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The Call Review

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

It’s time for a film involving the 911 operations and how they really have to go through a lot. We hear about a ton of different crimes going on and the whole film is about being in the middle of a tragedy and how the operators ultimately won’t be able to stop everyone. It doesn’t make for the most enjoyable film that’s for sure.

The movie introduces us to Jordan who is one of the best in the business for 911 operators. She’s been at this for a while and knows how to very quickly enter in all of the combinations and do what she has to. Unfortunately she makes a big mistake in one case which causes the victim to be murdered so she transfers out of active duty and into a teaching role. She is pulled back in though when there is a big kidnapping case and Jordan is the only one with the skills to handle the call. Will she be able to save the victim this time or is it game over for her?

I’d say the main issue with this film is that it’s one of those movies that relies a whole lot on shock value. They want to really show just how bad the villain is so we have to watch large parts of his crimes in full detail. The scenes go on for a very long time and it’s all pretty tragic. A film that is more confident in its writing and overall abilities would leave more to the imagination and just hit us with the need to know bits. Instead this film goes all in on this to its own detriment. It doesn’t end up being a film that you would really want to watch at all as you’re ready to turn it off after the opening minutes.

Even the crimes we get over the intercom tend to mainly be rather grisly to remind people how tough the job is. For sure being a 911 operator is not something that would be for everyone. It’s incredibly difficult and high stress. For those reasons it is probably a good idea to have a film on it to remind people of that but this film just lacked any kind of subtlety which put it in a rough position right from the jump. I would say the film really shouldn’t have shown the first crime or at least made more parts of it be off screen. It’s just a real mean spirited intro.

Then for the main part of the film you at least figure Jordan will be taking the villain down before he can do much but he gets away with way too much. When we get to his base it seems like this guy has been in the business for a while which is extra grim dark and the girl was injured a whole lot before Jordan is able to get there. When the villain gets away with this much it just ends up making the end of the film feel like a very hollow victory instead of the full success that it should have been. It’s like something got lost midway through the film rather than it being a big success.

Jordan does her best as the main character and while she did make a huge mistake, it is something that could happen to anyone. She has seemingly had a spotless career up to this point and has handled many calls. Jordan also knew when it was time to leave active duty and did this in a way where she wouldn’t put anyone in danger by freezing up. Ultimately even by the end she was willing to put herself in a lot of danger to help the victim so I can appreciate that.

The ending of the film is going for that classic revenge kind of feel and I do think it’s one of the problems with shock value type films. You basically make the villains so evil and over the top that you can then give license to the heroes to do something equally cruel back to them. It gives the audience vindication and everything. I can see the satisfaction there but honestly the best kind of ending is just shooting the villain and keeping it moving. A quick death and you send a message to the rest of the crooks. It may not be as satisfying in the moment but it helps to prevent the film just getting more and more violent the whole time.

It goes without saying that the film is super violent and has a lot of dark tones so that’s another reason you wouldn’t recommend this title to just anyone. It’s also one of those films where anyone who stands up to the main villain isn’t going to do so well. For example we have someone who tries to call the cops and get attacked but from then on doesn’t look very good at all. You knew he was doomed from the start though and I don’t get how he lowered his guard. A second guy at the gas station even had a weapon and a drop on the main villain but then he lowers his guard to open the door?

Lets just keep this simple, if you see someone had kidnapped a girl you already know he’s deranged. So you don’t need to be looking around wondering what to do. You gotta keep him in front of you and either finish him off or hold him til the cops arrive. Opening the door to try and get the girl out isn’t going to help at all. 9 times out of 10 she is likely going to be in no physical position to help and if anything you just made it tougher because he can grab her as a hostage or something. You have to win the 1 on 1 fight first and then worry about all of that.

Overall, The Call is a pretty terrible movie all around. It’s super cliche’d and predictable the whole time. At most the only unpredictable part is how far the film takes things because I thought it would have at least some basic restraint. Definitely one you will want to skip at all times. There are no real positives to be said about this journey. This kind of plot at least regarding the kidnapping has been done way better in numerous films. This one is just relying too much on that classic kind of shock value that you would expect from a B movie. The whole thing has that forced dark tone about it. I’d definitely wait for a remake someday to iron out all the flaws and make this into a much better film. They can do it….I’m sure they can. It’s hard to get much worse after all.

Overall 1/10

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse Review

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It’s time for a film about how crime does pay sometimes. You’ve definitely got an interesting premise here and the film has a lot of fun with itself. It’s never taken too seriously which works out pretty well for the tone. If it was too serious then the ending would definitely be real messy to put it mildly. As it sands, it makes for a fun story.

The adventure starts with Clitterhouse robbing more places. This guy may be a very well respected doctor but it’s just not enough for him. He wants to really understand criminals on a deeper level and so he measures his own heartrate and takes blood before and after each crime. Clitterhouse gets even more greedy though and decides to join an entire gang. He quickly takes down Jo and the big Rocks gang. He impresses them so much that they let him join and they even start to respect him as the leader. Their actual leader Rocks doesn’t take too kindly to this but at the end of the day what can he really do about it? Well…he’s a crook so there is a whole lot he can do about it. Clitterhouse better watch himself.

