Tag Archives: Comedy

Here Comes Mr. Jordan Review

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It’s time for another film involving souls and it was pretty interesting but I definitely had a massive problem with the ending. The problem was so big that I dare say it ends up having a big effect on the movie itself. It’s just not the way you want to see these things go and it felt like the main character basically got the raw end of the deal. Nothing went the way that it should have for him.

The movie starts with Joe getting ready for the biggest match of his life. If he wins this then he will be crowned the #1 boxing champ. Joe has been training his entire life for this and is pretty confident in his chances. He hops into his plane and heads on over but some wind shows up and his plane starts to crash. That’s when he wakes up in the after life where he is being taken away….permanently. The whole thing seems rather off so he questions the angel, 7013 on this. Well…it looks like this guy is new at the job and he jumped the gun by taking Joe out early. His boss Jordan vows to make this right.

He will see to it that Joe has a satisfactory new body to replace the old one and that he can live out the rest of his life there. He’s supposed to have dozens of years left to live and so of course Jordan will make sure that he gets to live those years. Joe is not thrilled about any of this but will give this a fair shake as he waits for a good body. There has to be one around here somewhere. And so begins the journey of body hopping and trying to become the champ again.

A good chunk of the film takes place with a corrupt businessman named Farnsworth. See, he was murdered by his wife and her rebound guy so this is a decent body for Joe. It’s not exactly in the most well fit shape but it can do the job. The only problem is of course that people want him dead and the girl that Joe likes (Bette) can’t stand Farnsworth. Well, it’s time for justice and maybe he can get her to change her mind by becoming a better person.

This is really where the film should have stayed as this makes perfect sense for the film. He gets to have a shot at the title because he’s so rich that he can schedule fights and he can use his wealth to make the world a better place. How do you top that right? Well, that would be the general idea but the characters don’t play this smart and the film isn’t quite done yet. There are more bodies to hop and twists to come flying.

First I will say it’s odd that Joe didn’t do anything about the people who murdered Farnsworth. He knows good and well that his wife and secretary had already murdered him once so doesn’t it stand to reason that they would do this again? It makes no sense that he just leaves them to their own devices and doesn’t do a thing about it. This ultimately comes back to bite him and it’s all just rather senseless. Additionally there’s a long period there where Joe doesn’t even really think much about taking them to justice, it’s the last thing on his mind and so he’s close to just letting these murderers keep the money and just doing his own thing. That also doesn’t make sense, cmon now.

Joe’s just not a very smart guy and makes every kind of mistake imaginable. If there’s an error to be made then he will make it. It’s just that simple and that’s really bad all around. You’re rooting for him because he’s a nice guy, but he is definitely a frustrating character the whole time. It’s like he’s sabotaging himself the whole time. Meanwhile it goes without saying that everyone should be upset at 7013 since he messed everything up in the first place. Despite that, he has the gall to be complaining about the situation at different points and how time consuming it all is. He’s the guy who made the situation like this in the first place so there’s really no sympathy here.

Jordan is a bit disappointing in the end too and Joe should be mad at the guy. First off, he absolutely could have warned Joe that he was about to get bumped off the second time. He knew in advance so why not mention something? I’d argue even if it’s against the rules that wouldn’t matter in this case since the situation was all his fault as well. At that point there’s no real precedent for what’s going on. The worst part is also that Jordan ends up just being a big liar the whole time. He made a lot of promises to Joe the whole time about how he would be able to live out the rest of his life and get his shot to be the champion. While the latter maybe counts if you really squint, he definitely went back on the first aspect. It’s just a super rough spot to be in because Joe really lost everything without anything to show for it.

The film also doesn’t make Bette look good as a result. You have to understand that she falls in love with Joe when he’s in the Farnsworth body and then falls for him again in the next one? As far as she knows these are two completely different people so she moves on way too quickly. That’s not the way you find true love and it just makes her look more on the shallow side. I definitely expected better from her here and the romance in general is definitely on the weaker side. Even in the first place it’s hard to see her falling for Farnsworth when he was the one responsible for sending her father to prison. Yes, he made things right but it’s way too late by then right?

Joe’s boss Max was an entertaining character and I always enjoyed seeing him around but the guy could be a bit slow on the uptake at times. Things definitely didn’t go his way a whole lot and you could argue that he probably lose out the most in a lot of ways. Yes, the ending does throw him a bit of a bone but that’s all it does. The guy should have gotten off with a much better fate. He may have contributed to the issue by burning up the original body but it’s not like he ever could have known what was going to happen so I can’t blame him there.

Overall, The writing is good and I enjoyed the plot but the whole movie feels rather unfair to Joe. He was taken from Earth way too early and so he correctly fought for his case to go back. All well and good but the end of the film just slips the rug out from under him which is unfortunate. So I had a good time here and the comedy could be good but parts of the story feel really forced and additionally that ending is particularly brutal. That knocks it down a few pegs here and it’s an eternal reminder of why an ending is supremely important. Without it, you have nothing!

Overall 5/10

Sonic Prime Review

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It’s time to talk about the most recent Sonic show that just ended. Prime definitely had a pretty good run although the episode count isn’t as impressive as the overall length because of the way the show kept getting split up. Still, because of that you certainly can’t say that it was over in the blink of an eye. It had some good action and it’s always fun to see the Sonic characters running around even if the show never got too ambitious or tried to be anything more than pretty good.

The show starts off quickly with Sonic and friends trying to stop Eggman’s latest attack. He’s trying to do something with a crystal shard and so Sonic quickly attacks him but ends up blowing the shard up which sends him into a whole different reality. There are now different worlds that have alternate versions of Amy, Tails, Rouge, Big, and Knuckles. Sonic has to unite the gems to reform the crystal and bring his world back but to do hat he will have to defeat the Chaos Council, a group of different Eggmen that are bent on ruling the universe. Can Sonic stop them and will these alternate characters want to prevent the fusion since it could have dangerous repercussions on their own home worlds?

So right away I will say that this is pretty much a classic Saturday Morning cartoon title. You shouldn’t expect things to get too tense/dangerous even with the end of the world stakes at place. There will be a lot of one liners and comedic moments to keep things light but Sonic’s always been good with those. So the tone itself fits, but the execution isn’t always up to par with the high standard of the games’. Sonic is often not as witty as he thinks he is and so some of the jokes tend to fall flat. It’s why the show is definitely at its best when there is action happening.

We have one of our longest Sonic vs Shadow fights in the series during the second part of the show and it’s handled really well. Fans of Sonic may not appreciate that he plays second fiddle to Shadow all of the time but I’m pretty cool with Shadow being the strongest. (Remember that Sonic 2006 showed that he has been holding back the whole time and could have easily beaten Sonic) They should be fairly close but Shadow having the slight edge isn’t bad. In fact you could argue that a slight edge in a fight like this would be enough to have one character dominate.

