Tag Archives: Comedy

12 Dates of Christmas Review

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Time travel in my Christmas movie? That’s a great way to drum up some hype right from the jump because I like any kind of premise that involves messing with time a bit. The film’s going with rules similar to Groundhog Day where the main heroine is trapped in a spell sort of like Itachi’s Izanami. She must continue to relive the same day until she meets some kind of condition. Usually this involves learning a lesson about yourself but you never really know until you complete the objective. It makes for a fun film for sure.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Kate who is rather rude to everyone. She has not been having a fun time at all. Her father and step mom have set her up with a blind date but Kate has made plans to meet up with her Ex to try and win him back so she’s got a busy day coming up. There’s also the Christmas dinner with her folks but Kate figures she’ll ace everything. Unfortunately she is knocked out at the mall as she gets sprayed right in the face and when she wakes up she is in the loop. No matter how good or bad the day goes she keeps getting reset all the way back to the beginning of the day. How can she escape this loop and will she begin to find the faults with herself?

From the start you can see how Kate has a ton of issues so it makes sense that she would be getting a whole lot of character development here. She is rude to her next door neighbor, doesn’t take her friend’s advice seriously, is mean to her step mom for no reason, blows off the blind date, and then tries too hard with an ex who has moved on. So there is an absolute mess of things that she has to get right and of course this should sound like Groundhog Day. You start off by having fun with the whole thing going the path you think is right, then you try to fix everything, then you stop caring, and eventually you land on the right path.

In Groundhog Day I believe they said he spent thousands of cycles in the town which sounds crazy. For Kate she is around a whole lot of times but I would guess 30-40 max as opposed to it being such a long time so at least she doesn’t get as depressed. No matter how fun the day is though, eventually you will reach your limit because the repetition would just be too much. With your progress being reset each time as well it’s not like you could even try to win the lotto or something. I would probably use the time to start learning a new language or some kind of knowledge that would transfer over but that assumes that you haven’t lost hope in getting out of there in the first place anyway.

It’s also rough when you feel like you’ve done everything perfectly and still get looped. At that point do you just try harder and harder or do you give up? It would feel weird to try and do things exactly the same way again but at the same time you want to help people so you don’t want to just forget to help them in one loop. So in a way that means that the final loop where she gets out will usually not be quite as good as one of the failed ones. If you could control where you could end the loop then that would be perfect but of course it would be a little too convenient.

There are just so many possibilities when going through the scenarios as well so it’s hard to know where to even begin. We see all of the ripple effects when she just stops to talk to one different person. Then you also have to pretend that you aren’t tired of eating the same thing over and over again which has to be tough as well. Now there is one side effect of all this time travel which makes the romance one of the weakest ones I’ve seen in a bit. So we know that Kate is obsessed with getting back together with Jack. She tries this many times but ultimately realizes that it’s too late.

No matter what she does or how nice she is, he will always end up proposing to his new girlfriend. It makes sense, they’ve been split together for a very long time and he is serious about this girl, going back to Kate now would just make him look bad. That said, when Kate inevitably falls for Miles you can’t help but feel like it’s a rebound. He was absolutely the second choice. If in any loop Jack had actually said yes to her and gone back with her then she would not have given Miles the time of day.

Any time there’s a rebound romance I can’t say that it was a good one so this holds her back big time. There’s just no getting around that one. As for Miles, I had some issues with him as well. So this guy lost his wife fairly recent, I remember it was no longer than a few years max and I think they may have even just said it was a year ago. Either way he said it’s too tough to be alone at Christmas so that’s why he is looking around. A blind date feels desperate from the jump but fine we’ll roll with it.

In one loop Kate convinces him to skip the blind date and go out with her. He does after a mild amount of convincing and then they connect in another loop when she is undercover. The guy seems desperate for companionship by anyone. Sure, it’s her in each loop but he doesn’t know that she is the same person so that’s another reason why this romance would falter. At the end of the day he gave his word that he would be around for the blind date so skipping it so quickly like that isn’t a good look. He also has a tendency to take everything quite hard and then run off.

I don’t blame him on most occasions but once in a while he dashes off quickly like when Kate brought up her ex at the dinner table during one of the final loops. Kate’s ex Jack seemed reasonable at least. He didn’t fall for any of Kate’s traps and rejected her in every timeline. While he may have moved on to another romance rather quickly, at least he wasn’t going to backpedal. Once he made his decision then that was it. Meanwhile there was a nice guy named Toby who did his best as he waited at the diner but ultimately the girl never showed up. So it’s a bit of a tragic route for him but Kate helps him out in the end. That romance is even more rushed and doesn’t work but the film doesn’t give it much screen time anyway. If you’re desperate enough to go on a blind date then I guess you just hope that it works out.

This movie is definitely at its best when it is having fun with the premise and just going all out with the loops. It’s fun to see the main character slowly get more and more advanced in how much she knows and how to maneuver around the world. You’d think that you would quickly pick up on a lot of things when you live through the day over and over again like this. The movie’s pacing is good and the writing is solid. At most you could just say that Kate is a little too mean at first. She’s completely unlikable and you’d think that she was Scrooge the whole time.

It’s fortunate that she had the loops to protect her because otherwise she completely burns some bridges during the loops. Even before she gives up Kate is just so selfish and only caring about herself that she really makes life rough for the others. At one point during the film I felt like she was trying to ruin Christmas for everybody that she possibly could. Definitely not ideal main character behavior.

Overall, The 12 Dates of Christmas is a fun film. I always like films about a time loop since the premise is just so much fun. Who hasn’t thought about going back in time for a redo? If I had rolled a different way back in the Smash 4 days I could have made it to Tokyo and won the big tournament. It’s impossible not to think about things like that once in a while and the film gives you a chance to really visualize it. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Review

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I can’t say that I enjoyed the first Little Shop of Horrors much at all and this one really isn’t much better if it even is better. The concept of a plant that eats people is certainly interesting enough but the film is bogged down with bad characters and the music doesn’t work very well. I’m convinced that the best songs are always found in films that are ironically not musicals. The musicals don’t seem to land as well, even if that does sound a bit odd. I guess One Piece Film: Red is an exception but I’d call that more of a concert film than a musical so the point stands.