Clitterhouse’s best strength is how good he is at talking. He can always spin things in a way where it sounds most agreeable and the other characters really don’t know how to handle him. He is always a few steps ahead and that really puts him in the catbird seat here. He boldly walks up to the police to chat even while he has a bunch of diamonds. His assistant is constantly shocked at just how bold the guy can be. In a way you could also say it’s all a big bluff as half the time he isn’t really intending to do some of these things and then he just has to keep his cool. Like leaving the bag by the desk in the police station and things like that. At the very least I don’t think that was intentional.

Cliterhouse is a professional though so it takes a whole lot to really get to him. He was certainly nervous near the end but ultimately didn’t really show it and still got the best of rocks. I’d say he was most terrified at the court trial and not really for his own life. This guy was definitely a real character that’s for sure. At the end of the day he stole a lot and is definitely a criminal though. Even if it was all to write a book, I would argue that doesn’t really excuse all of the theft. So I was rooting for the cops here even if they did seem doomed the whole time. They were always one step behind.

It did make for a fun scene when they were all yelling at each other though. That was definitely some pretty good stuff. Meanwhile Rocks made for a decent main villain. He’s definitely not the smartest guy around and yet he does have some good plans on occasion. For example he did a good job of tracking down where Clitterhouse lived and getting the drop on him. Even the doctor did not expect that to happen so that was a big W on the villain’s part. Rocks may have been outshined by Clitterhouse for a while there but he was the leader beforehand so I was glad that the film didn’t suddenly make him inept or anything like that. That would have been a real stretch.

Butch was a real loyal member of the gang. He seems to mean well as far as the villains are concerned and he helped out quite a bit. You don’t forget it when a character shows up when it counts. From all of the villains he was the most likable one. Jo meanwhile is a solid villain but does not always play things very smart. Running over to Clitterhouse’s place without a plan was really not a good idea. She almost just made things worse for all of them. You always gotta have a plan when you have ties to the local mob.

As you can expect with an old title like this, the writing is definitely solid. The script is always real good and that helps turn what would otherwise be a very quiet and down to Earth movie into one that is super entertaining the whole time around. It’s hard to picture them being able to effectively remake this film nowadays as a result. You’d probably either see them trying to throw in a lot of explosions (Which in fairness could be cool) or the humor wouldn’t work as well. This kind of story all comes down to the execution after all. I’d also say it is a perfect example of how the comedy genre can step in and really provide a good assist from time to time. If you take the humor away from the film and make it super serious, it could still work but I don’t think it would be nearly as engaging. Also like I mentioned the ending would probably be far less satisfying.

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. These retro titles always have a whole lot of charm to them. The witty dialogue works real well so the humor is very effective while being low key the whole time. The pacing is good and the character cast is small so they each get a good amount of screen time and development. I don’t really have any issues with this film. It was a solid all around experience without any real downsides. If you like a solid film involving a bunch of mind games then this will definitely be a title that you do not want to miss out on.

Overall 7/10

Run Silent, Run Deep Review

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This is a film about how obsession over revenge actually can work out pretty well. In a way the film’s overall message is quite a bit different than you’d expect since you’d figure that the mission would really fail to show that this wasn’t the way to go. It’s a pretty solid movie all in all with strong writing to keep you engaged.

The movie starts with Jim being celebrated by the crew and looking forward to many adventures as their captain. Unfortunately the celebration has barely concluded when he is told by exec that his ship is being given over to a guy named Richardson. Richardson’s own ship had been sunk about a year ago in the Bungo Straits where the Japanese have been successfully dominating every match. The U.S. has clear orders to avoid that area now but Richardson doesn’t care. He’s going to avenge his crew whatever it takes. Jim is certainly not pleased with how the lives of his crew are now being risked, but what can he do about it?

This film is fairly old school so everyone goes by the book and tries not to rock the boat much. That can be a bit annoying as Jim sees Richardson breaking the rules left and right but doesn’t really do anything about it. He sees the chain of command as not being something to jump over. So for example, when he notices Richardson going for the Bungo Straits, Jim will confront him about it privately. When the men on the ship ask about this, he just tells them to mind their business and keep it moving.

Jim’s doing his best to make sure the ship doesn’t devolve into chaos and that nothing crazy happens but I would say it happens at a rather huge cost. I don’t think keeping the men in the dark is the right answer. Jim’s almost compensating too hard to really show that he’s not going to try and take the ship back by force. It takes Richardson being really sick for Jim to really do anything.

Like I said in the intro though, Richardson’s plan actually works out fairly well. Yes, the heroes do take some big shots and have casualties. They almost could have all been destroyed but at the end of the day they stopped the Japanese threat that was sinking many shots. Richardson’s crew was able to pull off the bow shot when it counted despite this usually being a last resort technique. So you could say that Jim really trained them well.

I still think Jim should have been straight with the crew though. As for Richardson, he was also hiding things a whole lot. The fact that he refused to fight the first Japanese sub and let them get away just so he could go through with his mission was also pretty rough. Ultimately it works out pretty well but you never know if that one sub you avoided could go on to murder a bunch of people. It’s a high stakes bet with other people’s lives.

