Tag Archives: Comedy

Charlie Brown’s All Stars! Review

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It’s time for another Charlie Brown film! This is one of the better ones as expected since it is about Charlie Brown’s baseball team. They’ve been mentioned several times throughout the series, but have always been a subplot. This time, they’re able to be the main focus and that’s something that I’ve been waiting for. Whether you can really call his team “All Stars” or not is up for debate though. I can’t even say that they have the heart of a winning team.

Charlie Brown is a little disappointed because his team can’t seem to win a game. It’s been many years and none of the players are any good, but they all still blame Charlie. He is the pitcher I suppose so every point that the other team gets is directly on him, but then he should just let someone else take a stab at it. Eventually, the team breaks apart and the other members form their own clique as they go swimming and skating. Charlie wonders how he can get them back and that’s when a sponsor shows up. He claims that he will get the team new costumes so Charlie quickly tells the others. They agree to keep on playing then, but Charlie gets another phone call. Dogs and girls aren’t allowed on the team if the sponsor jumps in so he has to decline the call. The other members don’t know this yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Will they ever be a close knit team again?

So there’s definitely a lot of drama here. Charlie has to make some hard calls and he finally gets to see who his real friends are and which ones are the phonies. Although, I suppose they aren’t too phony since they don’t mind insulting him face to face. At least they’re up front about it…I can kind of respect that I suppose. As always, Linus is Charlie’s only real friend. He does have one iffy moment where he tells Charlie to pack his bags and get out of town, but I’m sure that he meant it in a nice way. He does help to clear Charlie’s name during the climax when the others get the wrong idea because Charlie phrased everything the wrong way.

I also liked Charlie Brown as the lead. That was expected though since he’s always a cool character. He may not be the sharpest tool in the shed and he may not be particularly good at just about anything, but he does have passion and determination. He even declares that a little rain never hurt anybody at the end as he walks to the baseball field even though it is raining really hard. He didn’t even bother to bring an umbrella. Nobody else showed up except for Linus of course and Charlie should have suspected that since nobody else even liked to play by that point, but 2 people is enough to declare the game a win by default I suppose. Charlie and Linus always tend to be the best characters when Snoopy isn’t around.

Snoopy was around though so he does steal the show to an extent. This is one of his smaller roles, but he does get to smack Charlie with his food dish and make a crucial out during one of the games. Since Snoopy is always so good at everything, I’m inclined to believe that he was just holding back the whole time. Sometimes he probably just wants to teach the others some humility. That…or he just likes seeing them lose from time to time. The other friends are really all just there to mock Charlie and be generally mean to everyone. It’s not really nice of them, but hey….what are friends for.

The graphics are all right as always. It may not be the greatest animation, but they have aged fairly well over the years. If nothing else, it is really iconic to look at by this point and the special is just a calming experience. There isn’t much of a soundtrack, but the themes are all very familiar as well. This is a series that should feel very nostalgic as you watch it unless you really have managed to avoid it your whole life. That seems like it’s be a tough feat, but anything’s possible in the end. This also means that I am now one step closer to watching all of the Charlie Brown specials.

Overall, This is another good Charlie Brown special. What makes it a little better than some of the others really comes down to the main plot. Baseball is simply more interesting than a lot of the other stories. I like sports in basically every shape and form. There aren’t even any subplots for once so the total focus is on Baseball. The special is also fairly short so it goes by very quickly. If you’ve seen other Charlie Brown movies then you really know what to expect. You’ll like this one if you’ve liked the others. If you haven’t seen any yet, then this is a good way to start off and I’d recommend checking it out. It’s the kind of special that just feels good to watch.

Overall 7/10

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Review

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Willy Wonka definitely takes things in a different direction from the other films that I’ve reviewed lately. It is still decently old like some of the other films, but not to the same extent. Also, this is probably the first comedy film that I’ve seen since Abbott and Costello and Wonka pulls it off quite well. The film is very over the top, but does so without being completely ridiculous either, which is a good thing. It could also just be that the writing is good enough for you to be able to take it all in stride. Regardless, I can say that this film definitely did something right!

Charlie grew up in a very poor family. They struggled to even get enough food to eat during the day. It was certainly rough, but one day the world became intrigued by the return of Willy Wonka. The business man had vanished without a trace many years ago, but he has now sent 5 Golden Tickets across the world. They are hidden in his chocolate bars. The 5 lucky individuals who find the tickets will be given a tour of his original facility. Nobody has set foot in there for several years so the whole planet is pumped to finally have some people on the inside.

I have to say that this is definitely a great business idea by Mr. Wonka as well. We see people buying thousands of chocolate bars and whole countries stop to try and grab this. America even got a little worries towards the end as Russia managed to grab a ticket first. Luckily, we still had the most representatives by the end anyway. One lady is not even sure if she should give in to the demands of the kidnappers who took away her husband. They want the chocolate bars her kingdom has and that may be too steep of a price. The world really panics the whole time that the bars are out and it’s great. While I do like the second half quite a bit as well, this first half is what really makes this film a success. It’s very crazy and illogical, but in a way that’s still realistic enough where it doesn’t seem silly. It’s just great writing and world building all around. The hype is handled perfectly and really sets you up for the Hunger Games esque ride that is to come. The only thing that holds it back is how obvious it is that Charlie will come out on top. This film should have gone the “multiple main characters” method so you wouldn’t be sure who would win.