The movie starts by introducing us to our hapless hero Seymour. He’s a big pushover at the shop and he has a big crush on his colleague Audrey but doesn’t have the guts to admit it. He’s always messing up with something and so the day gets away from him awfully fast. One day an alien plant crash lands on Earth and Seymour ends up looking after it. Perhaps his luck is finally changing? This plant is growing fast and may turn the plant store he works at from being a place that nobody know about to a full highlight among the town’s residents. That’s quite the upgrade but it’s not without a catch. This plant which he calls Audrey II can only grow with blood and it needs quite a lot of it. Seymour has to be careful that he isn’t tempted too far into the dark side and if he lowers his guard he may be eaten alive.

I have a lot of issues with the film so where to start. It’s always fun trying to think of how to play this. I guess we’ll start with the music. It gets a bit obnoxious really quick as the songs keep jumping in every few minutes. I didn’t even care for any of the songs all that much. They don’t really fit the film too well and they weren’t really my style. It felt more like a quantity over quality thing and quickly hurt the movie’s pacing.

Then I usually don’t really consider attire to venture into the realm of fanservice on its own. It’s really all in the camera work if you ask me and how the directing is going but this film is quite shameless about it. Any time Audrey is on screen you can tell the film is putting a lot of focus on her and aside from just smashing the film’s story to pieces as these scenes detail it, it’s just unnecessary. Even beyond being used for fanservice the whole time, Audrey looks really bad here. So she lacks self confidence like Seymour and as a result she goes out with Orin, an abusive guy who treats her like dirt the whole film.

She seems to think she deserves this for some wild reason and it’s why she never approaches Seymour. Keep in mind that this film is part comedy and dare I say parody so that’s probably supposed to be a bit funny but it’s just bizarre. The film could have done a lot better with her character. Then any scene with Orin in it is very cringe worthy. So he’s a dentist in this version and the guy gets really excited to be dishing out pain to people. In fact the only reason he took the job is because it gives him a legal way to inflict pain on people for as much as he wants. The guy is as unbalanced as they come but you probably knew that by now. It takes a while for him to be taken out and in the meantime he’s just awful.

Then this isn’t a vampire film but it might as well be with how Audrey II has to suck Seymour’s blood the whole time. Those scenes are always rather gross and the film doesn’t hold back on the sound effects. There’s something about drinking blood that’s always rather gut wrenching and one of numerous reasons why any vampire related media is in for a very rough time right out of the gate. All of those scenes are just really bad. I’m glad that Audrey II talks a whole lot and has a full personality but that’s hardly enough to help the film fully recover. At least I can give it props for trying some different things and expanding on the overall plot but it would need serious re-writes to even approach being good.

Making Audrey II a big villain with a lot of fight scenes would have been a good first step though if you ask me. I already talked about Seymour so you can guess that I don’t like the guy. He doesn’t stand up for himself at all and that’s a big problem. He is quickly tainted to the dark path and while things work out for him, it’s hard to really root for him. It’s not like he’s some hero. He had a rough time of it sure but it doesn’t really excuse his actions at all.

The only character I liked quite a bit was Mushnik and even he can’t really be trusted the whole time. I liked how his personality did a 180 near the end though. You really didn’t see it coming because the whole time he had seemed like a really decent guy. Perhaps not the nicest but from what we had seen of Seymour you would assume that he used to be nicer but finally had enough of the main guy making a mess of things. So Mushnik’s character arc goes in a unique direction.

There’s also a random character who gets involved in the dentist subplot but that’s more of a random moment than anything. What happens when someone who enjoys pain meets someone who likes dishing it out? It certainly makes things tricky that’s for sure. Maybe all of the characters in this film are just crazy. It would explain a lot. The movie does have a decent ending to set things up for the sequel though. If it decided to take a different turn you could really make this into a proper alien invasion film.

One nitpick for Seymour’s character is also that he doesn’t think things through. When the shop was finally getting famous due to the big plant, he should have tried to stockpile as much money as he could so he could then escape there. Take Audrey and go to a better city, leave Mushnik to deal with the plant. Mushnik would be thrilled at first and you can let him figure out the true danger of the plant. It would have made a whole lot more sense than just not wanting any attention and putting himself in a corner. He always made the wrong choices.

Overall, The Little Shop of Horrors is a movie you will want to pass on. It does live up to being as crazy as the premise of the movie would suggest but it’s just so bad on every level. There really isn’t any saving this movie because you would need to try again from the ground up. At this point it’s probably worth just letting this franchise rest in peace instead of trying once again. After a point you just have to cut your losses so I would say to avoid this film and keep moving. You aren’t missing anything here.

Overall 2/10

Support Your Local Gunfighter Review

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It’s time to continue the support series but this one is a decisive step down from the first one. It’s still a good movie and perhaps if the first one did not exist then it would have been great but the whole time you just feel like this one loses on every front. The main character is a massive step down but even the jokes aren’t quite as funny. The movie is just a bit more on the desperate side and could have used some more time on the writing table to really nail down. Still, if you want a film with some funny moments then you should still have a good time here.

The movie starts off with Latigo deciding that he wants to escape a train before he can become married to Goldie. The guy really doesn’t want to get married so you have to figure that Goldie is either mean or just too much for him. It’s just not easy to sympathize with the guy because it seems like he was super drunk and did make it seem like he was interested in her. In fact it seems like he is a huge flirt the whole time and it even known for this so it’s a horrible look for the guy. Well either way he escapes and heads to a nearby town where he pulls the moves on the owner Miss Jenny who likes him too now. There’s also a girl there named Patience who likes him so Latigo is having his fun.

It’s not all fun and games though as there is a big war going on between Taylor and Ames as there always seems to be in wild west country. Latigo figures he’ll make a lot of money and mess with them. One thing leads to another and he gets a guy named Jug to pretend to be the world’s greatest marksman, Swifty. Now nobody will want to mess with them but if the real Swifty shows up then it’ll all be over. There is no coming back from that, it would be game over. Still Latigo can take the money and split right? Well, he is also a gambling addict and can’t help but put all of his money in the tables. Ah great….