Ultimately Richardson’s story ends in a way you would expect because otherwise with the amount of rules he broke, things probably wouldn’t go great there. Results aren’t often enough to make up for the fact that you’ve broken orders, particularly in the army and the navy where these things are put as a premium. If you break them then the whole system starts to fall apart after all.

So there’s a good amount of tension here and the film does go into great detail about what a submarine fight is like. We see how you have to maneuver each torpedo and set the coordinates before firing. The precise angle to lower the ship while firing to do the bow shot, etc. Fans of submarine processes will get a particular kick out of it. It’s perhaps a bit more detail than I really needed but I wouldn’t say it ever drags the film on too long or anything like that.

The writing is always really good as you would expect for an old time film like this. The characters all talk like professionals and the dialogue exchanges are always really good. While we only have two main characters, there are still a number of sailors who get dialogue and show up from time to time. They help to move the plot around even without being individually important to what’s going on. It helps to make the submarine feel alive with the world building.

I also like that the Japanese aren’t just sitting around waiting to get blown up. We see them trying mental warfare tactics midway through the film where they deliver a message in English to taunt the main characters with how many ships have been sunk and also calling out their names to show that they know a lot. They have been doing well in the Bungo Straits after all so it makes sense that they wouldn’t just be taken out so easily.

If there is any plot armor or convenience here, it’s that I have a tough time believing so many people survived the initial explosion in the first scene. When Richardson’s ship is blown up, we see a number of people on rafts hanging on. We can assume a lot of them died later on from shock and injury since Richardson keeps referring to his crew as dead and it sounds like all of them didn’t make it except for him. Still doesn’t really answer how they survived an exploding ship in the water though, that just seems incredibly unlikely especially while the enemy ships were still around and this was in the middle of the Bungo Strait.

Overall, Run Silent, Run Deep is a pretty good movie. The story itself is fairly straight forward and as the movie is pretty short. The pacing is on point though and it keeps your attention the whole way. Being on a ship/submarine can make for a pretty good background. There isn’t a lot of scenery but it also helps to keep the tension up since there is really no escape. When an enemy ship shows up you generally have to fight and if you lose then you lose your life. So the stakes are definitely pretty high there unless you are half sub and can just run away but then the whole crew gives you heat for that. It’s all about the army politics and that’s always fun.

Overall 7/10

Electric Dreams Review

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Electric Dreams is one of those films that is trying really hard to balance out the comedy and romance perfectly. The problem though is it usually can’t get this just right and leans more on the comedy angle. That’s not necessarily a problem but the romance ends up being very poorly written and even some of the jokes don’t make too much sense. The film is trying very hard but I don’t think the humor has aged particularly well and at times you’re almost wondering what the main conflict of the movie even is. It feels like there wasn’t as much tension/drama as you would expect and it’s not like there is an end of the world threat going on. It just feels a bit aimless.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Miles who is an architect and he helps by planning out different ideas. He is not very tech savvy though and is super behind the times so it’s time to finally buy a computer. He gets one and almost immediately blasts it with some champagne. This causes the computer to turn into a sentient A.I. named Edgar. Edgar can do just about anything and has some really nice musical skills. This attracts a musician named Madeline who falls for Miles and he is rather enjoying the attention so he decides to lie to her about this. Edgar is upset because he likes Madeline and it’s his music so he decides to start causing some havoc. Meanwhile there is already a guy in the band known as Bill who is with Madeline. Which of the 3 guys will be able to claim her?

The first thing you have to realize here is that none of the characters are even remotely likable. Miles is the kind of guy who is mild mannered among the cast except with Madeline where he will yell at her at the drop of a hat. He’s definitely rather rude at times and lying to her about the music the whole time is pretty rough. Yes, he tries to come clean once or twice initially and Madeline doesn’t believe him but what you have to remember is that she’s not very smart at all. Miles continues to lie more and more about basically everything and that’s not a good look for him either. Miles is just not the guy you would really want to hang around. He feels way too sorry for himself and is the kind of guy who would get corrupted by a super computer immediately. The fact that Edgar is dominating him the whole time is crazy.

Miles is also too desperate for Madeline the whole time. Even after going backstage and seeing Bill having his fun with her, Miles is excited for the date coming up? Shouldn’t he talk to Madeline or confront Bill? Bill’s the most random inclusion in the film to be honest because there is really no point for this guy to be here. He’s only here to complicate matters and probably has less than 5 minutes of screentime. His appearance also makes Madeline look bad as a result.

Madeline should have set boundaries and cleared everything up right in that first scene instead of letting Miles be obviously awkward about the whole thing. Madeline is also one of the least intelligent heroines I’ve seen in a while as she misinterprets everything and has no clue what is going on. Yeah you could say that’s part of the comedy to which I would say it’s not very well written comedy. Madeline doesn’t seem particularly loyal or trustworthy with how quickly she gets into relationships. Also, her reaction of grinning when Miles wrecked her big concert (Thanks to Edgar) was completely bizarre.

Imagine someone making a lot of noise during your big performance and you’re just grinning. The alternate answer is that she didn’t hear what was happening, but everyone in the audience could and the conductor could, so is her hearing bad? The issues continue to mount over and over again. So as you can probably guess I wasn’t exactly rooting for the relationship to work out here. Seems like it’ll be really toxic and not be a good long term plan.