Shadow is consistently shown to be more experienced, smarter, stronger, and more combat ready in general. In any scene with the two of them running around Sonic will often end up falling flat on his face while Shadow lands with grace and poise. As a result the show does have to write him out quite often since he would be dominating the whole time. Even then he shines off screen like when we see how he actually managed to take down a whole army of enemies. That was great. Shadow is absolutely the highlight of the series and any scene with him is awesome.

I will say that I also enjoy Sonic a lot. Yeah he definitely acts a lot younger than usual which is why my head canon is that this takes place back in the old days despite how that would not fit with continuity. However, he’s still a hero through and through. It’s always fun to see him use his speed and dominate the enemies when the chips are down. He’s a good lead and he still clears over 90% of the cast in the show.

It’s a bit of a shame that we don’t get to see his friends much since the alternate universe fighters take the main stage here. Most of them are rather boring. There’s the pirate crew but they don’t have much of a role beyond their version of Knuckles. That Knuckles is okay but it’s hard to take him seriously as a threat since you figure Sonic can beat him at any point. At least he did have a full personality the whole time so I’ll give him that.

Then in the Jungle role the only one with a real full role was Amy. She had a pretty good action scene with Sonic as they avoided the trees/vines while battling. Beyond that though, there isn’t really much to her. Her bird also ends up failing at the last possible moment for no reason other than to buy time which was odd. The Amys in general go more of a role than the other characters though. Typically each world had one primary character: Pirates was Knuckles, Rebellion was Tails, Jungle was Amy, however then you had the robotic Amy from the pirates world also get a big role so that broke tradition.

Robotic Amy was fun, she didn’t get quite as much to do later but it was a fun concept. Having her finally break away from the programming and do her own thing was cool although even then I think they could have done a little more with it. Imagine her being a full third faction just trying to take over the world or something. I think that could have been a lot of fun.

After that is Nine who has a super big role. His role is second only to Sonic in the show as he is a consistent presence in each part. The guy is a genius like the real Tails but has to live with the fact that he isn’t the Tails that Sonic always hung out with. The whole thing’s pretty tragic for him and I think the show does a good job of playing him up as more of an anti hero than straight up villain. I mean some of his dialogue in the last part is classic bad guy but the motivations make sense.

Basically the way I saw it at first is that depending on how the merging goes through, Tails’ and his timeline may no longer exist. The way the show actually ends it doesn’t seem like that’s the case but it’s a very reasonable concern. So his goals and Sonic’s are directly opposed to each other and Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V had a very similar issue. It’s a very interesting one that I enjoy because there isn’t really a right answer. Once a new world has been created, you don’t really have any authority to suddenly destroy it to bring your own back right? However if you don’t, then you are sort of murdering billions of people by inaction. Sonic has to bring his world back at any cost and Nine has to protect his.

Again, this is Sonic Prime so it’s not going to go with the hard philosophical questions like that. The final part makes this more of a black and white struggle in regards to who the good guys are and the bad guys but it was a fun way to end off the second part. Nine also works really well as a villain and while I will always take speed over smarts, he absolutely does give Sonic a good fight.

I’ll talk about the power levels in a minute but lets wrap up the characters. Metal Sonic shows up here which was pretty cool although it’s a very different take on the character to be sure. He likes to throw out puns and joke around just like Sonic. It’s going for the more literal copy of Sonic right down to the personality rather than being cold and calculating like he usually is. I get what they were going for here but I don’t think it really works. It does make him memorable though so I’ll give him that. Later on we get more copies that are truly mindless and they don’t end up being all that interesting.

Then we have the Chaos Council. While I’m not as harsh on them as some others, they are very weak villains. I didn’t personally like any of them and they just made me miss Eggman. The baby is super annoying since he can’t even talk and the old man is the other extreme where he is super old and that’s the only joke that the series will keep on reusing for him. You have the kid who loves playing video games which is barely even a personality and then the only adult who I could only describe as a watered down Eggman. So not a very intimidating group and the problem is that the show really wants you to respect them. They actually give Sonic a hard time at different points which doesn’t make any sense. We really could have used more villains.

This brings me to the power levels issue. It’s common for anything including speedsters so it’s not unique to Sonic Prime but it’s still annoying as always. Sonic should be mopping the floor with just about every villain in the series. I don’t mind him having trouble with Shadow, Metal Sonic, or other speedsters. But the Chaos Council, Pirate Knuckles, and Nine? Those fights should be over in the blink of an eye. It never makes sense whenever Sonic is hit by any of these guys. If you want to do that, then have him get exhausted first like when Nine forced him to keep saving people. That would make sense but a fresh Sonic can’t be getting hit all of the time.

It’s part of why I looked forward to seeing Shadow every time because he looked the way I expected Sonic to look. He actually used his speed well and was usually winning his battles while Sonic jobbed the whole time. Yeah Sonic would eventually win with the help of his friends but that was about it. Also the friends should not stand any chance against the Grim Sonics running around. It just comes across as really cheesy the whole time.

As mentioned, the animation is pretty smooth though and so that works with the fights. At times you don’t really feel the weight behind the blows though. I always turn to the DCAU or Dragon Ball Z for this. You need animation effects for the blows or a good sound effect. Part of the problem with Prime is someone will get punched or slammed but the effect is so weak that it feels lifeless. As for the soundtrack, it’s more on the generic side. Don’t expect anything memorable.

I will say to prepare yourself for a very dragged out Part 3. While I still enjoyed it quite a lot with the fighting and climax, it is fair to say that they really start to overplay their hand. There are a ton of moments that feel straight up like recycled footage and I think that’s actually the cast. We reuse the same story beats over and over to fight the same opponents in the same setting. I knew something was suspicious when we entered the climax almost immediately in the final part and that’s because we would end up going on a loop.

Part of the problem is that this makes the power level issues more obvious. On one hand you have Sonic and Shadow teaming up to beat the Grim Sonic and then later on you have him getting punched around by Knuckles and Amy. Yeah the Alphas are stronger than the clones but even the Alphas were losing to the friends. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. I think maybe part of the problem is the CG and the show had to keep reusing backgrounds and character models. It would explain why throughout the series we kept going to the same places and fighting the same enemies. It’s yet another reason why hand drawn will always be superior.

By the end of the series you deeply miss Eggman and Sonic’s actual friends. I would really like to see a series focus more on them without any big gimmicks because if you think about it that never really happens. In Sonic X we were busy with the humans and then going off to space, in Sonic Boom they’re all trapped on an island so the rest of the characters aren’t there, etc. I think there are plenty of great stories you could tell with the main cast and no gimmicks.