You can see why I can’t sympathize with the guy. Far as I’m concerned he’s basically an antagonist here. He digs himself into these holes and would not be in so much trouble if he would stop flirting and getting drunk. The fact that he makes no move to get away from these bad habits just shows that he isn’t trying to improve. He actually does seem to be good with a gun but they don’t go into that in the film much. He constantly tells Jug that he’s no good and is very slow but the film seemed to be hinting that he was only doing that to try and protect Jug. So you’re waiting for him to end up getting some kind of big fight in the climax and yet…it doesn’t happen. So what was that build up for?

Not saying it would have absolutely saved his character or anything like that but it would have been something right? Give me a reason to root for the guy a bit. Even with the gambling it’s annoying because he’s constantly talking about what a scam it is and then he falls for it anyway. The man has no willpower and then succumbs immediately. That’s not a good combination no matter how you slice it. The gambling scenes are pretty intense at least so that’s a start.

Goldie and Miss Jenny don’t make for great characters either. Jenny fell for his emotional story way too quickly and for Goldie I don’t see why she would still want to be with him when Latigo is always running away from her. Even if she were to claim him, wouldn’t that not be very satisfying knowing that he always wants to leave? Seems like it would be a waste to me at least and that’s part of why the romance here is very weak.

Latigo’s partner Jug can be decent at times at least. I wouldn’t say that he’s very likable either and he’s the classic character who is strong but not very smart. At least what I do give him credit for here is that he doesn’t back down from a fight and is ready to go in. He may not be smart but at least he doesn’t run away so easily. The two big villains Taylor and Ames are really forgettable though. Even though their war is a main plot element the whole film, you will find yourself struggling to care the whole time. It’s just not a very interesting story.

I did like the true villain Swifty though. When he shows up the characters have to take note because he has the skills to take the whole town down should he feel the urge. I would have definitely handled the climax a whole lot differently though. It makes for a decent comedic burst I guess but in this case playing the climax straight actually would have been a whole lot more effective. The ending would have been more satisfying and so the film would have benefitted as a whole.

Overall, This film is just not super funny for being a comedy and that is what hurts it here. At the end of the day you need to be funny and be funny consistently. That is the trick for making a really good comedy film. It’s just funny enough where you will have a good time either way but the lackluster characters and underwhelming climax will take away a lot of the replay value that it could have had. I’d recommend giving it a watch if you like westerns and/or comedies but you probably won’t be going for the rewatch. Just the initial viewing will be enough for you to get the full experience and then keep it moving. Still a shame that they didn’t make more movies like this though. I think there would have been a lot of potential to make several parody type films like this. When executed well you can picture just about any kind of profession working in this style.

Overall 6/10

Support Your Local Sheriff Review

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This is definitely one of the better westerns out there and starts off as a really strong title right off the bat. It has a good amount of humor and action throughout so you won’t be forgetting this one by the time you’re done. It ends up sticking the landing and so even if it isn’t perfect, the movie absolutely accomplishes what it set out to do.

The movie starts off with a very serious funeral being interrupted as some gold is spotted so everyone gets to digging. The town is fairly well off now and so they had to quickly get the government set up but nobody wants to be Sheriff. The Sheriff is always run out of town by the Danby gang who basically run the village from the shadows. Well one day a guy named Jason appears and he is a very confident gunslinger. The mayor and his crew are glad to have Jason on board but they didn’t really think he would be as good as his confident demeanor would have you believe. When Jason begins to rock the boat and upset the Danby family they have to decide if they have his back or not.

The town is not loyal in the slightest and it all trickles down from the mayor. He may say all the right things from time to time but it’s clear that he doesn’t truly believe in Jason. If he did then he wouldn’t be so nervous about the Danbys winning. He’s constantly trying to talk Jason out of helping or to get him to leave but it’s just too late for that now. He should have thought of that before hiring the Sheriff. Additionally he could be more direct about it instead of just waiting the whole time or talking passively as he beat around the bush the whole time.

It does make for a lot of entertaining scenes of course but it doesn’t make you like the character much at all. The town really tried their best to keep getting victimized by the Danby family so you half wish Jason would just run off at some points. Even the main heroine Prudy tries to tell him that he should run away. At first you figure she’s just trying to play him by saying all of this so he would say but when the scene ends it seems like it actually wasn’t her plan and she genuinely thought it would be safer for him to leave.

Little twists like that are part of what makes this film really solid. It is able to be a smart parody of the usual wild west adventure without being too obvious about it. The best complement to the film is that it often is quite funny. I had a good time with it that’s for sure and it has a good amount of replay value so you could easily watch it over again. The writing is on point and so you have a good amount of banter between all of the characters.

If the film has one weakness it’s that the romance here is definitely on the weak side. It’s probably difficult right out of the gate to have a serious romance in a parody film so they should have probably tried to make it more of a comedic subplot. We do have the gag where something embarrassing always seems to be happening to Prudy when she meets Jason but usually you’re just waiting to get back to the action.

The Danby family makes for some decent villains. Of course they’re all greatly outmatched against Jason but they definitely don’t train as often as he does. This guy has been fighting with a gun since forever while they likely just use it for threats most of the time. Jason is always one step ahead and knows just how to intimidate them in order to come out on top. Sometimes it is directly and sometimes he has to trick them but he always comes out on top.

Jason is a huge reason as to why the film is so good. I love the boundless confidence that he has and so it always lets him have the last laugh here. Without him as the lead the movie wouldn’t be as good and the sort of sequel to this film really underscores that but I’ll get to that film soon. Jason dominates the movie right out of the jump and he gets a lot of the funniest jokes. You definitely need him in order to make this film a success.

I thought Jake was decent at times too though. At least he was the one person in town who was actually willing to defend Jason and help him out when the going got tough. You certainly couldn’t expect that out of most of the other townsfolk who were just waiting to get wrecked. Prudy gets some credit here as well since she is introduced as a fighter early on and then helps a lot in the climax. In fact she helps so much that Jason even wants her to calm down since he was hoping not to murder anyone. I thought Prudy had the right idea here though since you need to take them down for the count.

Overall, With good pacing and a lot of fun humor there isn’t really anything to dislike about the film. It certainly underscores how difficult it is to be a sheriff because everyone is against you the whole time. You have to build some strong connections and quickly or you will end up being completely run over by everyone else. There’s never a point where the movie drags on and so I would go as far as to say this was a great movie. I could easily re watch it now which speaks to how good it is. If you like Westerns or just want to watch a fun comedy then this is the title for you. There are still serious moments and fights but the film masterfully mixes and matches the different tones throughout.