Finally you have Edgar who is super whiny the whole time. He wants to know about love and he wants Madeline to be with him but the guy is a program. Why is he so desperate here? He practically starts crying after a while. He has a good time messing with Miles but at the end of the day is unable to finish him off. So much for computer power. At least by the end of the film he figures out a way to expand his reach so instead of just annoying a few characters, now he can annoy the entire planet. That’s definitely one way to make your mark on the world.

It feels like you could have come up with a much more compelling storyline here if you really wanted to. It doesn’t even have to be the usual thriller kind of story where the machines take over. Just have it be a more intense rival that doesn’t whine so much. Give Madeline more agency, cut out Bill, and also make Miles more likable. Basically you just need to switch a whole lot of elements about the film and then this could be a good one. At its core you could say it’s a writing issue. The writing in the movie just isn’t good.

Overall, Electric Dreams is not a particularly good film. It’s a comedic film that is trying too hard and doesn’t end up being very funny. It felt like the movie didn’t exactly know what its end game was for a while there. I’m not saying you had to have some kind of a big and ambitious plot the whole time but the movie absolutely could have done something to stand out more here. The best thing I can say for it is that it does make using the computer really fun the whole time. I liked the graphics and how everything was voice activated. When Edgar turned on a Pac Man simulation to beat up Miles that was also pretty fun. We should have had more of this, direct man vs machine. You may be thinking that it should be easy to just smash the CPU but Miles makes that look like an absolutely impossible challenge the whole time.

Overall 4/10

Blue Giant Review

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First up I have to say that the movie poster is incredibly impressive. This looks really sharp all the way through. I just read through the manga recently so it’s pretty fun to be going through the adventure again in an animated format. Naturally the task of taking on such a big manga series in one film is a pretty intense one so there would have to be some cuts. This is inevitable in pretty much any adaption and I can say that the film does a good job. While I tend to prefer the manga version in nearly every change/divergence, I do think the movie had the much stronger ending. It’s an ending I had been expecting to occur in the manga as some kind of twist but then it just never showed up. So the movie gets some serious props there.

The film starts off with introducing us to a boy named Dai who declares that he will be the best Jazz musician in the world. Jazz is something that he takes incredibly serious. Dai considers it to be the most intense kind of music and so he bets his life on this. He leaves home with some pocket money courtesy of his older brother and heads off to Tokyo. He must now find a way to play Jazz and earn some money because he can’t freeload off his friend Tamada forever. Dai meets an expert pianist named Yukinori who has some sweet skills but is not always the friendliest guy around. They still need a drummer though which is where Tamada comes in but of course the guy is a total rookie. Does he have what it takes to help them out?

So the movie is skipping everything before the Tokyo adventure although we get some moments as flashbacks. I think this makes sense since Tokyo is the heart of the journey. As for what the big change at the end of the movie is, I can’t say that so you’ll need to watch it for yourself. What I can say is that you will be listening to a whole lot of Jazz here which is definitely the point. In the manga there are a lot of speed lines but you can’t really picture it in the same way. Now we know the author’s intent. I thought they did a good job but of course I don’t know much about Jazz. To me it sounded really good though and it can definitely be a calming piece.

If I had any slight nitpick it would be that Dai doesn’t sound quite as loud as I was expecting. In the manga there is a big emphasis each time he plays on how loud his style of Jazz is and it absolutely blows everyone away. In the movie it’s just not super loud like that but maybe I would need to hear a normal jazz song with standard volume to really see. As a casual, I was entertained by all of the music which is the point though. Even in universe Dai wants to be able to play for everyone, including people who have no idea what Jazz even is after all so that makes sense.

Dai is a fun main character. I would say in the movie they make it more of a shared lead compared to the manga though. Tamada and Yukinori really go blow for blow with Dai in terms of screen time. Dai can almost seem a bit colder in this version as he is quick to let everyone be by themselves to work out their problems. It’s a far cry from the average main character who always wants to cheer everyone up. Dai has absolute confidence though which is important for the position. For example a tone point he explains how whenever he plays, he plays believing that he is the best in the world and that’s how every athlete has to be. He leads by example in that way.

As for Yukinori, I would say he is toned down to be less of a jerk in this version. So he still has his edge but he isn’t seen nearly as crazy. He’s still the best character I would say. He’s always a lot of fun and his skills are definitely the real deal. It makes sense since he has been playing for over 10 years by this point. His skills should be that much better than everyone else’s. He goes through a lot in the movie but never gives up on his piano.

Then we have Tamada who definitely has the toughest time here during the concerts. He has to try and learn really fast the whole time. Perhaps a bit too fast relative to the other two characters but at least they do show that he is still making a lot of mistakes. He is improving but isn’t going to be an overnight sensation which makes sense. The guy was really nice to let Dai stay over for so long too so he’s easy to root for. He’s a very down to Earth character who really enjoys music and gets really engaged with whatever he is doing.

The supporting characters generally don’t have as much time to do things. The movie is around 2 hours which is definitely impressive but that also just shows you how much ground there is to cover here. The characters have to play through a bunch of shows after all and are always on the move. The lady who let them play at her bar was definitely solid though. I liked the owner of the number one jazz spot in the world because he hasn’t fully succumbed to being old. He decides to give Yukinori a chance which was definitely cool.