So repetition is the show’s biggest weakness. It should have mixed things up a bit more and even if I give the writers the excuse that the animation limited them, you can absolutely write around that. So Sonic Prime is a very safe show and it’s a fun one but these are the kinds of basic issues that keep it from moving forward. If the show ever does return or we get a brand new one, I’d like to see them mix it up a bit. Also they shouldn’t be afraid to make Sonic more of a true leader. Yeah he’s a free spirit but he’s a fairly mature one in most forms of media. He has fun with the jokes but always at a good time and he takes care of the situation with ease which is part of why it works.

I should give the show some credit for Sonic’s new super form though. It wasn’t really necessary since he has a ton of existing ones as it is, but I still enjoyed seeing it. It was a good way to end off one of the parts and at least salvage the climax from the usual giant villain. In general I also really liked a lot of the designs for the original characters like the Grim Bots and pretty much all of the mechs. So the character designers did really know what they were doing.

Overall, Sonic Prime was pretty fun. I had a good time with the episodes. The animation is good enough as it looks like cutscenes right out of the video games. It may not be as top tier as it could have been with a more traditional style but it did the job. In a lot of ways that describes the show all around. It’s pretty good even if it’s not groundbreaking. I don’t think the show itself will have a ton of replay value but I could see myself Youtubing some of the fights every now and again. Particularly Sonic vs Shadow which is the highlight of the series.

Overall 7/10

City Hunter Review

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It’s time for a fairly wacky comedy film. This one definitely does not hold back in terms of how out there it gets. That said, the humor doesn’t really land very well most of the time. There are some good moments but on the whole the film ends up dragging itself out and whenever you think a hype scene is about to occur, your hopes get obliterated right away. This is basically what happens if you make a film with someone like James Bond as the main character…

The movie starts off with City Hunter’s partner getting extremely sloppy as he is gunned down by a group of villains. He quickly tells the hunter not to get together with his sister and City Hunter vows to live up to those words. He’s busy flirting with every girl in town anyway but his days of slacking off have come to an end as he is hired for an important job. He must locate a girl named Kyoko who is with the wrong crowd and her father wants her back. The City Hunter vows to complete the mission for all of the wrong reasons and after fumbling the operation, follows her onto a fancy cruise. What he doesn’t realize is that the boat is swarming with so many terrorists who can fight in hand to hand combat far better than he can. Is it all over for him?

So here’s the deal, I’m all for some good slapstick and I don’t even mind a main character who is completely unable to fight. Someone who is out of his depths the whole time can be a lot of fun with some sarcastic humor. The important point is that he has to be likable and unfortunately….that’s where he falters big time. This guy is just too much of a flirt who prioritizes that over the mission. I won’t say he’s as bad as James Bond but any scene with this guy is extremely annoying.

The film certainly does a good job of incorporating a lot of harem type antics into the movie to make this as authentic as possible but it comes at the expense of the movie being any good. City Hunter should have leaned more into his goofy nature and how he couldn’t find the police office let alone any crooks, but instead it focuses on what a perv the guy is. You’re rooting for the villains to take him out most of the time.

Also most of the film’s humor basically revolves around this which gets old fast and doesn’t come across as clever. There’s quite a lot of fanservice here which bogs down the movie. It’s not quite Charlie’s Angels territory which still takes the dubious crown in that department but it’s fairly unrelenting here. Even when viewing the film under the parody lens, you’re not really going to be sticking with this one for very long.

Kaori isn’t really a great heroine either. She is always jealous of the other girls that City Hunter is with and so she pouts a lot but a better heroine would have really been beating him up all the time. She imagines doing so, but actually tackling him more would have been better. I want to see some confidence and charisma. Instead she goes as far as to pretend to ally herself with the villains at times to get a reaction out of the guy…although it never works anyway. Why would she even want to be with someone who is clearly not going to be loyal in the slightest? City Hunter would drop her in an instant as soon as another girl talks to him.

Now they probably could have let up a little with how many times Kaori gets knocked to the ground though. It just gets sad after a while when you see how often she is the film’s punching bag. Kiyoko gets into a fair deal of trouble as well but unlike Kaori, Kiyoko was basically seeking this out the whole time. I don’t think Kiyoko played this very smart at all from the start but intelligence isn’t the strong suit of just about any character here.

Okay lets talk about some positives. For what it’s worth, there are a few good fight scenes once in a while. There’s a solid fight in the theater where City Hunter mainly gets dominated but eventually churns out a win. It’s still part comedy of course but it works well enough. The best fight is against the main villain’s bouncer though. Both characters move so fast that they keep on missing each other. See, this is actually a pretty good gag that is parodying how good of a fighter they both are. They’re so good that they both actually end up looking weak. Now that’s clever. There are a few other good jokes in there as well.

The effects are so bad that they go all the way around into actually being funny as well. This may not be intentional but I wouldn’t even be surprised if that’s what they were going for. This film is trying to be as silly as possible which is why it’s a shame that it’s not better. Usually I’d be a sucker for a film like this but it just didn’t have the right humor approach. Humor can be very difficult to land of course but at the same time it’s rare to mess up this badly. Seriously just make City Hunter less of a two dimensional character and you could be on to something! A film like this should never feel like its dragging and yet that happens at times. It’s a flurry of activity but sometimes it feels like nobody is going anywhere which doesn’t help matters.

Overall, City Hunter is a movie that just tries way too hard. It ends up being more cringeworthy than funny most of the time. Having a better main character would have helped a whole lot. Ultimately it’s probably for the best that most people don’t remember this one. Why would you adapt City Hunter instead of the original Gundam or even Astro Boy? Trust me when I say there were plenty of other manga titles you could have adapted before this one even entered the conversation. You may as well call this guy the City Hunter by the end of it with how much he’s getting wrecked the whole time.

Overall 4/10

Antz Review

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It’s time to look at a film about Ants. This is a pretty fun one that has some really clever dialogue hidden in there. It actually gets a little more intense than I could have figured and it’s clear that this film was ready to push the envelope a bit. While the animation may not be the strongest, I would say that the film holds up pretty well overall thanks in large part to that strong writing. This isn’t a film that will be easily forgotten or that you could mix up with a different title.