Overall 8/10

An American Werewolf in London Review

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This review is of the TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would likely be more negative

Not another Werewolf film! These tend to always be really bad and unfortunately this one is no exception. Put it this way, you’re going to see the usual scenes of the Werewolf running around and eating everyone but the film isn’t trying to be more than that. I give it some kudos for trying to throw in some humor. The comedic moments are when the film is at its best but once it gets back to the actual werewolf moments then that’s game over. There is just no avenue for victory.

The movie starts with David and Jack hiking in the middle of nowhere when they finally come across an inn. They desperately needed a place to rest so this is perfect but there is one issue. The people here are all rather mean and tell the guys to get lost. It doesn’t help that Jack can’t help himself and talks about the odd pentagram they had in the inn. So back outside they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack is quickly murdered while David is saved by the innfolk showing up to dispatch the creature rather easily. No need to be afraid of the monster when you can just blast it away right? Unfortunately the werewolf curse has gone over to David now.

The ghost of Jack appears and warns David to finish himself off before the full moon or he’s going to murder a ton of people. David doesn’t believe this initially plus he is also busy trying to pull the moves on Alex, his nurse from when he was in the hospital. They have a quick affair and it’s all going well for him until he does turn into a Wolf. Now he knows that it is possible but the time is ticking and it is nearly time to transform again. Does he have any options to remove the curse or is he doomed to be a Werewolf now?

As you can probably guess, Jack is the most annoying character here. A lot of the bad things that happen to them can be directly attributed to him. He shouldn’t have caused trouble at the inn when they badly needed to rest. Then as a ghost he does try to help a bit I suppose but he isn’t super clear about it. If he joked around a little less and had a heart to heart with David then maybe he could have gotten through to the guy a little sooner. It’s an idea at least and I do think that it would have had a reasonable shot at succeeding.

As for David, I can’t say that I liked him much either. He was flirting way too quickly and the romance was really weak. It was really fast without much development and while it’s all very lucky for the guy, he also appears a bit easy as a result. If not for being a Werewolf I suppose he was pretty well set off for the rest of his life. I guess he’s just that charismatic but he definitely isn’t well equipped to deal with the curse. By the time he does know that it’s real he doesn’t make a whole lot of headway on stopping himself from hurting people. I actually think he should have gone with Alex back to the doctor to see if sedating him would work. Running off wasn’t going to help anybody.

Alex isn’t the most believable character around since you’d think she would have found his advanced annoying while she was trying to work. It’s another reason why the romance doesn’t work but at least she is very loyal the whole time and was trying to help him. So she gets points for effort and having the right intent there. Then there is Dr. Hirsch who is a solid character. He doesn’t believe in any of this supernatural stuff but once the facts stop adding up he does actually look into things. He doesn’t just shut off his ears and run around, he’s proactive about doing something and that’s why I give him some credit here. Other doctors would have just stayed in the office the whole time.

Inspector Villiers doesn’t have as much to do though. He’s around as you always need an inspector in all Werewolf films but doesn’t do anything beyond his role. You’d forget that he was in the film half the time. It’s not like he is effective at stopping the Werewolf. There is quite the body count here. Even some of the murders are done in a bit of a comedic way but the film still doesn’t hold back on the violence. It’s one of those titles that is really violent while also keeping a chipper tone the whole time. I do think that’s a pretty solid way to do things but it’s only a small consolation in the end.

The transformation scene may be iconic but it is much too long. I would have definitely shortened it quite a bit so he just powers up into Werewolf mode. The actual form is also very different from most Werewolf forms. It’s more of a beast on 4 legs than your standard two legged Werewolf. As everyone is brutally murdered you’re just waiting for someone to take him out already. A few good bullets would do the trick but unfortunately most of his victims don’t really see the attacks coming so they aren’t quite prepared for this.

Outside of the violence the film also likes to go for rather gross imagery that doesn’t help matters either. Jack looks more and more disfigured as the film goes on. It’s not afraid to be as out there as possible and having him just be bones would have been preferable. There’s an interesting meeting where the victims meet together to tell David to bump himself off. It’s definitely a big moment of dark humor here as they are relentless but it works rather well. The backdrop just should have been anywhere but at the theater since the film that was playing was very sketchy. Not the kind of audio backdrop you want for such a big conversation.

Overall, An American Werewolf in London may have a little more fun with the premise but ultimately it still runs into all of the same old issues. It’s a little too violent for its own good and a Werewolf doesn’t make for a very imposing villain. I think you’d have done better with throwing in another Werewolf to fight or maybe add in some supernatural elements. Something to keep this from being just another Werewolf movie would have been ideal. I do think the genre is more or less doomed though as there is only so much that you can do with the premise. I think that’s something that this film is seeing the hard way. I’d definitely advise you to skip this one.

Overall 1/10

Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog Review

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Scooby Doo has returned for another feature length film but unfortunately this one is rather weak. Usually I love crossovers but I felt like for this one they decided the film barely needed a plot as a result. Most of the movie is really just the characters hanging out until the climax. The script isn’t particularly great and the characters aren’t able to hold a story like this up on their own. As a result what you have here is a very unfocused movie with scenes that drag on quite a bit.

The movie starts with the Mystery Gang taking down another criminal when Scooby Doo suddenly runs away. He seems to be possessed due to this weird sound reaching his ears which causes him to dance and move around in rather weird ways. It’s definitely not something he has encountered before and meanwhile this appears to be happening to Courage as well. The two groups meet up and have to try and figure out what’s going on here. This will be one of their toughest cases yet though as the monsters here are very real.

Right off the bat I have to say that I found the sound gimmick to be really annoying with Scooby Doo just having a seizure the whole time. Perhaps it was an excuse for the animators to really show what they’ve got but the scene was dragged out immensely. It was the first hint that the movie was not going to have great pacing this time around. Far from it, instead the movie was going to take up as much time as it could. We then get the same scene with Courage and later on we see it happening to both of them.

It may be quirky and all but it’s not very interesting to watch. It’s just something where you’re waiting for it to end. Unfortunately Courage isn’t a very interesting guest star either. Pretty much all he can do is repeat what someone else has already said. He’s not mindless but he doesn’t have a whole lot of character on his own which hurts the character quite a bit. I was hoping that we would get to see him do something really cool but you have to wait until nearly the very end for that. I was glad he got something though but in the end I can’t say I’m a big fan.