I’d say that part 2 of the film starts off once they actually get inside. Wonka tells the kids that they have to make it to the end to get their prize. This proves to be a very difficult task since the kids want to touch things and gum up the works. Can Charlie resist the temptation of immediate gratification and riches for the ultimate prize or will he finally make a crucial mistake? It’ll be tough since a con man has went up to each of the kids and told them to snag him one of Wonka’s new ultra snacks and he’ll pay them handsomely for it. It’s just one snack right……

There were 5 lucky tickets so that means we have 5 main families. Lets start off with Augustus, the kid who loves eating. It’s easy to see why he wouldn’t last long in this environment since he is constantly surrounded by food. He didn’t play the match up right and went full aggro instead of a calm wait and snatch strategy. It ultimately cost him the gold prize and he wasn’t quite as fun as some of the other kids, but he fully embraced his desire to eat and eat. Trust me, he wasn’t shy about going for seconds. Next up is Mike, a kid who loves TV and even has a fake gun by his side. He has no real patience and when he sees a TV teleporter, he decides to go all in. I think we can safely say that his view is a little more down to Earth now and he actually got off quite leniently compared to some of the other kids. It’ll still be a tough life, but he can also experience some fun positives. A slice of pizza will be super filling now!

We can’t forget about Violet, who was the coolest in the film thanks to her father. He was a car salesperson who didn’t mess around and even told Willy that contracts are for suckers. While the rest of the cast signed their names into the contract that stipulated that they were willingly putting their lives on the line, the father objected. Unfortunately, Violet signed away anyway and basically dug her own grave, but at least her father knew what was up. “I’ll break you” was the best line in the film and I definitely think that the dad would have beaten Willy, had he not needed to go and save his daughter first. Easily the best character in the film. Another kid was Veruca, she always had to have whatever she wanted when she wanted it. This meant that she was perfect for Willy’s death traps that he scattered around the facility. They’re made to defeat individuals just like her. She actually lasted a while though.

As for good ole Charlie, he’s a nice kid. He also broke the rules, but managed to get lucky. That may have been a moment of weakness, but he’s certainly a far nicer and more honorable kid than the rest of the pack. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just had some bad luck. Charlie did everything that he could so he could make the financial situation better for his family. It had been rough for them and I believe the film even mentioned that most of his relatives hadn’t even gotten out of bed in years. It was a tight fit too since it was 3-4 of them squeezed in there. It was certainly emotional. Grandpa Joe was a fun supporting character. He was one of the only guys who dared to talk back to Willy and he made it clear that he wouldn’t be messed with. Grandpa Joe was old, but he had spunk. Charlie’s Mom was also a good influence on him as she encouraged Charlie to follow his dreams. She made the most of a pretty rotten situation.

Finally, there’s also Willy Wonka. He’s certainly a more sinister character than you would first think on the surface. He made a lot of money out of this situation and everything went according to his plans. Now, you can argue that his house isn’t an elaborate death trap and that everyone actually lives, but it seems a little sketchy to me. In this fantastical land, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they all died. It plays out like a family friendly horror film as everyone is bumped off one by one. Again, it’s the Hunger Games and since it is food related, the example is even more fitting. Wonka’s tricks were probably too good though since none of the kids were able to resist the temptations. Ah well, he’ll just have to nerf the place next time, but Charlie holds the keys now. Gene Wilder does a perfect job of showing how quirky Wonka is and making his character have a lot of personality right off the bat. Not just anyone could have pulled that off.

The only disturbing scene in the film is the really trippy car ride. It’s the only thing that could have maybe bumped this up to a PG…or beyond! The scenes definitely seemed rather intense, but it could just be an illusion effect from how fast the images were rolling. Either way, it certainly did a good job of being scary and out of nowhere. No wonder the cast wanted off of that ride. It didn’t help that it kept spitting frosting at them either. Not even Chocolate either, just good ole Vanilla.

Overall, This film was a lot of fun. It’s certainly very crazy and the world is quite spectacular, but it does it in such a serious way that it really works. It’s one of those rare comedy films where the writing is really on point and the pacing is great. It’s a laugh a minute and the cast is quite good. You’ll feel bad for the characters since a lot of them seem doomed in the end, but at least they got to eat some chocolate and have their 5 minutes of fame before going. I’d love to have some free chocolate myself. The movie even has a few songs and also gave the world some cool memes. Prepare yourself for Wonka’s big “You Lose” speech that got a lot of recognition online. This film fairly close to an 8 honestly, but a 7 just seems more appropriate. It’s in that gray area between numbers, but I don’t believe in giving half points so it had to be one of the other. If you want a fun film to check out for Christmas, this is certainly a really good option to roll with.

Overall 7/10

Ratchet & Clank Review

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It’s time to finally check out the recent Ratchet and Clank film that came out. I’ve played most of the games and it is definitely a fun franchise. Jak’s the most epic and Sly typically has the best banter, but the Ratchet series has always had the best overall package. The gameplay is always very crisp and the colorful cast of characters makes each game a lot of fun. This film didn’t do the greatest job of adapting the game and I can see why people would have a lot of issues with it, but it’s still a fun film overall. A faithful adaption of the first game would have been even better, but if you didn’t know the source material and just walked up to this one, I think you’d be reasonably satisfied with the end product.