The movie starts with Z explaining to a doctor exactly why he feels so sad all of the time. He doesn’t want to be a mindless worker Ant just doing what he’s told. He wants to live a little, explore, and just do his own thing. The problem is that this is not how the ant culture works. So they hope to get him back with the program soon. One day he gets to meet Princess Bala when she breaks the rules to hang out at a bar and he is so determined to see her again that he switches places with his friend Weaver so he can be with the soldiers. This leads Z to be included on a suicide mission where everyone dies except for him. So now Z is considered to be a massive hero and that also makes him a big target as the main villain is hoping to create a new colony that revolves only around the soldiers. He would rule it of course and so the queen will ultimately need to be taken out of the picture.

Z uses Bala as a hostage to escape but now the two of them must survive out in the wilderness. Additionally will anyone stop the general or is the colony going to fall? One thing’s for sure, Z cannot let his guard down at any point. He’s already not a fighter after all so one wrong move and he’s really doomed. As you can expect he doesn’t get along with Bala much at first. She finds him to be too low in confidence, generally annoying, and someone who can never stay quiet for more than a few minutes. On the other side he just wants to be free now and leaving the colony was the best thing that could have happened to him. He does not intend to return so she will have to try and make him.

We have some decent banter here and so it’s a fun part of the movie to have them on the run. That said, the romance is definitely more on the rushed side here. Nothing happens that actually convinces you they could really be friends much less more than that. It just doesn’t seem likely especially with the rough start. He basically did kidnap her before so how do you really come back from that? He also just seems to not really be her type in general.

Bala also is a little slow on the uptake like when she outed herself going to the bar by mistake when she recognized Z. You’d think she would have been more subtle about it considering that she knew she would be in trouble for this. Ah well I guess she didn’t think that part all the way through. By the end of the film she’s more reasonable. Originally I thought Azteca was going to be the main heroine here so I was surprised to see her role be so small but she’s a fun enough character. I was also glad that Z had someone to stick up for him in Weaver. That guy was a good friend all the way and someone you could trust. Even when he was beaten and interrogated he would stay strong until someone else was in danger.

The whole plot of the ant revolution was also pretty fun. It showed how all they needed was one ant to make a big move and then they were ready. They probably should have questioned their destiny a lot sooner tbh but better late than never right? It’s still progress which is always good. It’s hard to imagine having to live such a confined lifestyle where you just do things because they’re all expected of you and you have no real free will. Of course within the film’s context it makes sense because they’re all ants but you can also say it’s a metaphor for how some people just do things without knowing the true reason why. Always stay alert and question everything!

Like I said the animation isn’t great or anything but it looks good enough. The character designs are on point and you do know what is happening all the way through. The soundtrack is a little more impressive with a fast tune that pops up early on and it stays energetic the whole way through. This is a fast paced movie that always has a lot happening and that’s absolutely one of its strengths. On a technical level the film is still good and of course like I said the writing is on point too. It’s a film that will give you a good amount of laughs and has a strong sense of humor all the way through. The film is also able to adapt and get serious when needed.

Overall, Antz is a pretty good film. I would even say that it is the complete package. It has everything you could want in a film from good characters to solid humor. The action gets pretty intense as well and we even have a real war scene. The film’s characters are just human enough where I’d say there is no real animal violence here but the body count itself may still surprise you a little bit. This is definitely not the kind of film where everyone has a happy ending. That much I can tell you for sure. I’d be interested in more films in this continuity but this one did pretty much explore everything. I don’t think it really left a lot of meat on the bone and had enough happening where it really filled in the full run time with no issues.

Overall 7/10

Operation Christmas Drop Review

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It’s time for an emotional Christmas story that would do Hallmark proud. It’s a fun movie all around and the pacing is on point so you’re always having a good time. The plot is fairly straight forward and you can see a lot of the story beats coming but the execution is on point. The movie never tries to do too much and mainly focuses on one key plot instead of trying to jam in a ton of them. Less is more in this instance and so that ends up working pretty well.

The film starts with Erica being tasked with her most difficult mission yet. She has to prove why the army should close an air force base so that the funds can be reallocated. Of course this means a lot of people would be losing their jobs which is rough. Additionally the biggest loss would be the Christmas Drop program where the Air Force flies supplies, gifts, and a lot of much needed convenience items to people in the nearby islands who could really use some essentials. They aren’t very well off and so this is one way to help boost morale while helping a lot of people in very real ways. All in all, this is a PR nightmare for Erica as she is basically the bad guy here. She keeps deflecting by saying that she is just following orders but maybe it is time to make a stand. Maybe it is time…to save Christmas!

You would think optically Erica’s boss would like to keep the base to show how benevolent she is but of course in politics you always have a thousand voices yelling at you to different things so at this point and time the pressure is simply higher on the other side. Sometimes that’s really all it boils down to. Erica is certainly ready to submit her report and bury the place at first as well until she gradually sees how it helps out. I have no doubt that some money is likely spent on the program even with all of the donations but the fact that the base went out of its way to try and make this a good deal for everyone does speak volumes. It shows that they are really trying hard to be responsible at all phases of the project.

Andrew is the main guy sticking up for the program and he does a terrific job. He always has the right answers on hand and isn’t intimidated by Erica’s boss. He makes the pitch to her directly as well and you can tell that the guy has put a lot of effort into this program. Even with the romance aside I’d say his pitch would have been fairly convincing to any reporter looking in on the situation. That’s because by every objective metric this is a really good idea. For the cynical onlookers at least it’s good PR, for the people hoping to make a difference in the world this gives them an avenue to do it, and for all of the islanders it obviously helps them out a whole lot since they are in a tough spot.

It’s always good to see the army doing good and using all of their equipment for something like this is great. So yeah Andrew steals the show as the main character here. Meanwhile Erica is solid as well. Obviously she does have to go through a bit of a character arc to end up as the selfless lead she was destined to be but it’s a character arc that is definitely handled well. When it comes time to make a stand, she picks the right side and helps the team out on their mission.

As for the romance in this film, there’s no rebounding going on so I appreciate that. Often times there is a poor ex running around or a character was already with someone and breaks up after making it to the main plot. In this case that doesn’t happen. The romance is still on the weaker side since it’s all moving a little too fast though. Given the stakes here you’d think romance would be the last thing on either of their minds. Andrew has a mission to save after all and letting your feelings interfere with that would be a grave mistake.

It is definitely a bit odd to see a Christmas film taking place by the beach like this but it certainly helps the film stand out. That is also the normal setting for plenty of people so that’s a nice way to see their perspective. Of course if given the choice I would always want a Christmas that’s sub zero temperature with plenty of snow but at the end of the day you should be able to have a good time no matter how hot or cold it is. It’s more about enjoying the day and the festivities than what’s going on outside right? This does mean there aren’t any big montage of holiday foods this time around though but that’s fine.