Muriel is nice enough but there isn’t much for her to do. She’s the really pleasant character but that’s the extent of her character. At least Eustace has a lot to do since he’s the super mean/grumpy character who is always complaining about everything. I can admire the consistency there if nothing else. The guy is so over the top that it actually gets to be fun as you try to see what he’ll say next. That said, his character is hurt quite a bit by a random song that comes up during the movie. The song wasn’t even remotely good and was just a waste of time.

When your movie doesn’t have a big focus then you have to throw in scenes like this and it’s a really bad sign. It’s the definition of a filler scene. I also thought that the running gag of him grabbing a mask to scare the characters was a bit overdone. They are short scenes each time but you didn’t have to recycle the same joke over and over like that. At most you do a joke twice but when you do it more than that there better be a really good story reason for it or something. Otherwise it’s just obvious stalling again.

It just felt like the movie didn’t have many ideas for this film. There were some brief things I did like though. We had a nice action climax at the end with Courage and the monster. The various creatures reminded me of the Brood with how many there were and how they would hide underground. It was nice to see Daphne, Fred, and Muriel taking them down during the movie. That probably could have had more of a sense of danger but I’ll take a fight whenever I can get one.

We got some nice visual effects during the climax as well like one character turning 8 bit. In general the animation here was really solid as always for Scooby Doo. I’ve always liked how sharp the colors were and it really has a similar style to the DC movies. So on that end the movie hasn’t faltered. The music is okay, I did like the opening credits song at least even if Eustace’s song flopped.

So there are good things in this movie and ultimately it’s fairly short. So even though some scenes dragged on and it had some issues, I wouldn’t call it a bad movie. It’s absolutely one of my least favorite Scooby Doo movies and it has very low replay value so I probably would not end up watching it again but if I had to, it’s not like it would be a big ordeal or anything. It all just feels like a big missed opportunity. A crossover absolutely needs to relish in that fact and just have a lot of fun with the character interactions.

There just isn’t much time for that since Eustace and Courage don’t talk much. Meanwhile Muriel doesn’t have much to contribute in the banter department so we’re not getting far there. The rest of the mystery gang are around but nobody gets any big spotlight moments for the most part. The movie is by the numbers but executing on a lower level than it should have and it’s one of the only Scooby Doo movies where you may even start to get a little bored at some points.

Overall, It’s a fairly harsh time for the film but the positives are still there. It may not have met expectations but it’s still a decently good movie and I’d recommend it to people if they wanted more Scooby Doo to watch. Perhaps it’s a film that will age better in the future although I have my doubts. I’m eagerly awaiting the next Scooby Doo movie to get us back on track. We’ve had so many subversions, crossovers, and themed movies so maybe we should go back to a classic mystery. A haunted library or something with a few suspects and the heroes have to follow the clues. I may not be remembering a movie but I feel like we haven’t had a straight mystery adventure in quite a long while and that’s something I’d like to see.

Overall 6/10

Radio Days Review

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Radio Days is definitely a film that suffers from just not being very interesting. It’s all about the radio and a bunch of characters who listen to it but the characters aren’t all that good and the narrator just ends up being annoying the whole time. The film ends up dragging a bit as a result. Now I’m not saying that the movie is awful or anything as it’s weak but not terrible. It doesn’t make any huge mistakes, it just never really gets good.

So the film follows a kid named Joe as he listens to the radio and just gets to live life a lot. He is a big fan of the Masked Avenger cartoon that would play over the radio. As the years go by he gets to experience war through the radio as well as songs and just about every program that is there. He feels like these times were a lot of fun, they were the simple days where everything just sort of popped out at you. There really isn’t much of a focus to the movie beyond that. I suppose as a subplot you also had Sally trying to work on her enunciation so that she can be a big radio star as well. Ultimately she does well for herself and even gets a lot of street smarts so the execs can’t fool around with her.

That’s probably what the film needed more of, a steady plot. The slice of life with no purpose only works when the writing is exceptional and the characters are great but I couldn’t say that here. Joe is your average kid in many ways so there isn’t anything really interesting about him. His family certainly have a lot of strict traditions like not playing music on loud during the Sabbath and all but the father of the household cracks real quick once he goes to meet the neighbors. So much for his conviction there.

I also think he could have let Joe know that he was a cab driver. That’s not a crazy profession by any stretch so when he was being secretive I thought it was going to be something really embarrassing. I suppose he just had a lot of pride. Then Sally was decent enough once she got wise to all the scams around her. I thought the movie missed an easy lay-up by not having everyone get locked out on the roof though. That would have been a fun tribute to an earlier scene.

The Masked Avenger serial sounded fun at least. The concept sounded fun and superheroes are always in season so who wouldn’t enjoy that right? I would have liked to have focused on that a bit more since it would have been more interesting. You’ll just struggle about things to talk about here because all of the stories are so scattered and short that there is no focus. In general I do think stories need to have a strong focus because without them they will just get lost and you don’t want that.

What this film could have done to improve things would have been to have had Joe really have to deal with some challenges during the radio days. Give us a concrete plot like he’s earning money to buy a Masked Avenger figure and the whole film is about that as the radio plays in the background. You could probably tone down the narration a bit so we can get the plot rolling more. Good narration can absolutely enhance a film but in this one it just felt like the movie was stalling for time.

It just wasn’t very interesting much like the rest of the film. I didn’t grow up with the radio so any sentimental value that could have boosted the film with that didn’t work for me. Instead I was just waiting for the film to really get rolling. If nothing else at least it is always fun to see how the city looked back then. What has changed over the years and what hasn’t. I was never one to go outside on New Year’s Eve at midnight to watch things happen live, I prefer using the TV but it is fun to walk around in the morning and see how empty everything is.

Overall, Radio Days was a swing and a miss for me. While the lack of a plot/focus did keep the film from exposing the bad writing too much (Because what we got usually felt a little suspect) it also meant that the film had no real upside. It would be hard for me to describe the plot to someone because it was basically nonexistent. By the time you finish watching the film you feel like nothing has really happened at all. It’s like you were along for the ride but on a journey that didn’t actually have a destination. So that’s why even though the film doesn’t make any big mistakes, I would say to stay away from it. There just isn’t anything here for you and it’s also why this review is a bit on the shorter side because there’s only so much that you can say about it.