Ratchet is a mechanic on a sandy planet who has grown bored of the routine. Being a Skywalker would be a lot more fun so Ratchet decides to head to the Galactic Ranger tryouts to see if he has what it takes. The Rangers are adding a new member for the first time in a very long while because they need to beef up their defenses to take on a new threat. Planets are being destroyed across the universe and the culprit must be brought to justice. Unfortunately, Ratchet fails the exam and heads back home. Suddenly, a robot appears with a grave warning for the princess rangers and Ratchet uses this opportunity to live out his dream. Will Ratchet and his new robotic sidekick Clank be able to stop the villains or will this team up be short lived?

You can definitely see quite a few similarities to the Star Wars beginning in the film. I didn’t really notice the similarities in the game, but granted, the film expanded on a lot of the intro. The film also added a few Easter Eggs like Sly Cooper and Daxter as Clank tried to find out what species Ratchet was a part of. The beginning of the film is probably the best part. The cool music that played when Ratchet first appeared helped to set the mood and the first fire fight between the Galactic Rangers and the enemy robots was neat. The villains were actually pretty tough and I wouldn’t have minded seeing more Star Wars esque battles like that. Don’t get me wrong, seeing the Mini Zorgs running after everyone is almost hype and all…but I prefer my full on battles.

Granted, Ratchet and Clank isn’t a super serious action movie. The games aren’t like that either, although things did get a little more serious during the time trilogy. The games have always walked a very fine line between total comedy and light hearted action adventure. I’d say that the film definitely went more towards the former and probably overdid it just a bit. Some of the comedy was a bit much and just on the generic side. Qwark is rather extreme, but that’s in character so I can roll with it and he does a better job than most of the others.

The graphics are pretty good. I’m not sure if I’m prepared to say that it looks better than some of the latest games because I was actually more impressed with those, but it certainly looks sharp. It’s pretty surreal to see the series getting a big theatrical film like this. As mentioned earlier, the soundtrack is pretty sharp. At the very least, the film didn’t hold back on the technical aspects. I think better writing would have gone a long way, but it’s not bad either. I just think that it wasn’t up to par with the main games. Perhaps the film was trying to appeal to the general audience a bit.

The characters are solid and that’s not just nostalgia talking. Ratchet’s a very relatable hero who wants to do something great with his life. He has a lot of skills, but things just don’t always work out the way he hoped they would. His careless nature is maybe a little extreme in the film, but he’s a hero at heart and always makes the right call. Clank’s a good sidekick as well. The film didn’t use his iconic laugh as much as it should have, but he still got to shine. Case in point is one of his earlier moments where Ratchet tries to say that Clank was taking him out of context so Clank had to whip out his recorder. Ratchet’s comeback would have worked on just about anyone, but Clank was prepared for it. It was a good move and it shows that you can never be too prepared. They make for a good combo and I do prefer Clank to his rivals Daxter and Bentley.

Captain Qwark is a fun character as always. Betraying everyone was a rather serious crime though and he did get a whole planet destroyed as a result. It’s a little hard to simply walk back from that although people didn’t seem to care too much and he already wrote a book about it. It may be a little hard to buy at times. One aspect that I think the show got wrong is how people started to ignore Qwark in favor of Ratchet. Part of the point to Qwark is that he’s like Hercule from DBZ. The main characters know that he is a phony, but nobody else does. The film didn’t really get that vibe across. Maybe they figured that the plot would not be able to work otherwise, but it is quite the change.

I didn’t really care for Drek as the main villain. Ratchet & Clank’s one weakness has typically been the villains. You can’t really take any of them seriously. Drek is worse than the usual villain though because at least some of the others can fight. Drek can only give out orders or jump in a mech suit if he is feeling lucky that day. I liked Victor though. His design was actually pretty good and his energy sword made for quite the weapon. He’s easily the most intimidating presence in the film even if it is never really explained how he was immune to the magnet. He’s made of the same stuff as the others right? Hmmmm. Doctor Nefarious is around, but he’s a lackey for most of the film. I’m not sure if he started out this way in the games too, but I look forward to seeing him in a leadership role instead. It’s just odd seeing him like this.

The other Galactic Rangers are fairly generic and I look forward to seeing them get written out of future films. Seriously, there’s no point to these guys and they just steal screen time from the real characters. They are really cardboard cutouts who just live up to their character tropes and no more than that. While that may sound harsh, I don’t really dislike them all that much, I just don’t think they really needed to be present. Qwark is the only superhero that you really need and the plot could have just been altered to have had Qwark bring along a sidekick instead of a 5th member. Problem solved!

For all the film’s faults, it still manages to achieve the general goal that every film has. It’s a fun film. You’ll never be bored during Ratchet & Clank and it’s a film that’s easy to watch no matter what time of the year it is. Christmas, Thanksgiving, President’s Day,….Halloween, this film will still be fun. It’s not all that long either at only around an hour and a half so it’s easy to fit into just about any slot. It may not be a masterpiece, but the film has heart and I’d be content to see the creative staff behind this one tackle some more franchises someday. It’d be great if they could play up the action angle a little more considering how high tech everything is in this universe, but I’ll take what I can get here. As long as the film never goes downhill and starts really overdoing it with the comedy, then I’m on board.