The writing is on point so even the antagonists aren’t written to be super crazy or anything like that. Everyone has reasons for doing what they are doing and the film does give the main antagonist a good amount of presence. Whenever she walks in you know the characters are going to be stressed. You also can’t blame her for being upset since from her point of view this all does look pretty bad. Imagine walking into the army base to see the person you hired in the middle of a party instead of researching? Bosses tend to have tricky timing like that sometimes.

Overall, Operation Christmas Drop is a pretty good film. It has a good story with a solid moral and ultimately just spreads good vibes the whole time. It’s the kind of movie where you feel good after having watched it and you can’t say that for just any film. Mix in a lot of fun visuals, songs, and a good cast and you have a winner here. Being fun is one of the main positives I would say for the film and that’s really all that you need. It kept the plot fairly basic and the character cast rather small. It has a very specific focus with the story and doesn’t deviate from that. I had a good time watching it and so I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto Review

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It’s time for an anime that is fairly bonkers and definitely in a good way. This show takes the idea of the perfect student and dials it up to 11. Sakamoto can do no wrong and he makes for a very solid main character. You will probably find yourself identifying with his character and basically going “That’s me for real” the whole time. That’s how moving he is. Yeah the show definitely goes by pretty quickly as a result and each episode has something crazy going on.

For the most part each episode is fairly stand alone but there is a true continuity the whole way through. Past events will be referenced and some episodes do continue. The basic premise though is that there is a student named Sakamoto who is basically perfect. Everyone loves this guy, he aces every kind of class and challenge that gets put in his path. The guy is super agile, powerful, and knowledgeable. Yet the guy has a good amount of humility and will always help others out. The school can use someone like Sakamoto because there are a lot of bullies here and so without him the place would fall into anarchy. Can he make the school a better place or does he have a secret flaw?

The opening song is pretty catchy for the series. It really grabs you and stays fairly memorable. The show itself has a pretty good ost as well with some nice variety in there. I’m not saying it’s the next Naruto of course but yeah this is high quality stuff all the way. The animation is also solid although it’s not a stand out. For a show like this that’s part comedy I imagine they didn’t break the bank in terms of the animation quality. So it looks pretty good but it’s not the top of the line stuff. You wouldn’t likely see it in any best animated moments kind of thread.

Where the show excels is with the humor and writing which is bound to get a few laughs out of you. The situations can just be so out there and absurd that you can’t help but grin a little. You always know that Sakamoto will get some characters out of trouble and it’s just about seeing how he will do it. Sometimes he will do it himself like pretending to be possessed and other times he will manipulate the students into doing the right thing. That’s why Sakamoto is a secret mastermind, he’s always a few steps ahead of the competition.

He has to be up there as one of the best characters in the series and that would probably be true for most people. Even if you don’t tend to like the perfect character trope, Sakamoto is very aware of this and so the show has a lot of fun with it. As a result this portrayal works really well. Sakamoto just makes the world a better place and I only have one negative for his character which is that sometimes he goes too far in sandbagging. Like there’s one episode where he gets blackmailed into buying some sketchy DVDs and another where he ends up being the servant of one of the bullies.

Yes, at no point is he in any serious danger and you know he’s just playing along for fun but it’s still not the best look for the guy. Personally if you ask me, I’d just like to see him stand up for himself there and show them up even if it’s in a subtle way. I’d say he tends to be more passive aggressive in how he handles these moments by being a bit too useful and that’s the gag in those moments but eh…that’s the only time I’m not super impressed with him. His positive moments heavily outweigh the negative ones though which is why he’s still a great character. He’s always got a plan and does his best to stay on top.

His friend Kubota is more of a sad character who gets picked on and isn’t strong enough to fight back. That’s a tough predicament to be in for sure so you do feel bad about that. His role in the show is a lot smaller than I would have guessed though as he doesn’t do much after the initial episodes. He has a running gag about his hair changing a lot but that’s about it. Honestly you forget him as soon as he leaves the screen so we didn’t need more screentime anyway.

Atsushi is one of the main bullies in the show and he gets a big role. Unfortunately he does tend to be one of the more annoying character and takes way more Ls than Ws. This guy gets shown up early and turns over a new leaf but he has very weak willpower which means that he backslides very often. You may think that you can count on him after a point but unfortunately that just isn’t the case. He looks really bad in the climax of the series where he completely loses his mind and the main problem is that it’s due to him being tricked. Now granted he would have looked bad no matter what his excuse was but getting tricked makes it sting extra hard.

The guy just didn’t get consistently better and falling backwards like that is a quick way for me to lose respect for the character. At least the same thing didn’t happen to his two friends but they couldn’t stop him anyway so it didn’t help much. Then you have Sera who likes being the center of attention but of course he can’t compete with Sakamoto. That leads to a lot of jealousy and petty moments for the guy. Unlike Atsushi though, he actually has a consistent character arc and ends up becoming a better person after he is humbled the first time. He has a very unfortunate reoccurring gag about stripping though which does hurt his character. It’s more sad than funny most of the time and you feel bad for him because initially he had such great aspirations for himself. Now he is doomed to just be the comic relief.

Aina is a fun character even if she doesn’t have time to do too much. Basically she likes Sakamoto and aims to seduce him but she finds that it’s not so easy because the guy is always extremely focused. He overpowers all of her techniques and she also has to deal with a lot of people meddling in her affairs. The fight over the Ouija board was a really entertaining moment though and one of the better parts in the series. Talk about high takes, you really had to be careful what answer Aina forced on the group. If the series were longer I imagine she would have had more full episodes but the series is pretty short and mainly each character had to get their moment to shine so there wasn’t much time for general chats.

Megumi is more of a timid character in comparison. While Aina directly goes to Sakamoto to try and get him, Megumi is content to hide and try to take pictures of him in secret. You have to give her points for effort there but ultimately as a character she’s not great. I just tend to prefer the bolder characters and so she’s not going to stack up like that. Even a minor character like Kakuta leaves more of an impact because the gag of him trying to get Sakamoto to be one second late to penalize him is a fun one. The guy just is never able to pull this off.

Shigemi is one of the worst characters here. Her gag is that even though she is the mother of Sakamoto’s friend, she falls for him. His natural charms are simply too powerful and while we all know and understand the gag, it doesn’t make her any less annoying. You’re still shaking your head when she shows up. She only gets one full episode to herself but yeah it’s a bit rough. I think the gag was overplayed right out of the gate.

Maruyama was a more entertaining character and that’s considering the fact that he ended up being more annoying at times because of how that was the episode where Sakamoto was working for him the whole time which was hard to watch. Still, the gag of being scared because of how talented Sakamoto was at least worked a lot better as a gag and could hold up its own episode there. The episode being solid is always the important part. Like i wasn’t a big fan of any of the kids but their episode about not crossing the line was still fun. It showed that Sakamoto would make time even to hang out with some kids.