Overall 4/10

My Dream is Yours Review

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Doris Day returns but this movie is considerably weaker than the other two. The romance is really bad here and while the movie has some decent moments as you’d expect from any comedy, it doesn’t land nearly as well as the other two. You’ll walk away from this film feeling like it seriously did not reach any of the potential that it could have had.

The movie starts with Doug being betrayed by Gary. See, Doug was that music star’s manager and got Gary to be one of the biggest hits in the country. The problem is that Gary now believes that he doesn’t need Doug anymore and drops him like a hat. Doug swears revenge but ultimately loses his job and has to start from scratch. That’s when he runs into a girl named Martha who has a solid singing voice. Doug is confident that he can use her to get his revenge but the problem is that Martha falls for Gary. How can Doug still turn this into a win?

I have quite a few issues with this film but the first is the whole romance with Gary. While Doug could act coy about how the entire schism with Gary started, Martha still knows enough to tell that he’s not a good guy. He acts hostile to Doug the entire time and always acts like Martha is the only person in the room. Gary is incredibly arrogant and full of himself. I just don’t get how she fell for him from the start.

The romance gets worse and worse as Gary’s bad attitude is exposed and he’s blacklisted from the entire industry. Almost literally nobody likes him and people don’t want to hire him for anything anymore. He becomes an alcoholic and just vanishes. Well, even then Martha is still writing him letters and going after the guy. Now here’s the thing, there’s nothing wrong with her not falling for Doug. He’s a great guy who helps her out a lot. He got her rich and really changed her life for the better but gratitude shouldn’t mean that you have to fall in love with that guy.

I’d totally be cool with her saying no to his confession and staying as friends. It’s rough for Doug but that’s just how it goes and it’s not like he did all of this with that in mind. Initially it was to get back at Gary and then after that he just genuinely wanted to help her out. Doug took his chance and asked her out and it didn’t work. It’s actually a bold move by the film and I’m cool with it but then we have Martha still going after Gary and it’s rather annoying.

Doug still wants to help Martha so in the end he gets Gary back on his feet and sets them up together. Very selfless behavior but the whole time Gary is acting like a jerk to both of them and straight up tells Martha to retire since he’ll be the breadwinner of the family. Only at this exaggerated moment does Martha finally realize that he’s no good…and then she grabs the rebound and slam dunks the ball back into the Doug basket. They get together and it’s probably one of the most blatant rebounds that I’ve seen in a long while.

Martha made it clear that Gary was the guy for her and she couldn’t return Doug’s feelings but now she is ready to be with him because Gary is a jerk? That’s just unacceptable and it’s the kind of romance that doesn’t feel real. Of course Doug is thrilled since it all feels nice to him but are the feelings really real? It’s something that he’ll have to think about in the back of his mind and that’s where things get a little spooky for him. It’s not a romance that I can get behind though and it does really sour the film.

If you cut out all of the scenes of her chasing after Gary then things would be better. Honestly I would remove that subplot completely because I still don’t see how she could fall for him given the circumstances. The guy never seemed like a good person so it’s not like the ending was particularly shocking. I also thought the film could have really had an interesting angle with Doug just realizing that they would always just be friends instead. The movie had a good foundation but blew it.

I also thought that while the film showed how hard it can be to break into the industry, that part could be a bit long. We spend ages with Doug trying to get Martha gigs at various places. These moments led to a lot of fun gags as well but the longer this went on, the more it felt even more personal when she went with Gary. The best gag in the movie has to be when Doug is trying to downplay Gary the whole time but it turns out that he was talking to the janitor and not the director. That was a great twist and I really liked the writing there because there was a lot of good wordplay thrown in for the insults. That was handled really well.

One of the guys that they have to try and impress is Felix because he basically owns the main music station and you need him on your side. Unfortunately he also happens to be one of the most annoying characters in the whole film. He is even more scatter brained than the characters that the actor usually plays and can’t focus on anything. He’s always just getting in the way and by the end he may as well just be another antagonist. He isn’t willing to give Martha a fair shot at all.

Martha also lags behind the previous heroines not only for the Gary stuff but because she doesn’t really seem prepared to go all out in order to complete her dreams. One scene that was iffy was when she was going to throw it all away if she couldn’t bring her son with her. She really would have had no time to raise him while auditioning and it’s not like she could drop him off at day care. Still, it was difficult to convince her and she was absolutely just going to give up. Then she also decides to perform at a very seedy bar even while overhearing a lot of the criminal behavior that the owner engages in. It’s clear that things won’t end well for her here but she goes through with it anyway before being saved by the main guy. Her decision making skills were very questionable throughout the movie.

Overall, In the end while the movie does get some laughs, it could also be a bit mean spirited at times. I felt like Gary got off way too easy and so in the end the movie isn’t nearly as good as it could and should have been. I wasn’t really impressed here and maybe it doesn’t help that I saw this one right after two other comedy films that were way better. Either way you will want to take a pass on this one. It’s not really bad or anything so you could always check it out if you really want something light to watch but you could do way better within the genre.

Overall 5/10

It’s a Great Feeling Review

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Time for another Doris Day adventure. This time we get to have two guys fighting over her as a lot of wacky shenanigans ensue. The banter tends to be the high point of the film while the actual plot can often be on the weaker side. The movie still makes for a fun watch cover to cover though even if the ending isn’t very satisfying when you think about it. It’s just a pleasant film that is easy to watch at any time.

The movie starts with everybody deciding to turn down being in a movie because Jack will be starring in it. He’s the most disliked actor in Hollywood and evidently he had to work quite hard to get that reputation. He constantly lies and is rather full of himself. That’ a really bad combination right from the jump and his only hope is to at least try to get Dennis to co-star in the film. Then at least he will have one big name with him but how to do it?

Well, Jack decides to lie to Judy, a girl who aspires to be an actress one day into guilt tripping Dennis into the role. This plot is poorly conceived from the start and goes sideways so with no other options, he’s forced to actually hire Judy and this at least gets Dennis on board as well since they have both fallen madly in love with her. They now have to fight amongst each other to see who can make her famous first and the true test will be convincing the director, Trent to sign her on. This won’t be easy since he likes to discover his own talent but they aim to have her appear wherever he goes.