Overall, Ratchet & Clank may not have been as great as it could have been, but it’s still a good film. It’s a shame that we may not end up getting a sequel at this rate. It’s nostalgic to see the characters again since it has been a while since I played one of the games. Turning more video games into movies is definitely a good idea and I want to see Sonic and Mario get that treatment at some point. Honestly, just about any Nintendo game could make for a good movie and I’d also like some RPG movies like how Final Fantasy XV got one recently. The more the merrier I say. Whether you’ve played the games or not, I recommend checking out this film. It’s a fun little adventure film that I could recommend to anyone and there’s not even a cliffhanger so if that’s not your thing then you don’t need to worry. I do have to say that the one sad part of the ending is how Ratchet’s boss isn’t very sympathetic. It’s hard to feel bad for him when he doesn’t give Ratchet a day off for saving the universe. I think Ratchet had a point when he said that he thought the boss would be a little more touched at the gesture of Ratchet coming home instead of becoming a billionaire on another planet or something. I guess that’s the boss though, he does what he wants when he wants.

Overall 7/10

Silver Streak Review

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It’s time for another Gene Wilder film. This one sees him witness a murder while on a train and now he must try to get away with his life. This will be no easy task since everyone wants him dead now. George also has a tough time remembering how villains love to attack from behind, which gets him into a few sticky situations. He’ll need all of his skills and experience if he wants to get out of this in one piece. It’s a pretty fun film for the most part and the only thing that drags it down a little is the heavy handed romance plot which suffers from poor writing and being generally unrealistic. There just isn’t much to it and the whole time you’re just wondering why the subplot was included. The film would have been even better without it.

As mentioned earlier, George was just minding his own business at first. He wanted a train ride so he could have time to think and relax. Unfortunately, he quickly meets a bad influence who tells him that train rides are only good for finding rebound characters. It turns out that he was right as George quickly dashes back to his room in triumph. The joy is short lived as a dead body crashes past his room and then George is thrown off the train by a bunch of brutes. George must get back on the train and save Hilly or it is all over. Can he really catch a train though? Even if he does…what hope does he have against trained professionals?

George isn’t really my kind of main character. He has his funny moments as always since the actor is quite good at playing this type of character. The reason I can’t like George is because he’s simply too easy and he can also be rather slow on the uptake. George also isn’t much of a fighter so he ends up getting knocked around whenever he doesn’t have a gun. It is still priceless to see him panic at everything though. His constant yelling is what makes his character enjoyable most of the time. Unfortunately, Hilly doesn’t end up being a good heroine. Unlike George, she isn’t even charismatic and funny to make up for it. She really messes up every opportunity possible and a lot of the time she has no real reason to make the decisions that she does. For example, she had George alone with her quite a few times and still decided to keep him in the dark. Even once the villains throw him off the train and start to get violent, she tries to trick George into thinking that he was imagining everything. That was never going to work and if she thought that the villains were going to leave him alone, then she was just being very naive. Throw in the fact that she is constantly flirting and seems to be very “free” in the worst meaning of the word and you have a very underwhelming character.

Luckily, we had Grover as the fan favorite character. He doesn’t show up until we’re well through the film so unfortunately his role is rather small. No matter, he still made the film a whole lot more fun and I can see why people would like him and Wilder as a good combo. Their characters worked well together. Grover’s appearance meant that Gene finally had some muscle backing him up and he would have certainly been doomed otherwise. Grover even got the happiest ending out of all the characters so his hard work paid off.

Roger is the main villain and he’s all right. He’s basically your average villain so there’s nothing unique about him, but he does a good job in the role. He keeps the heroes on their guard at all times and does have a lot of confidence. Even once he is outnumbered and at gunpoint, he tries to make a deal with George. Only plot hax is enough to save him at that point. He may have even been a little better than I would have expected. One of his minions, Reace, was also all right. He’s definitely an intimidating villain since he is rather huge and one good hit would be enough to defeat George. Luckily, fights between mere mortals will always come down to who has the better aim and George is a crackshot with a harpoon.

Finally, I have to mention that the main Police agent in the film is pretty bad. Bob is undercover so he uses that as an excuse to get drunk and flirt a lot before actually getting serious, but it’s a little too late by that point. He’s a very unlikable character and not even a very competent one at that. He opens a door without even looking even though he knows that gangsters are on the train. Seriously, they even knocked to give him a bit of a warning, but it was no use. Common sense couldn’t save Bob so what chance did George and friends have?

This film would have been an easy 7, but the main thing holding it back is the romance. As mentioned earlier, the plot isn’t written well. It just implies that George and Hilly are both people who will start a relationship with just anybody and are constantly on the rebound. The plot is given way too much screen time and you have whole minutes of nothing happening because they are too busy with each other. It slows the film down and that’s something that the film didn’t need since it is already so long. Parts of the film do drag towards the middle and this doesn’t help matters. Honestly, getting off the train 2-3 times was rather embarrassing. Actually jumping off was probably the worst mistake that George made. The heroes had the win in the bag at that point, but didn’t have the courage to follow through.

The milking the cow scene is also pretty gross, but I’ve always thought so. It’s just hard to watch and looks so painful for the cow. That’s why you should always bring something with you while watching a movie, like a snack or a water or something. That way you can quickly look away and grab that as you wait for the scene to end. Honestly, the cow scene is almost worse than the normal romance because of how iffy it is. Back to positives, the action scenes are pretty solid. Action isn’t exactly one of the genres so don’t expect long fight scenes or anything like that, but the fact that George can’t really fight makes his action scenes entertaining.