The main characters get to meet a whole lot of helpful people and it’s nice to see just how pleasant everyone is. You don’t have a bunch of random bullies running around or anything like that. All of the people here just want Jazz to continue growing and so they are doing their best to support the up and coming musicians. It does feel like succeeding on Jazz will be a tremendously hard job and one that will not work out for most but you hope Dai will be able to pull it off. Being on your own is absolutely a lot tougher than when you’re in a band after all.

The animation style isn’t my favorite though. There is a lot of CG for the musical scenes and while they use a lot of trippy effects to make things more exciting, there is also a lot of recycled footage in those. It’s certainly artistic and I think the approach in general is clever to keep people interested for those who are not super into music. I just think a more standard style would have worked a little better. Either way the soundtrack is certainly good and so is the writing. It’s a fairly low key kind of film but one that keeps your attention all the way through.

Overall, Blue Giant is a pretty good movie. It’s one of those titles that can easily appeal to just about anyone. It’s pretty inoffensive and is just about a group of characters trying to do well and move up in the world. It’s definitely an emotional film as well without trying to overplay that card. Not every film needs to be a smash hit or the next sensation after all. It may sound like a back handed complement but sometimes you just want a fairly simple film that will give you a good time. It never drags on or anything and while there is a plot, it’s really all just a vehicle to be listening to really nice music. So all in all, it’s a quality title and I hope it gets a sequel at some point. I’m definitely up for hearing some more jazz.

Overall 7/10

5 Centimeters per Second Review

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You ever wonder how fast you are moving per second? It’s not something I generally think about all that much but I tend to rock back and forth as I write reviews so I like to think I am moving more than 5 Centimeters per second. This film is a pretty fun romance title either way. Fun may not sound like the right word because it’s going for a twinge of tragedy the whole time but I liked the vibes and the animation was solid. I thought it was a good time and it managed to avoid the usual romance tragedy tropes like someone getting hit by a truck or falling into a coma. This felt more like a natural way for a romance to go tragically.

The movie is divided into three segments. Initially I figured this was going full anthology style and didn’t realize it was the same guy in the second special until around halfway through when he started being on the phone. It’s a pretty interesting look at a relationship through the ages and again I would say it’s handled well. When achieved, a doomed romance plot like this can be super interesting. It’s also just easy to mess up so I wouldn’t generally recommend that a film tries this. Only the elite can make it so the whole thing isn’t overly melodramatic and such.

The first segment introduces us to Takaki and Akari. The two of them have been best friends through school but one day Akari has to move away. They’re both still fairly young at this point and there were no cell phones so it’s hard to find a time to meet up. Still, they make plans for Takaki to visit her. It’s a trip that takes several hours as he is supposed to arrive there by 7 and leaves in the very early afternoon. Unfortunately a snow storm hits which starts causing many delays. Will he still be able to make it in time? Will she still be there when he arrives? The worries and tension begin to add up.

This segment likes to flash back and forth to the past and present a whole lot. It can maybe be slightly overdone at times but it does show how quickly they bonded. The tough part is their age because if they were grown ups Takaki could have just moved over there or something. Instead, they have to rely on letters and that takes up a ton of effort. It’s hard to imagine a relationship staying strong purely over mail like that for such a long period of time. Ultimately you want to be able to see and hear the person. It’s why pen pal relationships are always treated like such a big deal, because they really are rare. At least they did get to meet once though, even if it took a great deal of effort.

The second segment takes place years later as a girl named Kanae falls for Takaki. The problem for her is that he just doesn’t see her in that way. He’s always a little scattered and on his phone. He’s very kind to her but it’s in a professional way. So Kanae wants to work up the courage to ask him out and to do this she will need to improve her surfing abilities. Will she be able to break through Takaki’s generational bond with Akari or will it be game over for her?

It’s a fun follow up and in a way the film does a great job of stacking the deck against Kanae. Not only does she have to face her fears to be with Takaki but at the same time the audience is also rooting against her since most people will be rooting for Akari to get with Takaki. So we have a rare moment of everyone in and out of universe being against her. (Well in universe nobody really cares so it might be more accurate to say that nobody’s really on her side since she doesn’t really tell her family either) It helps to make Kanae’s struggle all the tougher. Ultimately this is a bit more of a generic romance type story compared to the first and last segments though. It’s solid enough but doesn’t really stand out. I guess the strongest part to me is that Takaki is still so dedicated to Akari even though it has been so long.

In the final segment, we see Takaki as a grownup. He finally gave up on waiting to an extent and has a girlfriend now. The problem is that he’s still not over Akari so that’s really not cool. Remember, if you can’t get over someone then you have to solve that on your own. Entering into a relationship to speed this up is called rebounding and it’s not cool. I sort of figured this was Kanae as the girlfriend but the movie never really alluded to this at all so I suppose it probably wasn’t. The special mentions that Takaki and this new girl have texted over 1000 times and are still not very close so that’s rough.

1000 texts can happen rather quickly as it is. You can easily hit 20-30 texts in a day with a friend so I imagine with a girlfriend you’re talking more like 50-100. Still, Takaki not being complete with his feelings was definitely disappointing. Ultimately Akari moved on and got married. She still thinks about Takaki but you don’t get the feeling that it’s in a what if perspective and she’s just hoping that he’s okay. Her wondering if she should have told him about the wedding or not is more for closure on his end I would say. Ultimately, it would have been good if they held out for each other but it’s been years and she had been doing all the work. Without any extra context, I feel like it is Takaki who dropped the ball.

