywhere even when she doesn’t want to be followed and in a world like this it puts her in direct danger. He needed to mind his own business and stay away. That would have been the only smart thing to do here. Then when he is around he’s bumping into stuff and also yelling a lot. She now had to take care of someone in addition to her cat which isn’t easy. If he could fight that would help but he’s mainly here to hold her back.

I will give the film kudos for not bumping off the cat. That would have been terrible so the film at least managed to avoid doing that. Would have really blown the film’s score up. Even without that, the film has a lot of problems though. A good portion of this feels like a complete retread to the first film. It’s not really doing anything exciting or different with the premise. It’s just the characters hiding around trying not to make noise like last time. Sure, to an extent that is going to be the case due to the nature of the monsters but at the same time there has to be some way to differentiate it at least a little bit. Otherwise what is really the point of all these adventures.

That’s part of why it feels like a waste. It’s just everybody getting murdered by the monsters and since it’s a prequel you can’t even say that they’re making progress or learning any new information. Instead we actually know less than we did the last time since these characters have no way to have learned anything about these beasts. We do get quick cameos and guest star roles from future characters that will be showing up like the guy from the second movie so at least that’s neat.

The film could stand to tone down the violence somewhat. Seeing the monsters ripping up the humans and devouring them the whole time gets old pretty quick. Maybe if the humans could fight back more it could be better but as it stands it is just one more thing against the film. I also think that the film could benefit from having the characters talking more. It’s something they can’t do because of the plot though so the movie sort of starts to trap itself here. It’s hard to keep your interest when everything is so silent the whole time. It ends up making the film drag on which is not the effect that you want to have.

You also have to really stretch your disbelief every time the heroes are running away from the monsters. Seriously this happens over and over again where they start running and the monsters don’t catch up immediately. This should be a really quick catch for the monsters based on how fast they run. Almost every scene feels like plot armor so you’ll start shaking your head very quickly here. It ultimately just doesn’t add up at all.

Overall, A Quiet Place isn’t treading any new ground here. You may as well watch the first one again and I hope that they find some way to change up the formula in the next title. There is just so much more that you should be able to do with this series. Lets start humanity’s comeback or something. Or if we get another film in the past, it needs to be about the government. I need to understand what happened to cripple the planet so badly because the current responses leave a lot to be desired.

Overall 3/10

Final Fantasy XV Review

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Final Fantasy XV got so much hype when it was coming out. It seemed like Square’s push to bring in a bunch of people who had never played the series before along with a bunch of veterans. It seemed super ambitious and the marketing was everywhere. Final Fantasy is one of those games that has always been equipped with a ton of content and really live up to the AAA brand. Well, I was eager to see what this one was like even though the promos for this never looked as interesting as the others. Less fantastical and more realistic. Well, it does have a slower start than some of the Final Fantasies and I dare say that it’s easily the shortest out of the modern titles (VI and up) but it does really turn up in the second half. It’s an elite title even if it loses to a lot of its rivals.

The story follows a prince named Noctis. He is going to be married soon and so for now he is travelling with his body guards/friends for one last ride. Unfortunately, while his country was working on a ceasefire/peace treaty with the opposing nation, they were betrayed. The army never came for peace and so instead they quickly assassinate the King and take over. Noctis is now a wanted man and nobody is safe with the evil empire in charge. Noctis needs to make sure that his fiancé is okay and then head on over to the kingdom to save it. Noctis will need to gather the 15 weapons of power among the various tombs in order to win the day but is he worthy of the title of king?

A lot of the game is about Noctis learning what it means to be royalty. He complains a whole lot at first and never seems to see the cup as half full. To his defense, it feels like the friends are rather harsh on him the whole time too. They are constantly yelling and so this ends up having a ripple effect where everybody is yelling at each other. They are all good friends though, they just bicker a lot. Noctis does mature a lot as the game goes on though, he’s really forced to as the stakes get higher and more people start to be lost.

Like I said before though, the beginning is a bit slow. For a while it’s really like the characters are hanging out. You get to check out the various sites across the country and handle side missions. It’s clear that the game wants you to have fun exploring as you are given a car and get to drive around in real time. This is a mixed bag though. The quick travel system is way too convoluted as you can only warp to different places when you’re in a car and even then it can only be some locations. If you want to drive somewhere, the game will default to the long drive instead of quick travel if the location isn’t exact.