Overall, Silver Streak is a good film. I highly recommend the TV version since it cut out what felt like dozens of swear words throughout. The air bubbles make for a pretty funny experience. The romance holds it back and the cow scene was unnecessary, but the rest of the film is strong enough to make up for that. If you’re a Gene Wilder fan then you already know what to expect. If not, just come in looking for a fun retro comedy film and it should not disappoint. It’s not quite as strong as his Willy Wonka film, but it is still solid. Gene is definitely rising up as one of the better actors for me. He’s certainly charismatic and the fact that he always plays the same character type works for me. If you’ve got a good thing going, why switch it right? Get ready for some serious plot hax, but….since when has a gun film not had some of that?

Overall 6/10

Young Frankenstein Review

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It’s always sad when you’re so close to being a good film, but then crash and burn towards the second half. Young Frankenstein had a promising start, but as with many comedy films, it simply couldn’t think of enough good material and had to resort to iffy moments in the end. It does succeed as a parody and will get you a good amount of laughs so comedy fans may enjoy this film anyway. At any rate, it certainly does destroy the normal Frankenstein films, but that’s not much of a feat.

Frankenstein is a professor who is given a tough time because people always question him about the original Frankenstein. Frankenstein has even gone as far as to switch the pronounciation of his name to Frankensteen and always denounces the possibility of creating a monster. He even stabs himself accidentally when trying to get the point across. Unfortunately, he cannot escape his destiny. He gets ownership of the castle and once he gets there…strange things start to happen. An assistant by the name of Igor arrives with the house and a lady named Inga. Frankenstein doesn’t want to create a monster, but his genes start to take control of him and force him to go along with it. He begins to revel in his new role as a crazed scientist, but this isn’t what he wanted….right?

The film was definitely fun at first. The whole scene with him in the classroom was brilliant. He kept the students in line and while they really made it tough on him, Frankenstein never cracked. He even took the stab pretty well considering that it looked rather painful. You’ll feel bad for his volunteer though since that guy wasn’t prepared for the insanity that would ensue. The first parts of the castle were also fun as Frankenstein very sarcastically takes in the strange surroundings. He’s very skeptcal and isn’t afraid to mention it. At first he reacts to all the crazy stuff like Igor’s broken hand constantly switching sides, but gets used to it at the end. He adapts and adapts until he goes full crazy and tries to reenact the experiment.

The film really does recover just about everything that was in the first film. Naturally, some parts are greatly improved like the little girl scene. Instead of being drowned, she is simply thrown through a window back into her bed. It’s the kind of change that could have really helped the old Frankenstein films. We even get the blind guy burning the monster again. There are a lot of good homages and the film is at its best when it’s making fun of the old films and having Frankenstein panic at everything. Unfortunately, things go downhill when we get away from this.

The biggest offender is really the fact that the film constantly brings up the fact that Frankenstein’s upgrades also affected him in more personal ways. You’ll see a lot of jokes about that, but one joke goes a little too far as he chases one of the heroines. She trips and is unable to escape him. She does end up falling in love with him after the experience, but the fact remains that she didn’t really have a choice the first time. It’s meant as a joke, but one that was in rather poor taste. Aside from that, the “romance” between the main two characters is just as bad. During the whole film, Inga is constantly flirting with Frankenstein and purposely taking his comments the wrong way. She finally breaks his will by the end and then we get more sad plot twists. It’s a cruel end for Frankenstein as well since he basically loses his mind. The romance parts are definitely the weakest bits for the film and the scenes just aren’t funny.

It goes without saying that I’m not a fan of the Monster. He really only cares about running around and destroying things and finding a partner. That doesn’t make for a great villain or for a misunderstood guy. Inga is not any better as romance is the only thing on her mind. She’s portrayed as being incredibly unintelligent. It’s part of the parody aspect of course, but it doesn’t work too well at all.

With Frankenstein also falling off the deep end, the only good character here is Igor. You have to wonder whether he is as out of the loop as he suggests. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the actual mastermind behind the scenes. He gave Frankenstein the wrong brain because he “accidentally” broke the real one and then he would move large distances in impossibly quick times. The film hinted that he may have had a twin in the castle as well since it would be the only logical explanation at times. If that is the case, it only goes to reinforce the idea that he is a lot smarter and craftier than he seems. The pieces simply start to add up once you begin connecting the dots. Igor was definitely fun to have around.

Overall, Young Frankenstein wasn’t a good film. It’s a shame because as I mentioned earlier, the first half was fairly great. The humor was well done and Frankenstein’s reactions to everything were real highlights. Other scenes like getting stuck in the revolving door were also handled well although making sure that Igna also got stuck felt rather mean spirited of Frankenstein. Unfortunately, the film started to get a little too obsessed with romance by the end and getting the monster in on the action was really not a good move at all. Frankenstein’s descent into madness made absolutely no sense, but I suppose that was part of the point. I preferred him as a skeptic though since he kept on calling everyone out and just being a lot of fun. The actor certainly did a really good job for what it’s worth. The film just let him down this time. If you want a funnier parody, check out the horror/comedy I reviewed a while back where Sherlock Holmes and a lot of other famous detectives must team up to solve a murder mystery before they are all bumped off.

Overall 2/10

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Comic Anthology

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Fire Emblem definitely has a lot of manga titles. It’s pretty cool how the series is so big even if most of the various series aren’t all that great. This one is all right, but I’m not a huge fan of Anthologies. Perhaps one will feature a big action scene which will help it out a bit. I shall have a review for the series up when it finishes.