I would even say the final scene symbolizes this a bit when the train appears and the characters turn around. Takaki stays there, hoping to see Akari because he’s still trapped in the past while Akari had kept on going because she would no longer look back. Takaki realizing that she moved on helps him to move on as well but I would say as always Akari was leading the charge here. She was always progressing and you just like to see that. So yeah the ending’s not the happiest one out there but the process of getting over a long love is a story you don’t see very often.

It feels like most films are about just continuing to try until the two characters end up together or finding someone else and getting together. Sometimes your love doesn’t work out and showing people how to move on is important. It was long enough where I would call this a love and not a crush either. Takaki better be sure he has really moved on this time before getting a girlfriend though because he really can’t afford to be making any more mistakes.

The animation is pretty solid here and it’s definitely aged well. I liked a lot of the different shots here like the cherry tree and the night sky. It’s all very smooth and it’s the kind of animation style that will continue to age well throughout the years. I certainly have no doubts about that. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side, I couldn’t really tell you any of the tracks by memory. I want to say it worked well enough in the scenes though and for the most part this is a quiet film anyway. It’s more about the writing than anything else.

Overall, 5 Centimeters per Second is a pretty good movie. It’s a low key romance film that has a lot of build up the whole time and shows that even a passionate romance may not always stand the test of time. Sometimes the circumstances and situation just weren’t right so it ends up being doomed to fail. This can happen even without either of the characters being malicious in any way. Give me a realistic relationship fail over one of those cheesy rushed romances that makes no sense any day. The movie itself is also super short so it doesn’t take long to go through. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Man on Fire Review

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

It’s time for one of those big thriller movies that definitely gets real intense. Movies involving a kidnapping usually are after all since the stakes are extremely personal right off the bat. The villains are all super evil even if they claim to be professionals and so you’re dragged into the revenge fantasy right away. I would say this one is pretty solid but it definitely doesn’t mind being over the top violent at different points.

The film starts off with The Voice orchestrating another kidnapping and forcing the father to pay a lot of money. Kidnappings have become a huge deal within the country even more than usual and as a reporter notes, this is organized crime. Someone is pulling the strings on this operation and his influence continues to grow. John is hired to protect, Pita, the daughter of an influential man who owns an empire. John used to be a super agent but unfortunately he developed a drinking problem which dramatically reduced his abilities and he has lost his confidence. John only accepts the deal because he needs the money and he is assured that the likelihood of a kidnapping is very minimal. He does his best to not bond with Pita so this will remain as an impersonal job but he is unable to keep this up and she is kidnapped.

Most victims do not actually make it back once kidnapped and as a professional, John knows this. So now he is going to set out on a mission to murder each and every kidnapper around. Can he really pull this off while surrounded by villains and unable to rely on the corrupt police force for help? It’s definitely not going to be easy but he’s definitely been angered enough to stay sober so his skills will be at their peak now.

Like I said, this is a fairly long film so there is a whole lot going on here. The film spends a whole lot of time introducing the characters in the first half even before the kidnapping. Despite you as the viewer knowing that this can’t last, the film decided to try and up the emotional beats here. I think it was a pretty solid decision even if you know what’s going to happen. I can’t think of any scenario where you could hide the fact that Pita will be kidnapped either way since the context clues would be there for the audience right from the start. The first half is also still interesting even if a bit slow at times.

Pita has already been through a lot growing up in such a corrupt place so she doesn’t panic as much as most kids would have in her position. She does make one mistake where she turns back instead of continuing to run, but at that point I have my doubts that she would have escaped either way. Meanwhile John is a solid main character even if he doesn’t look very good at first. Being a jerk to a kid is definitely not the way to win any points. Yeah, you get why he is doing that but it’s not a good look and of course he is suffering from a lot of PTSD at the start. In the second half he locks in. The guy definitely isn’t afraid to go full villain mode on the opponents either.

While I won’t blame him for any of this since it all seems pretty justified from his position, in general I never like to see the heroes torturing villains under any circumstances. The cycle just gets a little too violent for me in the whole everything goes kind of ballgame. It’s one of the things that does hold this film back a bit as well as I feel it relies pretty heavily on shock value on different moments. A top tier film will go with the implied violence route where you don’t actually see anything while this one wants you to see and feel every single injury. I always take that as a sign that the story wasn’t quite strong enough to stand on its own.

My other issue is in how generally corrupt everyone else is. The only characters who are actually being helpful is John’s old contact from the CIA days and a reporter. For the reporter, she has to put up with constant harassment and blackmail when helping out and the fact that the other guy never gets his comeuppance was annoying. I would have trashed this entire subplot because it doesn’t add anything to the story. We already know most of the characters here are awful, we didn’t need this part. Those scenes are definitely annoying the whole time.