Then they are going for full realism with the drive but because of that some drives can actually take 10-15 minutes in real time. This is a game where you almost want to take out a book midway. Additionally the characters often want to stop to take photos and such. It’s a good idea for extra EXP though. When it’s night time you have to get off the road or you will be hit with encounters every few second and their levels are really high initially. Eventually once you get the ring of power you can one shot all of them but you don’t get that until the very end of the game.

It makes sense though because that ring makes any enemy encounter absolutely trivial except for the few who can resist it. It’s great for grinding at the end of the game though. There are many ways to get EXP outside of battling so feel free to go dishing and help people cross the street. It all adds up and you get the feeling that you will be super OP in the game once you have collected everything. The recommended level to beat the game is in the 40s after all.

The game is reasonably difficult and does scale well. Better make sure you are keeping up with your training or you will be in trouble. The game has a lot of different environments but generally the toughest parts are the underground dungeons. Because of how narrow the passageways are, it’s very difficult to dodge so you better be really good at parrying. When you go into those dungeons you really need to keep your guard up at all times.

As for the gameplay, it’s a real time action title. It reminds me a bit of .Hack, there aren’t breaks but your attacks deal no stun damage. So you and the enemy will be hitting each other at the same time and you have to keep track of your health very carefully. The wrong hit will land you into a real world of hurt. The way death works is a bit complicated but basically you can die tons of times as long as you hit yourself with a potion fast enough. Eventually it runs out though. As a good way to avoid a hit, use an ally skill. You get 2 seconds of invincibility each time which you can exploit real easily.

The graphics are really good as you can expect. The visuals are top notch and the energy blasts are always fun. The fire summon skill is really crazy as it looks like the whole place got hit by a meteor. The cinematics are also on point so the game never slows down. The soundtrack is also pretty good. It’s not quite as solid as something like FFXIII but it holds its own without a doubt. The technicals don’t fail here.

While I may have some issues like with the general travel and the hub world sometimes being more tedious than it should be, I definitely respect the effort put into this one. There are a bunch of games within this game like the Justice Blasters and of course a whole fishing gameplay mode. When checking the trophies online, I see this is the hardest one for people to get aside from the Platinum and I can see why. I only did fishing once so to get that to max level will probably take a very long time.

It’s all fun though so that won’t stop me. So some menus and quality of life features aside, the only real negative I would say is the long loading times. People clown on Sonic 2006 all the time but I would say those loading times were considerably shorter than this one. You get massive loading times every time you fast travel or change regions. Sometimes a cutscene will have two loading screens back to back. Mix that in with all of the driving and it feels like there is a whole lot of idle time. Remove the loading times and without a doubt the game would be more streamlined. Who knows, maybe that’s the case in the deluxe versions that came out later on. I know this game got tons of DLCs so that could be fun some day although realistically I rarely play DLCs. Just not enough time.

Overall, Final Fantasy XV takes some getting used to but as with all titles in the series it does really drive up the intensity as you play through the game. You won’t wan to stop as you just enjoy what is going on all the way through. It could stand to be longer but I won’t use that as a serious knock against the game because of all the extra content. The priority seems to be on the side content this time with well over 100 side missions and an absolutely massive hub world that would even do Breath of the Wild proud. I would recommend checking out this game. It’s definitely a blast.

Overall 9/10

Scarface Review

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It’s time to look at a film that’s all about gang violence. You’ve got a bunch of people all fighting to be number 1 but of course you’d expect a guy with the codename Scarface to quickly rise to the top. Most of the film is really about him climbing as he goes from being a nobody to one of the most feared names out there. He really gets everything that he wants but you can never keep that level of success for long and so things get dicey for him.

As the movie begins, we get to see that Scarface is good at his job right away. He does whatever the boss needs from him whether it be bouncing or shooting folks. We also see his weakness right away which is that he is very aggressive and wants to keep moving upwards. While the boss is happy to settle for the territory that he has now, Scarface wants everything. He just keeps on picking fights and shooting more people until he has more and more power. Eventually the cops will catch him right?