Overall 5/10

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman Review

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It’s time for a retro film that is actually quite well known. I’ve certainly heard of this one over the years as it has become quite the meme. It was certainly a novel idea at the time, but unfortunately, the execution simply isn’t on point. While it’s supposed to be a very fun popcorn film that you just enjoy and laugh with…it wasn’t that fun. Whenever I talk to someone about this film, I get the classic response that the film is a blast, but I just didn’t get that vibe. Maybe I need to get used to retro humor a little more.

It has been a rough year for Nancy. Her husband finally came back to her as he wanted to get rich quick, but he still openly cheats on her. Nancy doesn’t know what to do about this since she should clearly just make him leave again, but she can’t get past her emotions. In the meantime, Harry keeps insulting her butler and bribing the cops. Harry plans to get her back into an asylum, but he’s not sure how to quickly accomplish this. His worries come to an end when Nancy claims that she saw an alien ship. Harry makes sure to insult and belittle her as much as possible while also slightly encouraging her at times to turn her emotions to jelly before breaking her mind. Nancy is at her breaking point when the alien shows up again and defeats her. Harry runs away and tries to cover this all up, but Nancy turns up the next day. She is unconscious and doesn’t know what happened. Harry is the main suspect so he quickly tries to destroy her, but this plan doesn’t work either. His only chance is to leave town, but can he outrun a 50 foot giant?

I realize that I just said pretty much the whole plot, but it’s hard not too. The whole point of this film is that Nancy turns into a 50 foot giant, but this doesn’t happen until the very end of the film. It’s not a spoiler since it is in the title and promotion so my plot summary has to make it at least that far. There’s just not much more to guess by that point. You’ll probably know the rest of the ending.

All right, lets talk about why I did not like the movie. For starters…it is not fun. I have to address this right off the bat. Nancy is in a very sad predicament and the fact that she is being completely used the whole time and does nothing about it makes the whole film rather sad and underwhelming instead of fun and up beat. Nancy realizes that Harry just wants her money and is being a terrible guy the whole time. She mentions as much, but the problem is that she suffers from quite a few mood swings, which virtually make her forget about these incidents as soon as they happen. Harry tries to sabotage her at every turn and she is not able to do anything about it. If she was a better main lead, then the film could have been more fun. If she was trying to humiliate Harry and take him down for the count, it would have been a lot more even. I would have been able to get behind that. As it is, the whole thing is simply too one sided.

Nancy doesn’t even get to have her revenge since as soon as she turns giant, the power of electricity shows up. It’s just not really a fun resolution so I just don’t see where the fun factor comes in. I suppose that the film is certainly campy, but at the same time, the main plot is seriously sad. That sort of negates the whatever humor the film was going for. Harry’s just such a bad antagonist. Since Nancy won’t fight back, it is just annoying to see him show up.

The butler was a nice character, but it’s a shame that he wasn’t able to beat Harry. I’ll give him some props for actually trying and not just backing off as soon as he showed up. Calling the cops was the right move though so it was good to see the police respond in time. Charlie was a rather suspect deputy as he got bribed by Harry for a while, but at least he stood up to him when the going got tough. Harry’s not bad, but he certainly goofs off a little too much. If I was the sheriff, I’d be looking for a replacement as soon as possible. After all, the sheriff was at the top of his game right from the start. Nancy nearly ran him over, but the guy had good reaction times.

Honey was the other villain who helped advise Harry on how to put Nancy in a bad spot. She was always ready to go the extra mile as she recommended permanent solutions to their predicament. Of course, the joke is also on Harry as the film heavily implies that she doesn’t mind cheating on him either. She’s also just in it for the money so the cycle continues and continues. In the end, they will all likely get a bad ending as a result.

The main highlight of the film is probably the fact that aliens show up. The alien in question doesn’t have the greatest design and he’s just a super large guy, but I’ll take it. Adding aliens always makes for a whole new dynamic in the film. I would have liked to have seen him do more or show up at the end to gloat, but I suppose the mystery is part of his charm. Maybe he’d show up more if the film had gotten a proper sequel. I can’t say that the premise has much potential when it comes to a modern film remaking this, but it could be good if handled right. Lets face it, Nancy would be changed quite a lot for a modern film and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t see her being quite so indecisive in a remake and Harry probably wouldn’t get the first and last laughs. It’s debatable if he got the last laugh here, but he certainly got to have a lot more fun than Nancy so it wasn’t much of a win.

Overall, The film just wasn’t that fun. I suppose you are not supposed to take the main plot all that seriously, but I personally just found it tragic which hurt everything else as a result. Watching Harry just mooch off of Nancy’s riches the whole time was terrible and she never did a thing about it. It’s the kind of plot that you would only see in an older film and it’s one that I certainly don’t miss from the modern times. Nancy didn’t even get to turn giant for very long so you’ll be waiting a while for the actual title to come into play and then the payoff is very small. This film just didn’t work for me and I certainly don’t recommend it. I’m not saying that it’s terrible, or at least not as terrible as some of the other films that I’ve reviewed lately. I would say that it is a bad one though and I’d recommend checking out Godzilla instead.

Overall 2/10

My Hero Academia Smash

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This is a little spinoff to the main series. It very lightly retells the story’s events as a 4 koma comedy title. As with most titles of this kind of series, the jokes can get old rather quickly so there isn’t much of a future for it. It’s not all that bad though, but there isn’t much of a reason to read it. I’ll review the series when I finish it.