Then we have Hayabusa who is another great character that you could rank near the top. He may be the head honcho of the bullies but he seems like a standup guy. He has a solid honor code and lets his people do whatever they want. He seems to just want to have a good time and for nobody to get seriously hurt. He even sticks up for Sakamoto when the going gets tough. This guy is the real deal and definitely someone that you want on your side. His episode where he tries to survive a fancy restaurant experience was also a very noble one.

Trust me that’s a rough spot because a lot of that fancy food doesn’t even taste good. He did it all to support his father which was really nice of him. Now at the end of the day you should stick up for yourself and make sure not to get yourself into a jam like that but his heart was in the right place. He did want to make things better all around so it’s hard to fault him for that.

Finally we have Fukase who is the big villain here. The head honcho, the big cheese. He does a good job of ending the season off with a bang. Now this is one plot where I wasn’t crazy about the resolution though because I was just expecting more. The gag itself is funny to an extent but the fast redemption arc just didn’t feel earned. This guy caused a whole lot of trouble after all and while it’s great that he will be a better person now, I wanted more of a true fight. This guy felt like he could be on Sakamoto’s level with all of the tough talk so I just needed to see that in action.

In the end he was more of a strategic fighter which is cool too but seeing someone give Sakamoto a run for his money would have been fun. Maybe next time I suppose. The ending itself was still pretty fun as an emotional climax and a solid name drop. I was thinking it would have been cool to have seen Sakamoto join a new school or something. My theory was that he was like an alien or something sent to make the school a better place. I found out about a darker theory after finishing the show which makes a lot of sense though in which case you can see why they went with this ending.

Overall, This was a really fun show. It’s a full on comedy title that really makes use of the absurd humor style. It can sometimes be tough for a show to get going right away with the humor but this one pulled it off. It was important to start fast too considering that it’s not like this one has 50 episodes to burn. A lot of comedy titles need a second genre to work as well but this one just went all in and it turned out well. I’d say the replay value is fairly strong as well since there are so many gags per episode. Throw in a solid main character and a pretty decent cast overall and you’re set. Outside of the episode with the Mom chasing Sakamoto, all of the other episodes were pretty solid as well. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a good time. Even if you’re not typically a comedy fan, I’d say to give this one a chance because it’s very accessible.

Overall 7/10

The Great Rupert Review

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The Great Rupert is a fun film even if Rupert himself doesn’t appear as much as you would expect him too. He’s certainly a big part of the plot with how much influence he has the whole time but at the same time you just were expecting him to do more. Still, it’s a quality film with fun characters who may make a ton of mistakes but never harsh the vibe that the movie is going for.

The movie starts off with an old man having to let go of his pet squirrel for a while. Rupert may have been a true show stopper with his dancing abilities but it was time to go their separate ways. Rupert ends up crashing at the home of a stingy landlord named Frank. Well, Frank’s family have a decent amount of money but never get to spend it. Even when Frank ends up striking it rich with an investment that he made, he insists on storing all of his money at the house instead of the bank. He is making a clean $1500 a week now but what he doesn’t know is that Rupert is throwing the money down to the new tenants, Louie and his family. Louie has been poor for a while but now he can use this money to invest in a bunch of people and spread the wealth. Is he perhaps spreading himself too thin though?

All right so lets jump into the positives. I like Louie’s can do attitude the whole time. No matter how bad things get, the guy always has a smile and a lot of energy. He clearly enjoys life a whole lot and will always do his best to help others. He can sometimes pull a fast one on people like when making a deal for the Christmas tree but he always ends up helping others to balance the scales. He’s the kind of guy you could easily become friends with although on the flip side, he’s very irresponsible. The fact that he used up all of the money the family had on more than one occasion is inexcusable.

There is a fine line between helping a bunch of people out and just letting them take advantage of you. By not having enough money to support his family I have to say that he fell into the latter. You must always have some money on hand for your family because if not then you have let them down. There’s just no way around it. Likewise his wife should have done better in holding onto that money as well. She believed that it came from her praying to God so wouldn’t you want to make sure it was all properly used and not wasted? That would be blasphemy of the highest order at all and yet she was willing to keep on asking for more and more money. It felt rather shameless even if the whole family was in on it.

Rosalinda was my least favorite member of the family though. The money seemed to go to her head in a very bad way where it’s like she got corrupted right away. The film surprisingly didn’t play this angle up very much but even Pete mentions how she’s different now. She starts flirting with a producer and manipulates him so that she can get Pete’s song on the radio but in the meantime her plan is basically to date this guy. Poor Pete has to take a back seat without any explanation as to what’s going on. She ends up being really lucky that he’s still interested by the end. I didn’t think that plot was handled very well at all.

Pete ends up looking really bad as well with how much he takes the whole film. He should have been standing up for himself and everything instead of just watching and feeling sorry for himself. He sticks up for her by getting fired but even then while it’s supposed to be a great moment, it didn’t feel earned. It’s not even like the guy spreading rumors was being all that drastic.

While Pete’s investment later on ends up paying off, I wouldn’t even say he was in the right there. Frank usually would have been right when he told his son that this was a very foolish move to make. Being lucky or being right in the end doesn’t suddenly mean that you made the correct decision after all. Like things ended really badly for Frank but that was just bad luck. It doesn’t mean that hiding his money was the wrong play. He is certainly too stingy though. There’s not much point to having a lot of money if you decide to never use it until you get old. Like why even bother by that point? You’ll be so old that you can’t do all of the fun stuff you could have when you were young.

So yeah even from the review you can see how I haven’t really talked about Rupert at all. He’s the vehicle for getting the funds transferred but otherwise doesn’t really do anything. I do think the effects for him were pretty good though and the scenes were always fun. I’d probably have just renamed the movie though since the focus was really on the main characters. Ultimately the pacing was really quick and the writing was good so I really did have a good time with this one. The ending may not have been ultra happy in some respects like losing the house but the final seconds make up for this with a ton of good news coming in. I can’t recall any other film where there were so many positive twists in the last seconds like that. So it definitely helped perk up the ending quite a bit.

Overall, The Great Rupert is a really fun film. In some respects you could say it’s a fairly basic title without many twists and turns but that works well as a slice of life. Ultimately for a film like this you need a solid cast and this movie delivers all the way. I can’t say I was really familiar with the film before watching it so if like me you didn’t know about it, I’d definitely say to check it out. It’s a fun story and the fantasy of one day waking up to a bunch of money is always a fun one. Hopefully you wouldn’t squander it the way that Louie did though. When you get money like that, the first step is figuring out how to make it grow or at the very least hanging onto it!