Thing is, as hard as you try to make someone the next big star, it won’t always work. If anything it may even be a little forced if you’re always trying to throw her into the spotlight when it should be someone else’s turn. That’s exactly the issue that starts to pop up here. One of the side gags here is that Trent starts to think he’s going crazy because of how she appears everywhere. Judy tries to do too much to impress him and is always slamming her eyelashes together and making faces at him.

It’s a shame since she could have had a shot if she played things normally but even Jack and Dennis didn’t notice so I suppose I can’t blame her for that. It just wasn’t her moment to shine this time. By the time Trent is ready to make his move it’s just too late. The guy didn’t even seem bad, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, every time.

As for Judy, the pressure was just a bit too much for her. At least she was very dedicated to the cause but after a while there was just too many obstacles in her way. She could only be jerked around by the two guys so many times before it was time to get out of there. She handled their endless flirting rather well and took it all in stride. If she could have handled everything with that level of calmness then she definitely would have been okay in the end.

Then we have Jack who is a rather weak character. His reputation is actually deserved which already hurts him from the jump. It would be one thing if he was misunderstood or something but he actually was lying to Judy and was trying to manipulate everyone else. So you can’t really feel bad for him because evidently this isn’t his first rodeo and people started to find that out the hard way. He’ll do whatever it takes to get to the top and so nobody could end up trusting him. Judy succeeding would turn out to be a success for him as well so that also made it difficult when you had to decide if you were rooting for them or not.

In comparison Dennis was a lot better. He actually had a good conscience which is why the guilt trip worked in the first place and after that he did his best to actually help Judy. He mostly stuck around to make sure Jack didn’t try any funny business either. Now this was a quality character. Sure, I can’t say that I was rooting for him in the romance angle since Judy kept saying that she had a boyfriend back home but at least he wasn’t trying to take advantage of her. He would shoot his shot and when it was an air ball then he would keep it moving. If both guys had been annoying that would have really been unfortunate for her.

So this is a good movie but I would say it’s not quite as funny as the last one. There isn’t a big payoff/climax like the other one either. This movie instead ends on a rather quiet note with a decent gag but one that isn’t laugh out loud funny either. I wasn’t a big fan of it personally but I will say that at least I’m glad that Judy didn’t go for a rebound or anything like that. Technically she was already with this guy off screen so it’s good that she kept it up. Falling for someone at Hollywood isn’t a good idea and any excuse would have still been unable to get away from the fact that it would have been a rebound. So we don’t want any of that!

At least we get to see Jack and Dennis fighting a lot which is always fun. I like how they aren’t even subtle about fighting over Judy right in front of her. Dennis might shove Jack down a hill so they’re alone and in another moment he invites her to a game right in front of the other guy. They aren’t holding back at all and it’s all super petty but it just works out really well as a result. That’s the kind of dynamic I have a lot of fun with.

Overall, It’s a Great Feeling is a fun movie but it almost feels like there isn’t a climax. The whole ting is building up to the two guys trying to get Judy noticed by the director so that she can become a big movie star. You’re expecting her to appear in a big movie by the end or something where the whole journey has its big moment. Then she can head home or something but instead it just keeps going until she sort of gives up and we get to the ending. It all feels bit sudden and not super fulfilling. The rest of the movie is fun enough to keep it going but it doesn’t stick the landing as well as you’d hope.

Overall 7/10

Tokyo Mew Mew Olé! Review

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It’s time to talk about an absolutely brutal manga that is just awful on so many levels. Man this one was bad and I had a bad feeling about it right from the jump. The original Tokyo Mew Mews may not have been fantastic manga but they at least had a lot of fun moments and cool things happening at all times. This one? It’s trying its very best to be a nonstop reverse harem at all costs while destroying all of the characters in the process. Even having some serious fights was not enough to save this one.

So the plot starts out rather similar to the main series but in reverse. Shibuya is a rather shy guy who keeps to himself. Some think he’s cool in an aloof way while others just think he’s a jerk but he doesn’t care. Unfortunately, a mad scientist (The mother of his crush Anzu) ends up firing off a powerful energy blast that transforms 5 teenage guys into cat warriors. Shibuya is now the leader of this Mew Mew group and he has to try and hide this from the world or he will be a laughing stock.

The only way to get rid of these powers is to find a bunch of “Mew Aqua” crystals. Along the way he will also have to fight off powerful Chimera monsters and a villain group led by Deep Blue who seem to want to destroy the planet. Along the way Shibuya must now try to confess his feelings for Anzu. The tough part is that the other 4 guys are in love with her as well and the same is true for the 3 big villains. Anzu loves the attention from the 8 guys but the problem is that she is slowly falling for all of them as well. Can she choose…must she choose? She will have to handle this carefully.

The original Mew Mew series was a classy affair. The cat gimmick may have been a bit much but hey it was a classic magical girl show about fighting monsters. You had a wholesome romance with the nice guy and the “bad boy” trying his best to get the lead’s attention. The romance itself may have been super weak but the show as a whole was just classic. This series just feels desperate right off the jump. The whole series is about getting in as much shipping as possible and it’s absolutely nonstop.

The plot even curves around this for no reason. Let me give you an example here real quick. One aspect of this is how the Mew Mew formula not only turns you into a cat but it also affects your personality this time. Shibuya is forced to yell stuff like “Pleased to be of service”! and every time he tries to gag himself but it’s too late. By the end of the series he stops resisting but apparently it’s something that happens to all of the characters. Part of the transformation is a mental suggestion that forces you to strike up different poses and say crazy catchphrases. This is obviously not serving any point except to try and make the characters as embarrassed as possible. It’s not a good look.

Then there is the romance which is awful. As mentioned in the intro, everybody likes Anzu. They just can’t stop thinking about her and while it’s obvious that she will choose Shibuya in the end, did we need everyone to fall for her like this? It’s just really excessive but the absolute worst part of it is that Anzu gets her own feelings confused as well. If she was just being very stoic about it the whole time or patronizing that would help but when she actually starts to think that she likes the other guys as well then it becomes an issue.