Well a big part of the film is about how the cops basically had their hands tied the whole time. They want to get Scarface and they know he’s guilty but there’s nothing that’ll stick. The witnesses quickly become blind and no there’s nobody to let them prosecute the guy. It makes sense because when the mafia had this much power, they could easily get some retribution on the witness. It’s one of the big problems with the justice system that you even see nowadays. Not in the national headlines or the big cases but on a local level people can be afraid to report a crime because that information isn’t always private. In other cases it may also be that it will become obvious who snitched when the cops showed up.

You do feel like there should be a way around that when you know the guy is guilty but that gets into a whole debate on admissible proof and everything. Generally I think all proof should be admissible but that’s another topic. All villains have a weakness and Scarface’s ends up being the ladies. He likes Poppy who was the girlfriend of his boss but Scarface eventually took over. He started disrespecting the guy publicly and moving up so she quickly went to him. You sort of wonder why he would want to be with her at all when she clearly didn’t like him at all until he got rich. Do you really want a fake girlfriend like that?

Well I guess he was desperate enough and in the end that didn’t help matters. It causes him to to have to show off and get even more status the whole time. Meanwhile his sister also wants to live a glamorous life and so the more that Scarface tries to shelter her, the more she acts out and gets even more provocative. Obviously Scarface was in the wrong here as well so he was really a full on villain everywhere. It’s one thing to want her to be careful and not mix in with the gangsters but it’s another to basically tell her to stay home all day and even get physical when she doesn’t listen.

It makes Scarface look terrible and it’s a hard plot to understand because of how extreme he was. Honestly it would have been a satisfying ending if she was the one to take him out but ultimately she falters. I guess the film didn’t want her to have to sink to that level but I thought that ending would have been rather poetic the whole time. It would have been pretty justified with everything that she had been through. Yeah, going with one of Scarface’s pals was a bad move but he was going to have that reaction with anybody.

With all these crooks running around, you’re definitely rooting for the cops to get their win later on. It takes a while for them to be able to do anything here but they were written really well. I particularly liked he detective who would walk in and call Scarface out. Even outnumbered the guy was as confident as could be and said he wasn’t afraid of Scarface. He also wasn’t taking any disrespect and really landed a solid punch on the guy at the barber shop.

It’s naturally going to be frustrating to not be able to take the villains down on sight so you definitely feel that the whole time. The movie conveys this well and with the quality writing the whole time, you are definitely engaged with what’s going on. The pacing is good and the film has a solid climax. There is definitely a good amount of action going on here and the whole thing has aged well.

At most I would have just liked to have seen the enemy gang a little more. They really don’t get to do much at all and get taken out with incredible ease. Showing them taking more of Scarface’s allies down would have been good to establish why the previous boss didn’t want to mess with them. Based on the events of the film, it seems like Scarface was correct in expanding the territory and picking this fight. The enemies were definitely not ready for them even if there was some collateral damage.

Overall, Scarface is a pretty interesting movie. While none of the main characters are likable since they’re all crooks, it does show you what a dangerous lifestyle it all is. When you live by the gun you are very likely to die by it as well. You also can’t go to the cops when you’re in trouble either so then you have to try and find some friends you can trust. And that list will be getting smaller and smaller as the days go on. It’s just not the kind of business where you can even afford to trust anybody after all. When you watch it, you’ll definitely appreciate how you don’t have to worry about the mafia as often anymore.

Overall 7/10

Juror #2 Review

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It’s time for a classic courtroom drama and I’m always a big fan of those. We get to really see a lot of the jury duty process and the film avoids having any flashy subplots to distract from the main story. This is really about what the jury thinks happened and we get to see both sides of the case as made out by the defense and prosecution. The film lets you think about their cases for a little while before showing you what happened here which I thought was a really good move.

The case is as follows, one night James and his girlfriend Kendall were having another one of their fights. Apparently they have a long history of fights that got really intense and this time Kendall stormed off to head home in the middle of a heavy rainstorm. It’s a fairly long walk back and this was in the dead of night through the highway which isn’t a really safe spot. The next morning they found her dead in the wilderness with injuries suggesting a physical blow. James was taken in as the sole suspect and the prosecution is making the case that he murdered her. Meanwhile the defense doesn’t believe this happened and so that’s where the case starts.