Overall 7/10

Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! Review

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I always forget just how short these films can be but man do you feel it with this one. It just ends so fast and I think that does take away from what they could have done here. Ultimately it’s a fun enough movie even if I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the strongest ones. Just having the DC heroes/villains here is pretty fun. At the end of the day I also tend to enjoy crossovers quite a bit so that adds a bit of an extra punch to the experience right out of the gate.

The film starts with the Justice League vanishing and the culprit appears to be some kind of fire ghost. Clearly he is a threat to be able to take out someone like the mighty Superman. Lois tries to investigate but the monster is too tricky so for once she gives up on the biggest story of her life and instead brings in the Mystery Gang to solve this. They look scared right out of the jump with their credibility diminishing the longer they are in the room but they vow to solve this case and help save the world. Can this terrified group of youngsters surpass their limits to save the day?

Now you may be thinking, what about Krypto? No worries he randomly shows up in the Hall of Justice and helps out. Aside from Shaggy and Scooby the rest of the gang aren’t impressed since they think that Krypto is just some normal dog. I think this is supposed to be funny because they’re used to Scooby Doo doing all kinds of crazy things but now they’re skeptical. Perhaps they are right to be though because Krypto looks very underwhelming for most of the film. When the heroes are attacked by a group of villains Krypto is the first to run for the door and spends a while trying to open it instead of helping out.

He then gets absolutely crushed in his only one on one fight against another dog. This may be a Krypto crossover film but he looks so bad that you may wonder why he was in the title. His role just isn’t as critical as you would expect it to be for a 50/50 crossover like this. I would say Courage got a lot more to do in his adventure. It’s still nice to see Krypto of course and they show off his powers but when he scratches on a door instead of busting it open you wonder how much of his super strength he actually kept. Not enough if you ask me.

From the DC side the main characters here as Lex Luthor, Mercy, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy looks pretty bad the whole time too as he’s so desperate to be with Daphne that he made up this whole rationale in his head. He looks desperate the whole time but no worries he does vanish for most of the film. Lois looks tough as you’d expect and isn’t afraid to take shots at the cast. That said I do find it a bit out of character that she wouldn’t pursue the story herself. Yeah we get a half hearted excuse about covering other stories since the city is being overrun but that’s not quite good enough.

Mercy looks solid here as she tries to balance everything out for Lex. Her role is really satisfying all the way through and the film is able to handle the dynamic with her and Lex better than a lot of other titles to be honest. Lex is hamming up the villain angle quite a bit in this film but you would expect that with the Scooby gang in tow. This is where the film shined a bit more than I expected because I was ready for him to just be the comic relief for a while there but his role is actually rather solid. Yeah he has some anti feats in terms of intelligence but based on the ending you could make the case that it was all an act and I would take that case.

The Scooby gang are mainly as you would expect. Scooby and Shaggy are still running from every threat and generally getting taken down with minimal effort. I still think by now they should have improved a little more so I tend to be a little critical of them. Velma does good in getting hints and cracking the case so I have no issues with her. In some ways you could say it’s one of her better appearances because she’s really not getting distracted and just works to solve the case. You can’t say that most of the other characters in this one.

Fred looks pretty bad here as he keeps grilling Daphne about her and Jimmy despite being in the room when she explained that they were never together. He looks really insecure the whole time and then he gets cared easily and everything. His confidence issues are definitely not fitting for his character since he should always be the calm and collected leader who gets the job done. At his core that’s who Fred Jones is after all. A man on a mission but at least he gets some stuff to do during the climax.

Meanwhile Daphne’s not bad. She gets to fight quite a bit as the films have established her as the best fighter for a while now. She’s able to use Batman’s skills with ease and dishes out a lot of damage the whole time. Honestly it might be time for her to leave the mystery gang and become a crimefighter full time to make the best use of her talents. She could be making a real difference in the city by now.

Despite the film’s short overall length it does still manage to deliver a fairly long climax which I found to be impressive. There is a whole lot of action as we get to see all of the heroes and villains mixing it up in the city. We even get a brief battle between Mercy and Daphne which I would have liked to have seen more of since it would have had a lot of good choreography. So the action at the end was really appreciated particularly since it helped to give the DC side of this crossover a little more shine.

The humor can be a little more on the hit or miss side. I think one issue with the series is that sometimes they do tend to do the same gag over and over until it’s run into the ground. Fred trying to find out about Jimmy from Daphne, Scooby and Shaggy never being able to eat their meal in peace, etc. Still at the end of the day it’s nothing so bad that it would hurt the score big time or anything like that. The writing just isn’t nearly as clever as it’s trying to be.

Overall, Scooby Doo delivers with another fun film here. At the end of the day it may not be one of the more intense Scooby Doo titles but the novelty of having the DC characters in here makes up the difference. If you like Krypto then you’ll probably be disappointed but otherwise just enjoy the DC universe and you’ll have a good time here. I look forward to seeing Scooby Doo churn out more titles and hopefully another big crossover soon.

Overall 7/10

The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock Review

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It’s time for a parody of a film that I wasn’t a big fan of. Fortunately this one blows the original out of the water. I’m not going to say that it’s a great film or anything but it’s fun enough and worth a few laughs. Ultimately I would say that it is solid and a film that you don’t want to forget because of how absurd the whole thing is.

The film starts off by introducing us to Rossiter who is running for governor. This guy knows that he is the best man for the job and is eager to do whatever it takes to win. The only real obstacle in his path is the garbage disposal man, Artie. Artie is someone who has resisted Rossiter’s total ownership of the town. This man owns all of the businesses except for Artie’s. The worst part is that his niece Emmy is dating Artie which Rossiter fears will lower his own social reputation. Well Artie manages along just fine until Emmy grows huge one day. Now her appetite is fierce and she desperately needs to consume more and more calories. Can he really handle her at this point or is it game over for Artie?

Artie is one of those guys who isn’t very smart and so he rarely notices when someone’s insulting him. He tends to be getting dominated throughout the film with a variety of insults but at least his spirits never go low because he takes it all in stride. The guy is really carefree in a lot of ways and that’s nice because it really means that he can always make a comeback. Through misunderstandings and absurd events going on he manages to usually get some victories too like Rossiter allowing him to marry Emmy.

Artie’s ultimately not one of the most likable characters though because of this. Not being very smart tends to hurt when it’s to an exaggerated degree. He did somehow create a robot capable of moving through time and space while bending reality though so he does have some skills. It does lead to a fairly interesting climax with a lot going on though. If you thought the first half was crazy, well the second half definitely escalates this quite a bit. Trust me the film was not holding back at all.