Overall 4/10

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2: Revenge Review

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It’s been a while, but it’s finally time to look at the sequel to the first Orphen show. Interestingly enough, this show took a dramatically different approach compared to the first one. While the first season was very dark, somber, and dramatic the entire time, this one shifts gears into a full on comedy. You can see what the writers were going for here though. In the first show, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to see the cast just hang out and have fun since there were always a lot of things at stake. With the world completely safe once more, it’s the perfect time to pit the cast in all kinds of wonky situations. For the most part, this works well, but some parts of the show really just make no sense. Plot points are brought up and then completely forgotten. It makes for an odd blend, but at the end of the day the show is fairly good. The first season definitely takes the win here as I did miss “hardcore” Orphen from the search for Azalie, but this title has a lot of great moments as well.

Orphen has been having a lot of strange dreams lately. He’s trapped in a cave and bad things always seem to happen. He’s chased by giants, laughed at by the unknown, or even attacked by monsters. The one constant is that whenever he wakes up, he finds the main heroine Cleao in his room to the dismay of both of them. The shenanigans continue for a while until a new character, Licorice shows up. She wants Orphen to come with her to the royal knighthood of honor chaps so that they can properly award him. Orphen refuses so she decides to follow him until he relents. The upside for Orphen is that she is backed financially by the group so now he can use her money and live a decent life instead of scraping for pennies.

Meanwhile, a Red Haired girl continues to follow them and plays the piano during the night. Her plot twist is really obvious and I guessed it as soon as she appeared, but for those who are not too familiar with the trope, it may take a little longer than that. There are also a lot of monsters which keep showing up and try to destroy Orphen from time to time. There seems to be a mastermind behind them, but who can it be? One thing’s for sure, Orphen and the others are not going to be getting a lot of rest this time!

As mentioned earlier, the show doesn’t really know where it’s going at times. Let’s take the first plot, where the two heroes keep waking up in the wrong room. This is never resolved. There is no actual reason for the characters to be sleep walking and if the show intended for this to be a pure comical subplot, then it was not handled well. During the entire show, you’re waiting for the revelation of what is causing this, but it wasn’t to be. We can’t forget Orphen’s dreams either. He gets them constantly and some of them are even used purely for comic relief and have no purpose. One of them does come true by the end, but what about the rest? Has Orphen’s imagination just started to run away with him in his old age? I dunno, it just felt pointless once again.

Finally, Orphen’s new magical symbols are also odd. As opposed to the first show where he could just send off a spell at will, we now get a visual of an odd looking circuit board. We can definitely assume that Orphen is drawing energy from this tech to use his magic. I had a theory going on for a while that this Orphen was a clone and that was going to be the big twist. That would have really been something and I think it could have been handled very epicly. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t to be I guess. It was purely an animation change that the show did for kicks. Gotta save the budget whenever possible right? There is certainly a decent amount of stock footage in this season.

That being said, the animation is reasonably good here. It hasn’t changed all that much from the first season, but it didn’t really need too. As it stands, everything looks to be on point. The fight scenes are always exciting and all of the character designs make sense. It’ll remind you of the classic 90’s days for sure. The soundtrack is pretty uninspiring, but we have 1 or 2 very catchy themes. The theme songs look pretty good animation-wise. I’d say that the first theme song of the original series is probably the best. As for the music of these intros, I’ll update this review with something on those once I listen to them again within the next day or two.

As mentioned earlier, most of the show is rather lighthearted and fairly aimless. While this may not sound good to the action readers in the room, it was rather nice to see the group just hang out and engage in witty banter. There are some shows where you never really get to see the heroes have fun like in DBZ so this is a welcome change. Let’s face it, Vegeta and Goku bickering could make for a lot of good episodes. This cast isn’t quite as dynamic, but they can do a good job so long as the two trolls and Orphen are the main focus. My favorite episode of this season actually wasn’t an action episode, but a comedy one instead.
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In this episode, Orphen gets cloned so that there are 4-5 other Orphens chasing him. Orphen even compliments this concept since the only one who can defeat him must be another him right? I can actually follow this train of logic. The fight scenes in this episode are a lot of fun and the dialogue is also rather strong. This episode simply could not be surpassed no matter how much plot they crammed into the final episodes. Some of those titles did put up a good fight, but none could match the brilliance of this event. If you thought that clone episodes couldn’t really be all that good, you’ll want to watch this one to reassess that statement.

The characters haven’t changed all that much since the first season as you’d expect. Orphen’s still the tough main character who is always ready to throw out some insults. He’s still a tough mage as well, but is portrayed as being a lot lower on the totem pole than usual. He is actually on the losing side of just about every serious fight in the series. He loses to all three of the main villains in one on one fights and ultimately only proves to be dependable against comic relief characters. I don’t think his fans will be too pleased at that part. I really thought that the writers didn’t give Orphen enough credit in this season. Maybe that will change if we ever get a season 3. He’s still a great lead though and I’d definitely say that he is the best character in the series.

I still have to give Volkan the runner up spot. He’s actually a really great comic relief character and puts most others to shame. He’s very consistent and never has a moment where you’re supposed to feel bad for him or respect his abilities. He plays the role of the comic relief guy right up until the end and that’s how it should be. He never loses his nerve and we’ll always see him try to make Orphen’s life more difficult. It would simply be odd if he ever switched from this tactic. I still don’t care for Dortin though. He doesn’t pull off the road nearly as well. His voice actor does a good job of giving him a very old/raspy voice, but that’s the only real positive for him. He really needs to get behind Volkan and help him out more against Orphen.