A lot of the evidence is against James from the start with how he’s a drunk and has a long history of fighting with her. It seems like things would get abusive although we see several different versions of each scene based on who is telling the story so it can be hard to say exactly what did or did not happen. Regardless, it’s clear that he wasn’t the best guy around which doesn’t make him look great in the jury’s eyes. They all immediately think he’s guilty except for Justin who thinks this is all moving too fast. He wants James to get a fair trial.

Regardless of if James is guilty or not, Justin is certainly right about the others not taking this seriously enough. It’s a shame but jury duty has become something that everyone dreads and they all try to get away from the job. As a result you sometimes have a jury that just doesn’t care about what is going on and they want to leave as soon as possible. I know the point is to trust an impartial jury of 12 of your peers but honestly I’m not sure I would trust them at all. Best thing to do is make sure you never commit a crime or go anywhere near where a crime is going on but sometimes things are out of your control and so you just need to really hope that you get a good jury.

The movie really makes sure to have one of the more annoying set of jurors here so you can really sympathize with Justin’s struggles here. One of the ladies there is constantly trying to pick fights and just wants to go home to her kids. You can bet that every time they all try to start talking about the case she will be throwing out strawman arguments. Then you’ve got another guy with a massive chip on his shoulder who basically says he will be voting guilty no matter what and doesn’t care what evidence comes out. The accused was part of a gang at one point and so the juror believes that he is still guilty no matter what.

The film doesn’t hide that James has made a lot of mistakes here but of course at the end of the day you’re just here to judge on a crime, not the rest of his life history. The older jurors tend to be the most reasonable ones like the ex detective who is ready to look into things and the old lady who always tries to hear people out. There is also a doctor in training who helps them analyze the injury. The film shows how everyone is able to contribute something different to the conversation based on their lived experiences. It probably won’t go so neatly in practice but it’s a fun idea.

That said, as the film goes on you begin to like Justin less and less. Early on in the film he begins to suspect something and this turns his attitude upside down. He ends up being a very selfish person, someone who prioritizes himself when the going gets tough. To an extent that’s fine, it’s human nature after all. But he takes it really far because we are talking about a man’s life here. For murder you’re either going to get death or life in prison and so you have to actually give your best while you’re in the courtroom.

Justin tries to rationalize things a whole lot but at the end of the day his words ring hollow. His attempt at a philosophical argument just shows how desperate he is. So yeah by the end I didn’t like him. His wife Allison also didn’t look very good for most of the film but I’ll cut her a little slack due to the fact that she’s pregnant. That can really mess with your hormones and emotions the whole time after all. Would have been nice if she could have been more supportive and giving Justin some good advice but it is what it is.

Meanwhile Faith was the main prosecutor here and so she was the one trying to push for a guilty sentence. The problem is that she also had selfish reasons for doing so because getting such a conviction would grant her a promotion. Her conscience starts to really ring loudly as the film goes on and several characters let her know of the big mistake she is making. Ultimately she does make the right decisions so I’ll give her credit here even if it took a lot of prodding. Eric gets a lot of points for trying his best the whole time and not losing faith in the justice system. Like he says, it’s not perfect but it’s what they have to work with.

Like I still don’t buy into the whole thing about not being able to look up information about the case on your own. I feel like that would be super beneficial in a lot of situations. I understand the logic behind why the rule was made in the first place but the positives against it are just too strong if you ask me.

Overall, This was definitely a great film and it had a really satisfying ending. You’re definitely glad to see the justice going on. At the end of the day it can be a bit of a sad film since justice doesn’t change what happened earlier but at least you can walk away knowing that you did something and made a difference. That’s something that nobody else can take away from you. All that being said, I’d still rather not be called on my next summons, it’s much more fun to watch than to participate.

Overall 8/10

Drifting Home Review

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It’s time for an anime film with a lot of drama and big events going on. The kids really had to go through a lot here but at the end of the day they pull through and show what real determination can do. It’s a solid film but this is one of the rare times I’ll say that the film went on too long. They start to retread some of the same story beats multiple times and I even think the whole plot of bringing in the veggie people muddied the overall message. Personally the story could have shaved about 30 minutes off and flowed better.