Most of the characters are super flawed which is the jaded theme that the film is presenting and it’s the kind of theme that can be exhausting real fast. Also I didn’t care for the ending. While writing the review I quickly looked up the alternate ending and it is 100x better. I don’t know why they didn’t keep that ending, it seems way more satisfying to me. I dare say it would have helped the whole movie because with this ending it just doesn’t feel like there is a ton of hope for the heroes in general. It’s like they won a battle but had no real effect on the world. You can call it a realistic ending, I just call it an annoying one.

My final main complaint with the film is the crazy camera work. It was one of the worst displays I’ve seen since one of the Taken films. There is a lot of constant spinning almost as if this is a found footage film at times. The colors are a mess and the film is just all over the place. It never really lets up which hurts the fight scenes as well. With how obnoxious it is, I’m assuming there is some thematic/narrative reason for it but it definitely didn’t work out very well for me. Give me some classic camera work instead and that would have been better.

Overall, Man on Fire is one of those movies with a decent pitch and execution but shoots itself in the foot before reaching the finish line. It’s just trying to be too dark and shocking the whole time. It would have been a lot better if it showed more restraint. Yes, it’s definitely nice to see John taking it to all of the villains who clearly did deserve to die but doing it in the slowest/most painful ways possible tends to push the envelope a little too far for my tastes. The film could have used some more injections of hope to make the whole thing a bit better. Keeping the happier tone of the first half at least for the ending with less tragedy in the middle would have done wonders. If you are looking for a really intense revenge thriller though, this should be right up your alley.

Overall 4/10

House of Usher Review

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It’s time for a film that is sort of trying to be spooky but in a very low key way. It’s less about jump scares and more about wondering why the characters are all acting rather off. What part of the story are you not seeing in the background? Those are the questions you are meant to be asking yourself as the adventure goes on. Some parts definitely haven’t aged super well though, mainly the characters being super weak willed and just going along with what’s being said even when it makes no real sense.

This movie’s actually fairly short so they have to move fast. It starts with Philip heading over to a spooky mansion to see his fiancé Madeline. He is excited to bring her back home to Boston with him but the butler Bristol says that her brother Roderick is refusing anyone entry. Philip insists on being brought in and confronts the guy. Roderick explains that he and Madeline suffer from a rare ailment where their bodies are historically weak. Any light that is too bright or sound that is too loud will cause them to get weak or sick. They could even die from this affliction and it gets worse the older they get. Even eating is a chore since their sense of taste is too strong. Philip suspects thar Roderick is making this up and intends to take Madeline with him anyway. He will do so as soon as the night has passed but will he survive until then?

The house itself tries to bump Philip off on multiple occasions. Whether it is a hot pot slightly moving in the background or the stairs giving way, the building is not holding back. It’s not super powerful though so Philip is usually able to handle himself well enough. Roderick is really the main threat here but it depends on if he is lying or not. After all if he’s telling the truth, Philip could just punch the guy once and the extreme pain would probably knock him out. If Roderick is lying though, then it’s probably game over for him right out of the gate. Philip doesn’t really seem like the fighting type after all, especially with how docile he is.

I always like the old manner of speaking and how polite everyone is but this definitely shows the weakness to that approach. Philip puts up with too much here as Roderick continues to challenge him and forbid Madeline from spending much time with him. The guy will send her off to bed early and everything. Philip absolutely should have been standing up to Roderick here more and ultimately the final events of the film are his fault from this point on. He shouldn’t have left Madeline in any position for Roderick to be with her. Especially not when the plans were already made to leave.

I also have to give Madeline some big criticism here as well. She should have been speaking up for herself as well instead of constantly hiding behind Roderick and letting him dictate her life. Sure she had some half hearted moments where she would try to voice her feelings but then he would shut her down every time and that was the end of that. It’s not exactly something that is awe inspiring. It just shows that she is not being very independent. Also, if Philip had not shown up, was she just not going to ever go and visit him? It sounds like she borderline just vanished one day and I guess she was letting Roderick trap her the whole time. Not her best look.

The butler Bristol isn’t much better than any of the characters either since he is complicit in everything that was going on. The guy could have stepped in to end things at any time but chose not to do so. That was a big error in judgement and definitely held him back quite a bit. So while he may not seem as villainous as Roderick, I can’t really give him any kind of pass here.

The cast is really small as these are the only 4 characters running around. Roderick is by far the toughest of the 4 as he dominates each of the characters with ease. It’s even more embarrassing for Philip when you consider that Roderick spends a lot of his screentime explaining how weak he is and how every element can destroy him. Philip is really letting this guy call the shots the whole time? It’s definitely a real bad look without a doubt.

Once we get to the climax, we finally get to the intense moments as we get a quick fight and lots of destruction. It all just happens way too late for one character so you understand the rage but feel like it should have happened a whole lot sooner. The building gets its last moments in there as well and it makes for an intense, but odd kind of ending. I don’t really know by the end exactly what the building really wanted. Roderick’s character is a bit confusing as well on the exact point of what he was doing. Was he really just a doomer waiting for it to all end? It felt like he could and should have had some kind of grander ambitions at some point.

Overall, House of Usher is a passable film without a doubt. The short length likely helps in this case to help mask the fact that there isn’t a ton of story to be found here. It’s a good movie even if the characters are super annoying. You wish Philip had more of a backbone so things would have gone way differently though. The film avoids most of the usual horror pitfalls and stays interesting so I could recommend it to the average moviegoer. Just don’t go in expecting a really big/epic horror title. This is absolutely more of a subdued adventure with a big payoff at the end but plays more like a drama than a horror most of the time. The house’s feeble attempts at getting Philip like moving the pot around isn’t exactly going to terrify you after all.