Emmy doesn’t look as good here though because she tends to be unreasonable once she’s a giant. Now you could say that a side effect of turning giant is that it’s destroying her reasoning skills and that’s certainly possible but I’m not sure that I’m giving her that out yet. The film doesn’t really go into that and so in the end it can make her look a little petty. She causes a ton of collateral damage when throwing the trees around and ultimately takes her vengeance a little too far. Honestly people could have died after all of the rampaging. Also the town did pretty well to get her the jumbo food and drink considering that this was a situation nobody had seen before.

Finally I did enjoy Rossiter’s character quite a bit. Yeah the guy’s as selfish and uncaring as can be but that’s part of his charm. He’s the guy who would run you over to save 50 cents if he needed too. All he cares about is himself and he’s not afraid to flaunt that. He has a ton of close calls while on camera but always manages to play them off which shows how resourceful he is. I actually think he could do a pretty good job all things considered. Yeah he’s not someone you could ever trust because of how two faced he is, but by all accounts he’s run the town really well.

Throughout the film everyone seems really happy and they all get along. So wouldn’t you say that Rossiter should take most of the credit for that since he owns every business? He also seems to get along with just about everyone aside from the main character which is pretty impressive. This guy has good people skills to be sure and the film establishes him well. Considering the short runtime each character has a very well defined personality right out of the gate.

The writing is really solid and the humor is on point here. Of course you really need to enjoy this humor style. I’d still consider it slapstick even if the main guy isn’t getting knocked around too much because he does get grabbed a few times. You just know he would have been slugged if there weren’t witnesses around. He definitely needs to be careful because Rossiter is not the kind of guy who will give up. You easily could have done sequels to this movie if all of the actors had still been around because there’s a whole lot of potential around the setup.

The best gag was probably when the machine started explaining how the wedding would have to wait and then it went farther to start yelling that there would be no wedding. Of course it was just another glitch but the timing was just perfect for trolling the main two. It’s clear that the robot still has a lot of errors to iron out but at least it come through when it counts. You can’t really ask for much more than that.

Overall, This is a fun film like I said before. I don’t think you’ll find it super memorable so eventually this will fade away but it’s short and never drags on. The characters have some nice back and forth banter the whole time as well which is always good. The writing did a good job here and so mixing that in with the effective humor makes the film a winner as well. It’s probably a rare case of a good film that would have been worse if it was too long because then it would drag on but that doesn’t happen here. A good movie knows when to end and I did enjoy the final scene here as a nice gag to end things off.

Overall 6/10

Practical Magic Review

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It’s time for a film about magic and how a curse can really last for a very long amount of time. The film has its moments but the whole main romance is really just a big rebound so that does take some points without a doubt. Ultimately the movie goes by rather quickly and it’s an entertaining ride even if it won’t end up being one of the top titles.

The film starts off with a witch creating a curse that bad things will befall any guy who tries to get together with her descendants. The marriage will not be able to last and that has carried through to the present. Sally is our main character and she’s not going to let a curse stop her. She marries a guy named Michael and they had some kids but one day he is hit by a truck and she finally realizes that there is no way to beat the curse. She will not allow herself to love ever again but her sister isn’t ready to quit yet and has a ton of affairs. Unfortunately she has gone in with the wrong crowd now by getting together with a crazy guy named Jimmy. Sally will have to help her out before it’s too late but in the meantime what if she falls in love with one of the local authorities named Gary?

Of course that’s exactly what happens and so there is no way to get around this romance. Sally basically lost her husband to a curse and now she’s going to move on just like that? She probably should have just brought him back to life. Yes, the whole movie is a cautionary tale against doing such a thing but I think you can make it work. In a world where magic is real and it is actually possible to revive someone (albeit with some side effects) then you just have to spend your life perfecting the spell to make it work. I guarantee that it’s at least a possibility considering that we know the magic exits.

So the romance ends up being annoying as a result. Granted Gary’s not even a bad guy. He’s a good person trying to do the right thing and help out. It’s just that I’m not buying the romance. Particularly since Michael was also a good guy before he bought the farm early. The most annoying character has to be Gillian though because she’s the one dragging Sally into a whole lot of trouble. From what we’ve seen of Jimmy he wasn’t exactly a class act from the start so how did this relationship even start?

Regardless he ends up causing a lot of trouble for the duration of the film. Naturally he takes the bulk of the blame since he’s the one going around breaking the law and basically trying to murder the heroines. It would just be nice if Gillian was more responsible since it doesn’t feel like she actually learns any lessons during the film. The aunts are also not without blame as they just run out midway through the film and vanish during the climax. It sure would have been nice to have had some adult supervision to back Sally up when she was in a tight spot.

The film feels pretty short and it’s entertaining enough. There are definitely some jokes that work well like the heroes murdering Jimmy multiple times. The plot is serious to an extent but there are always a lot of lighthearted moments thrown in to keep everything balanced. It also wasn’t too easy to snap the curse so the original witch’s power was definitely impressive. You’d think the main characters or at least the aunts could have worked a bit harder to blow up the curse but granted it seems like the aunts agreed with it to an extent. So they had no real reason to snap it.

The cast here is fairly small which isn’t a bad idea so you can focus on the characters but it’s just a problem that none of them are super likable. There aren’t any standouts here and as a result the film isn’t quite as lively or exciting as it could have been. You’ll never feel bored while watching it or anything like that but there also isn’t a ton of replay value here either. So it’s not bad but it’s not that good either and just winds up being in the middle. I will give the ending props for using the power of friendship though. Sally had been neglecting the other moms at school who were just trying to help and so by the end they all help each other out. It may be a bit cheesy but it was still a decent climax.

One thing the film could have done maybe was to lean into the curse a bit more. Have Sally actually try meeting tons of guys and each time something goes wrong. The main weakness of this strategy is it could make Sally look completely desperate so it should be played completely for laughs with lots of slapstick. Then you never do a serious romance and the plot of the film is more actively about ending the curse. I will say that the curse is slick to not activate until the descendant has had kids so this way the lineage will continue to grow.

Overall, Practical Magic is a decent movie but I feel like there’s so much more you could do with magic. I tend to feel this way for most slice of life/romance type movies that involve magic. Magic is one of the ultimate fantasies for any person to have. There are so many ways you can immediately enhance your life with it or even just show off for others. I’d like to see a main character just go wild with it for once. In this movie the power levels are a bit lower so it might have been harder but the magic feels like it’s only something on the side to keep the film fresh but it’s not as overpowering an element as you might expect. If the comedic/romance plot sounds good to you then you should check it out but the fact that it’s all a rebound hurts it just enough for me to not bump this to the next level.

Overall 5/10