The story starts by introducing us to Kosuke who has a long history with a girl named Natsumi. She had to live at his place for a while when they were kids but then Kosuke’s grandfather died and the two grew really distant. At school they can barely even talk to each other and Natsumi heads to the abandoned projects to be by herself. Those are the old buildings where they used to live and Kosuke’s friends figure it’ll be fun to treat them as haunted houses and go exploring. Kosuke isn’t thrilled about this but he accompanies them and that causes Reina and her friend to give chase. Suddenly the whole building is seemingly carried away and when the kids get up they realize they are all alone at sea. Their home is just drifting along like a boat and there is nothing in sight across all directions. Are they doomed to die out at sea?

Being stuck out at sea while only being a kid is definitely a rough situation and even more so when the characters don’t get along. The premise works really well with the mystery as you wonder how the characters even got to this point. Was it magic that whisked the characters away or is it all a dream like Natsume says? The hunger and fatigue the characters feel certainly seems to be real but perhaps it is all in their heads. For now they have to treat this as real and try to survive.

This is really the main backdrop for Kosuke and Natsumi trying to be friends again. Throughout the movie we slowly start to see more of the flashback of the final incident that caused them to drift apart. It takes a long while to actually see the scene but you do understand where it’s going fairly early on. A lot of the time it does tend to be Kosuke’s fault as he does tend to say things that he doesn’t mean and gets upset quickly. It felt like he went through many attempts of burning the bridge and often it came at little to no provocation.

He isn’t very good at the whole being a good friend thing. Kosuke is good at taking charge and doing what has to be done though. Jumping onto another building to find snacks was a good idea and he does his best with assuming command. Kosuke isn’t very mature most of the time but neither are most of the others since they’re just kids. There will be a lot of moments that make you cringe for sure but without Kosuke the others would have definitely been doomed.

The kid who is the most mature here is definitely Natsumi. While she makes a critical error near the end, for the most part she is the only one really keeping everyone together. She tries to keep the various personalities from destroying each other and absorbs most of the insults. I would have liked her to have fought back a little more though. She’s always being really mature and just internalizing everything but it also means that the other characters tend to consider it open season on her. Particularly Reina who was always picking fights.

Natsumi was definitely going through a whole lot here. Reina is probably the most petty member of the kids though. She is constantly picking fights in part because she is jealous of Natsumi and wants Kosuke all to herself. Reina is all too eager to blame everything on Natsumi for this reason and holds a grudge for a long time. She is fun for the film because that makes the dynamics more interesting but you would absolutely not want her to be on the ship with you.

Juri is her shy friend who is always around. She’s very timid at first but gradually taps into her inner confidence and does better. It was nice to see her taking charge and not just fading away into the background. I don’t think she got enough time to really be too much of a focus for the most part but either way I would say she was a good character. Taishi tended to get himself into trouble but he’s a friendly guy and someone who gets along well with everybody. He may not take things seriously most of the time but that does help to keep morale up.

Finally there is Yusuru who probably gets the biggest shaft out of all the characters. He doesn’t get to have a proper character arc or anything like that. He’s dependable and always around but that’s about it for him. Feels like the film needed an extra person for some of the stunts and that’s why he is around but otherwise the story didn’t have a role set up for him. That’s a shame but at least he wasn’t bad.

There is the mysterious Noppo kid who is constantly hanging around. He’s quiet and doesn’t do or say much until we get deeper into the film and then his role gets bigger. I wasn’t a big fan of his character, he tends to hold them all back a bit and is way too cryptic about everything. He definitely could have told the heroes more and that would have made the situation a lot easier on the rest of them. There wasn’t a good reason for him to hold back.

He’s also responsible for the main subplot that didn’t really add much to the experience. I still say we don’t need the whole veggie thing but I can’t say much more without spoilers. Lets just say the film introduces a whole concept of a bunch of people and this helps in part to explain the mystery of what happened but not in a super satisfying way. This is one of those films where the mystery itself is a lot more compelling than the resolution. It would have made a lot of sense to have had Natsumi be the conduit for taking everyone into the ocean world because she was unable to move on. This would directly be Kosuke’s fault in a lot of ways and that leads into their character arcs.