The series could have easily tried to make Anzu better by being decisive but this was just here for the drama. At the end of the day the whole series is just here for a lot of shipping. You even have the guys showing off so much that they all start to be in awe at times. At one point they’re stranded at the desert and have to make some desperate crazy calls. The plot takes a backseat all of the time and so this ends up being a horrible manga. Every single moment is weaker than its original incarnation but not by a little, it’s by a lot. There is no reason to actually read this manga in the end. There’s just no replay value here and it feels like the worst possible way to continue the franchise. I’m glad the original show got a reboot so people can check that out instead.

So as you can see, I didn’t like Anzu as the main heroine. She’s just not decisive enough and gets kidnapped a whole lot. Anzu may have been brave to enter the villain base on her own at one point but she’s captured so effortlessly that it just makes the whole decision look bad. Shibuya is also bad as the main guy because he is way too timid. He also has no control over his cat form so he will suddenly get real serious and possessive, then back to normal. These massive mood swings don’t help his character in the slightest or help you see how Anzu could have fallen for him in the first place.

Yoyogi is the smart member of the group so expect him to be talking down to everyone all the time. It isn’t very impressive though considering that his abilities aren’t even above the others and intelligence barely matters in this series. You either land your attack and destroy the enemy or you don’t. There’s no room for big fancy plans or any of that stuff. This guy’s annoying all the way through and you know he has no shot at the romance either way. While you can’t have a team without a bunch of team members, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to this guy. There’s nothing interesting or endearing about him.

Ryusei is the youngest one of the group and he’s very headstrong as a result. Usually I like that kind of character but of course it’s more to show him as the naïve character who gets some feelings for Anzu but isn’t able to express himself. He can be really wild in his cat form as well and is often a liability. I think he could have been a decent character if handled right but of course the series was not going to handle anything right like that so it was game over right from the start.

Ayato is the rich member of the group who tries to be the mature guy who keeps everyone in line. Of course that doesn’t prevent him from falling for Anzu as well. He mainly tries to stay out of the race at least so he doesn’t complicate matters but of course it would have been even better if he could have just been a mentor figure. At least he can pull his weight more than some of the other characters and actually seems to understand the stakes. I can give him some reasonable props next to the other characters but wouldn’t say that I liked him much at all.

Finally we have Taichi who is the worst member by far. It’s not even close, the guy whines a lot and is super weak so it gets to his head and he starts to think about the dark side. C’mon now, you can’t be switching up this quickly. It’s a really bad look for him and he never really rebounds from this. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to make a comeback from that because once you’re a traitor then you’ve crossed a line that must not be crossed. Getting back from that is incredibly difficult to the point of being nearly impossible. This guy got off really easy if you ask me.

Then for the 3 Wiseman group: Latte, Chai, and Mocha, none of them were all that good. Latte was another guy obsessed with Anzu the whole time and he wanted her to love him but of course that wasn’t possible. It’s an awful motivation for a character as well. Then you have Chai and Mocha whose motivations were weak enough where they were also ready to quickly jump in and help the heroes out when things got rough. If you were a villain with a lot of convictions then that surely wouldn’t happen right? I like the title since the 3 Wisemen sounds impressive but there’s nothing particularly wise about them.

Additionally, they could have murdered the heroes so many times but kept choosing not to which was a big mistake. They’re so much stronger than the Mew Mew fighters that it’s scary. They would often win in a single blow but just let the heroes live because they can. That certainly came back to bite them later on. Then you have Dark Blue who has no conviction of her own here either.

She wants to effectively reset the world as humans have messed everything up. Okay that’s great but then all it takes is a few words for her to rethink everything? That felt way too fast if you ask me, there was just no compelling points brought up beyond the obvious. So that shouldn’t have been enough to turn Dark Blue. Not at all, it just serves to show us that she really didn’t have much drive before now.

This series probably has the most reverse fanservice I’ve seen in a minute as well. One look at the costumes and you can see how they aren’t practical at all. I’ve always said that a bad costume isn’t necessarily fanservice on its own. It’s all in how the camera zooms in or how the manga panels are meant to draw your attention. Well, here they are obviously meant to be fanservice bait. It’s a little hard to take seriously compared to traditional fanservice but I’ll still dock points in the same way because it’s yet another element that is taking priority over the plot.

When you stop to think about it, there is barely a plot here. None of the characters actively work to remove their powers after the opening chapters. The 3 Wisemen want to change the planet so they send one shot monsters out once in a while but don’t do much about that until the very ending either. Even the whole environmental theme is mostly removed from the original series. The villains own a company where they talk about going green as a front which was interesting but it’s ditched almost immediately. Going more into that could have been interesting but ultimately it didn’t happen. This series just feels like a waste all the way through.

The series works to have a bit of a body count by the end and a lot of emotional scenes but they ring hollow as you don’t like any of the characters by this point. The only consolation I can give the series is that the art was actually fairly good. There is a lot of detail put into each of the pages so I can appreciate that but at the same time a series cannot survive on art alone. A bad story will be just as bad even if the art is excellent. So the fight scenes look good at least but don’t do much to salvage the overall product.

At the end of the day, if the series wanted to be anywhere close to the original then it should have grabbed the stronger elements from the first title and built upon them. For example, the main girls there were all friends by the end and had solid banter. These guys? Well, they’re all jealous of each other because of Anzu so there’s a lot of fighting but it’s more personal and not as bantery like with the old cast. You don’t really have any scenes of the characters getting to know each other and having a good time because they have one track minds. The characters don’t have great development and again there are no big story beats or deeper themes to keep track of. It’s like the series just grabbed the concept but didn’t actually read the original series.

Overall, Tokyo Mew Mew Olé! is a really awful series. The romance here is probably some of the worst that I’ve seen since Black Bird and that one was historically bad. The whole series is really focused on the romance as everyone tries for Anzu but at the end of the day there isn’t any substance here for it. The series tries to bring you back every month with the shipping but it’s just not enough. I mean that’s probably one of the worst ways you can try to promote a series. By the time things get serious in the final chapters it is way too late. This is really a series that never needed to be made. The concept itself isn’t awful automatically of making the guys the magical fighters for a change but it feels like the series never intended to take its own premise seriously and that’s the most disappointing thing here. Definitely skip this series if you can, it’s not worth checking out.

Overall 1/10