Majic is not nearly as terrible as he was in the first show, but there’s still little reason to root for him in this one. He’s still letting Orphen cheat his father out of a small fortune via the tuition when Majic isn’t actually learning anything. We had a whole episode about this and the moral was basically that Orphen is a terrible teacher, but Majic may as well continue to pay him out anyway. Not the greatest ending for Majic fans. He’ll have to really improve for me to like him more as a character.

As for Cleao, she’s still a good main heroine. It’s definitely fortunate for her that she has a super powerful dog in the form of Lucky. Even Orphen’s afraid of that little guy. She may not be able to fight all that much on her own and it can get old to see her quit the group so often, but at least she can be reasonable and her arguments with Orphen are always entertaining. Unlike Majic, she’s actually a very good supporting character who helps to push the show along. There are other characters from the first season who show up like Orphen’s child hood friend and the new leader of the spell castors, Azalie. Unfortunately, they don’t do a whole lot here and their roles aren’t great. You’d think that Azalie would get a lot of hype since she is one of the strongest mages in the world, but her quick cameos are just there to remind the fans that she exists. She doesn’t really get to do anything in the grand scheme of things. As for the child hood friend, his hobby of transforming into a superhero identity is still around, but beyond that he mostly spends his appearances getting beaten up or beating up on weaker monsters. There’s no real middle here and he can’t hold a candle to the stronger fighters. Neither can Orphen though so I suppose we couldn’t expect much more out of him.

Licorice is one of the newer characters and she gets a large role. Unfortunately, she is a pretty bad character. She wasn’t too bad at first as I didn’t mind her gimmick of always mentioning the Royal Knighthood. It could be catchy and she wasn’t bad. However, she started to get a lot worse once she started uncovering the truth behind her past. Suddenly, she would start getting very snippy with everyone and had a tendency of running off into the rain. She tried destroying herself 3 times or more and tended to get in the way of the heroes at all times. She lost any dignity she had by this point and ultimately the show would have been better off without her.

Erukarena is the final boss of the show and is an example of how you make a good final boss. She is a high above being who just so happens to look like a little girl. Don’t let her appearance fool you though, her powers are immense. She has super speed and a wide variety of spells to the point where she is able to take on McGregor and Orphen teaming up. They really don’t fare very well against her at all. She may look innocent, but takes great joy in making life tougher for everyone else. She may not have many goals or aspirations, but at least she makes sure that the heroes feel her sting. The design really worked well this time.

McGregor was the big villain for most of the series. (When he appeared anyway) He got to show off his skills quite a lot as he took Orphen down rather easily. He moves pretty fast for an old man. The show tries to make him a sympathetic character by the end as we find out a few plot twists about his past. It’s all pretty intriguing and while most of his decisions were good, it doesn’t really excuse the fact that he went off the deep end. Whatever the intentions may be, it doesn’t change the fact that McGregor was a complete villain by the end of all this. He was someone who needed to be taken down for the count. At least he made for a good villain though.

As far as the villains go, the final one is Flamesoul. Surprisingly, the show presented him as a greater magician than Orphen. The court room scene with Flamesoul interrogating Orphen was handled pretty well. He’s not the greatest of villains as he can be rather dramatic at times. He doesn’t know that Orphen was actually framed for murdering his mother so he seeks revenge throughout the series. He is definitely lucky to have an array of monsters to back him up, but he actually does a very good job. He came so close to completely getting his revenge here. I definitely liked him a little more than I thought I would by the end, but he does lose to the first two.

Finally, we have Esperanza. I would have liked her character more if she had stuck to playing the piano in the background. Instead, she gets a lot of development and is unsure of what she should do. Protecting Licorice is her main goal, but she also wants to take Orphen down which would be bad for Licorice emotionally. It’s definitely a tricky call either way as it will be tough for the two of them to get along. I also have to say that the kiss between her and Orphen felt very random and out of nowhere. That scene definitely had no real purpose if you think about it. Esperanza may have been mysterious, but unfortunately she was not a good character. I also happened to be playing Sword Art Online Lost Song at the same time as I watched this and that game had the very same twist as this title involving a mysterious red haired girl. It made the resolution to this plot that much more obvious.

Holding back this show from getting a complete 7 is that it did have a little more fanservice than it should have by the end. It’s nothing too drastic, but the little scenes here and there do add up. Most of the comedy episodes weren’t bad, but they were also pretty devoid of action, which widened the gap between this season and the first one. It was very close to matching the score, but in the end it just couldn’t pull it off. I’m sure that a season 3 would likely get the job done though.
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Overall, Revenge is a fitting title for this season as several characters have this motive over the course of the show. It’s not as fitting though when you find out that this season is mostly a comedy. The action scenes do look really good when they show up of course, but it does take quite a while for them to really get going. Once you’re in the climax, you get a glimpse of how epic the show could have been had it stuck to this genre. We do have the first season for that though. If you like the characters then you will still enjoy the show regardless as the comedy is handled rather well. Had some plot points actually ended or been removed entirely, the show would have been even better. As it stands, I’d certainly recommend this show. The franchise may appear to be about 95% dead, but there’s always a chance that we will get a movie or another show someday. Never stop hoping for that sequel!

Overall 6/10

My Hero Academia

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I’ve finally started one of the new big hits. This series definitely looks like it’ll be a fun one even if one of the plot twists shouldn’t have happened. The fire/ice kid is definitely the best character so far so we’ll see if he can hold this place for the entire series or if he will be surpassed. I’ll have a review for the title when it is all done.

Overall 7/10