All these other characters just negate that to a large extent. The film also has a half dozen climaxes where it looks like things are going to end and then it keeps going. I always say that good films should be longer and bad films should be shorter but while this is a good film, it just started to feel its length. Ideally you don’t want a film to feel like it’s super long because by that point it means that some point of the immersion is gone.

Even the drama was a bit repetitive as it felt like Kosuke and Natsumi would make up, only to fall apart again, and then to repeat those steps over and over again. Even the flashbacks started to loop again. It’s a really good story beat of two old friends reuniting but the movie just didn’t seem to know how to stretch the plot on for too long. They didn’t have enough material for it or something like that.

The music was pretty solid here. I liked a few of the tunes and the animation isn’t bad. It’s nothing super high end or anything but it works well enough for the film. The technical aspects didn’t hold the film back or anything like that. The writing was good as well and the movie did a good job of having the kids find creative ways to survive. Perhaps some scenes may feel like a stretch for the kids but as long as it means they’re doing something I can be on board with that. The less time they spent panicking, the more time they had to be productive.

Overall, This was a good movie. I’d say that the length hurts the replay value and at the end of the day a bunch of kids will never be the most compelling set of characters. That said, the messages are good and the ending is solid. I always like when a film takes a stance on something instead of trying to have it both ways and so the final line was a great idea. Between that and the photos, the movie wasn’t copping out or anything like that. I’d say to check this movie out. It might even give you a bit of nostalgia for when you would hang out as a kid.

Overall 6/10

A Haunting in Venice Review

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I remember when the trailer for this film first came out. The idea of a horror mystery was a pretty interesting one since Poirot is usually very down to Earth. I suppose the catch is that you know there will be a logical explanation like in Scooby Doo but it would be fun to try and piece together what was happening the whole time. The movie does a good job of giving you hints as the adventure goes on. That said, you feel like the horror stuff is a bit of a distraction from the mystery and ends up weaking the experience.

The main character as always is Poirot here and the guy has retired from the spotlight after the last cases. He just wants to eat his pastries in peace but this is all broken when an old associate of his shows up and says that she wants Poirot to come to Venice. There are some spooky things going on within a haunted house there and she aims to write another book. This one will be about how even Poirot got stumped (Or her fictional detective stand in anyway) since she believes it’s all real. Poirot is not convinced and heads over to discredit the whole thing. Will he be able to find the proof in time?

As always you have a bunch of suspects here and everybody is running around causing chaos. I’d be with Poirot in this case as I definitely wouldn’t trust the medium. It’s like with hypnotists where I just roll my eyes at the whole thing. Yes, people can be hypnotized but it takes time and effort, you can’t just do it in a matter of minutes. Well when someone gets murdered Poirot is forced to lock the place down. He must find the killer, whether it be a person or a specter. The victim craves justice and Poirot will obtain this…or die trying! Does he have what it takes?

For sure you will see Poirot panicking a whole lot more than usual. He’s super jumpy and falls for quite a few of the jump scares. There is even one really embarrassing moment where his head is shoved into one of those apple bobs and he can’t get out. The fact that he nearly died there is crazy. The film made the mistake of showing us the hold for the apples earlier and it was a small stand. He could have at least kicked it out of the way even if he couldn’t somehow find his footing and get up. Honestly, not falling seems like it would be harder than falling in this case.

So he looks pretty bad for most of this I gotta say. Sherlock Holmes would have handled the situation many times better. The fact that the film has an explanation for it doesn’t fully absolve Poirot either. He just felt off his game in this one and to an extent you needed that in order for the plot to proceed. Usually things probably wouldn’t have gone to this level although I expect we’d still have a number of victims since that happens every time.

The visuals are really sharp as always. Venice is certainly no somewhere I’d ever want to live because that much water really doesn’t call to me but it still looks nice. The mansion was on point too and the various jump scares are handled well. Some are perhaps a little too obvious and you can see them coming a mile away, but it’s still nice to see because it’s just so foreign for a Poirot film.

Now lets talk about the suspects. First you have the twins Nicholas and Desdemona who have been working for the medium. They want to get to the United States and so that’s a pretty good motive to start bumping people off. They need money and they need it fast! Desdemona is a fun character in particular as she isn’t afraid to be throwing punches and slapping people. Get in her way and you may be doomed! Not as much to say on Nicholas but he’s fun enough. Both of them seem very loyal once you have won their trust but whether you are on their side or not is the real question.

Then we have the kid Leopold who claims to be able to talk to spirits. He’s one of those kids who seems to have all the answers but you also wonder if he may just be bluffing. He’s definitely the most annoying character though. They say that thinking you know everything can be worse than not knowing anything and this is one of those cases. He causes a whole lot of problems. Perhaps he is actually the one going around murdering everybody.

Next up is Joyce who claims to be able to talk with spirits and has built a whole business around it. When Poirot tries to call her out, she flips the situation back on him. She destroys him verbally and even puts on a mask and cloak before he can react. It’s clear that she has the upper hand at all times here so perhaps this is all personal and she is the ultimate villain of nightmares. You definitely can’t discount the possibility.

Ariadne is Poirot’s old contact and as an author maybe she needed to murder someone in order to get the plot going. She’s a very experienced player in these things so it is definitely possible that she lost her humanity at some point. Sometimes it just happens and since she knows Poirot so well, it could help her in deceiving him.

Rowena is the mother of the girl who died (Alice) and it’s because of her that everyone is assembled here in the first place. She wants to know which ghosts are haunting the halls and if Alice has anything to do with it. Perhaps losing her daughter has made her want to lash out at everybody. Perhaps she is the one who took her daughter out. You can’t really count anybody out.

There is Alice’s fiancé Maxime who is a big time chef. The guy called things off but perhaps that wasn’t the full story and he needed her out of the way. He’s a bit of an enigma and is always ready for a fight so the heroes have to watch out for him. Even if he’s not the guilty party, it’s possible that he will lash out here.

There is the doctor Leslie who suffers from some serious trauma and doesn’t always seem stable. It’s certainly possible that something happened which put him down the wrong path. I will also say this is where characters can look a bit too similar as he gets in a fight with one of the other characters and it’s hard to tell them apart mid fight. The film could have really stood to make the characters all stand out a bit better.

Finally you have the housekeeper Olga. The housekeeper is often a suspect in these things but she seems nice enough upon first glance. As you can see, there are a ton of suspects here and the problem with the horror stuff is that they can’t all be fleshed out as well as they could have been in a standard case. You also start to pay more attention to the scares than the actual mystery so even the final explanation at the end isn’t as gripping as it could have been.

All this is to say that compared to the average mystery I had a good amount of issues with it. That said, as a stand alone title it is still good and beats the average horror flick. I’m not all that into horror after all so in this way the mystery aspect of the film helped to elevate the horror parts. It was able to reach heights that it wouldn’t have otherwise been able to attain. The pacing is good and the film does keep your attention without a doubt.

Overall, The actual mystery takes a backseat to all the jump scares and horror shenanigans. That’s more or less what you would expect so I’m not saying that’s a terrible move or anything but I do think the film could have stood to focus on the mystery a bit more. The best parts of the film are when Poirot is interviewing everybody after all. Give me more of that and less scares and you would have the classic experience. It is a change of pace though and if you’ve seen the rest of the films then you should check this one out as well.

Overall 6/10

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review

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I was never the biggest fan of Beetlejuice admittedly. It relies a bit too much on shocking humor and gross visuals. That said, it definitely beats the sequel which tried going a little too far into this direction. It had some good humor but for every fun joke, there was another cringe one thrown in. Definitely not the kind of movie that typically uses a whole lot of restraint. They even managed to squeeze in animal violence which I was completely not expecting.

The movie starts off with Lydia hosting her big spooky show where she helps people who need to see ghosts. Her daughter Astrid thinks it’s all fake and wants no part of this so the two have really fallen apart. They are forced back together though when Delia’s husband dies tragically out at sea and she wants everyone at the funeral. Lydia’s manager Rory figures this is his chance to marry her and Lydia has almost no free will of her own so she basically just says yeah. In the supernatural world Betelgeuse is making his move though as he is being chased by his ex-wife Delores and so now’s a good time to marry Lydia again.

He has spent years trying to get her attention and slowly she is starting to see visions of him in the real world. The boundary between life and death has never been weaker. Meanwhile Astrid meets an emotionless hack named Jeremy who is really eager to have a relationship and Astrid is lonely herself so she figures she may as well but she will have to try and keep her composure. Mustn’t show too much emotion herself. There’s definitely a lot going on here.

So right away one of the big issues here is how ugly everyone is in the spirit world. I know that’s part of the point with how you move to the next stage of existence with whatever injuries you died with but even so, this just felt like a bit much. You have people with live fish still eating them, a skeleton that’s constantly gushing out blood and a janitor that is pretty much mid vomit. You’re constantly waiting for the real world to return because every scene in the spirit world is just plain gross. It may be the film’s main gimmick but it definitely could have held back a decent amount here. You basically want to look away whenever they are in this world.

Then for no reason two chickens get eaten and there is quite a lot of violence everywhere. Putting in animals in any context had no purpose being here to be honest. It just doesn’t make any kind of sense so that was annoying. In the real world the characters may have always made the wrong decisions and so they weren’t easy to root for but at least nothing too crazy was happening on screen. Although lets dive into the characters now because they didn’t help the film much either.

First up is Delia who feels like a waste of a character. She’s just way too over the top the whole time with how far into the supernatural bubble she’s fallen into. Her scenes were rarely funny because of how exaggerated they were. then you have Jeremy who is annoying from the jump. It’s obvious that he is trying too hard to be the perfect match for Astrid and the fact that she is buying this at all is what will also have you shaking your head. Astrid is supposed to be the smart one except for when she’s not.

Although while Astrid makes her share of mistakes she could be worse. Lydia is 100X worse and her character has been thoroughly assassinated since the first film. She is so crushed by life that she is willing to let herself get married to Rory just because he asked her. She doesn’t actually love him but is going to go through with it anyway? That’s just terrible and no reasonable main character would ever do that. It’s a massive L against her character and throughout the movie she is being manipulated so easily. It’s easy to see why the family fell apart.

The film doesn’t give us much reason to even feel bad for her either. Since it’s part comedy, it’s not like Rory is even being subtle here. Lydia didn’t trust her feelings and that’s always going to lead you to disaster. As for Rory, well he’s your average villain. He does his job pretty well and considering that his plan would have succeeded if not for Betelgeuse I can’t even say it was a bad plan. It felt like a bad plan but it was working.

As for Betelgeuse, well he’s about as crazy as ever. He fears nothing and treats every part of life like it’s a joke. I suppose to him it is all just a big grand joke though so that makes sense. With his reality warping abilities he can defeat anyone as needed and only loses when he feels like it. It does make the film feel a bit aimless though since everyone is at the mercy of his whims. This even undercuts the main villain of the film.

Delores is the main villain here and she has the ability to suck the life out of someone. Honestly I think that plot point is the only reason why she was even added in the first place. At no point is she even a threat to Betelgeuse and the way she goes out is very lackluster. The film seemed to want to include some tension but couldn’t figure out a way to weaken Betelgeuse and so they just gave up halfway.

There is a lot going on throughout the movie and that’s a good thing I suppose but just about none of the plots have a satisfying conclusion. Everything is just jumbled together and none of the characters are interesting enough to hold their own. The only really fun character was the actor because I like over the top villains like him. That said, it’s not like the guy even did much. Then as far as the comedy is concerned, one of the only really good gags was when Betelgeuse took on Jeremy near the end. Beyond that, there were way more misses than hits this time around.

Overall, Beetlejuice couldn’t really manage to have a solid second film. This film comes across more distasteful than the first one and the film didn’t have enough of a focus. You don’t really get the whole plot of Betelgeuse wanting to marry Lydia because if he was serious about it then they would be married already. The fact that he even caused her to have a kid as a gag is crazy. I know you can just say it’s a comedy over and over again but there still needs to be some kind of a real plot to hold it together. I don’t see how the series can continue without Betelgeuse facing off against an actual threat. Or maybe just write him out, he was gone for large portions of this film anyway. Although…the film wasn’t much better for it so maybe I shouldn’t hold out much hope here.

Overall 3/10