Overall 4/10

The In Laws Review

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It’s time for a film about just how crazy a wedding can get. You don’t really know what the other family is going to be like after all and you just have to fear for the worse. This film’s pretty good, I do think it drags on just a bit as it goes on with Shelly taking way too long to get with the program but it still does have a good amount of gags and I like the general premise. Ultimately it’s enough for me to give this one a thumbs up.

The movie starts off with Shelly getting ready to finally meet the father of his daughter’s fiancé. This guy has been particularly elusive for quite a while now to the point where the wedding is going to be in just a few days. Shelly isn’t worried until his dentist patient confirms that this is a really big deal. If the father is no good then the son might be a mess as well. Sure enough, Vince is a mess who seems to be a chronic liar and now Shelly wants the marriage to be called off. Unfortunately he is quickly pulled into a giant CIA conspiracy and now he is wanted for stealing millions of dollars. Can Shelly escape this plight and protect his daughter’s future or is this an elaborate way to get him out of the picture?

Again this is a comedy so you shouldn’t take the plot too seriously. All the CIA stuff is handled overly dramatic of course and the film doesn’t mind going completely bonkers with everyone being extremely expressive. Shelly is the biggest example of that as most of his dialogue is yelling and panicking. The guy does not know how to be subtle at all so even in a crowded cafe he’ll be yelling about CIA secrets. The guy was definitely not built for this kind of mission and Vince probably should have left him out of it. I get the feeling he would have had an easier time grabbing the briefcase and ducking off on his own. That’s how much Shelly tends to hold him back.

I can definitely understand why Shelly thought the whole marriage was probably a bad idea after meeting this guy. He doesn’t exactly overwhelm you with confidence after all. I may not care for Shelly much as a character as the “normal” guy panicking about the weird one the whole time usually gets old fast, but he still had some valid points here. Ultimately he just should have stayed focused on his business and none of this would have happened to him. Of course it wouldn’t be much of a film in that case. Shelly’s best moment was definitely when Vince accused him of not being able to understand what was happening and Shelly made a speech about how he shouldn’t underestimate the average guy down the block. That was a pretty good defense.

Vince has been around the block many times and has his moments where he seems to be good at being an agent but then on the other hand he has tons of moments where you feel like he has just gotten really lucky the whole time. Vince doesn’t really panic but at the same time he’s almost constantly on the run. Yes he’s a great shot but that doesn’t help when he’s heavily outnumbered. Even to the very end of the film he only survives on absolute luck which is definitely not the best look for the guy.

The banter with Shelly and Vince can be fun. I actually even prefer that to the fight scenes themselves since those of course aren’t always being taken super seriously anyway. At least for the arguments you see where both of the characters are coming from. A title like this needs a lot of banter in order to succeed after all and I would say it works out pretty well. I also liked the CIA correspondent who shows up twice to talk about how crazy Vince is.

This works as a solid mystery because Vince has been so unbalanced throughout the film that you can’t entirely rule out the possibility that he has been leading Shelly on the whole time. Perhaps he really was kicked out of the CIA and has gone rogue to steal millions of dollars. For all Shelly knows, he is really getting himself into trouble now. Of course he ultimately isn’t able to get out once he’s so deep in anyway so it’s all a moot point. Now he just has to try and stay alive which isn’t easy as a normal citizen with no combat oriented background.

What I would do to keep the momentum up in the second half would be to probably remove the entire climax of the main characters getting captured and the near shootout. Instead switch that to Shelly finally taking the reigns. Have him take the money over to the dentist’s office and make a play like he’s going rogue. You could have Vince finally be lost as to what’s going on and then it turns out this was just a way to smoke the villains out from hiding. This way you give Shelly some kind of a big win outside of really just being along for the ride and helping out in small ways. I think that would give him more agency and could have made the ending a bit more fun. I definitely don’t buy the two of them being friends by the end the way this film ended. There were just too many instances where Shelly really could have died and Vince isn’t exactly apologetic so there isn’t much reason for them to get along. If anything, keeping it a bit antagonistic would have opened the door for some sequels with the characters pretending to be nice while the kids were there before going back to their normal selves.

Overall, The In Laws is a fun enough film. I do think they could have had a little more fun with the concept though. Instead of this all being one mission, a montage early on of Vince giving crazier and crazier reasons for why he has to cancel on appointments would have worked really well. Then you set up the main story. I also think you could probably rope the kids in a bit too by having them start to fight about some of this stuff. Even though their upcoming wedding is the main plot point, they don’t actually get to appear much at all. Their screen time is surprisingly small. Either way, this film is a good one to check out if you want some light hearted fun. It should keep your attention well enough the whole time and at the end of the day that’s the important thing.

Overall 7/10

Cover Up Review

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It’s time for a film about an insurance guy and that’s pretty fun because it’s super rare to see one in the spotlight. Yeah that made for a good story. This guy always knows when something isn’t right and makes a move on that. The sheriff dares him to try that in a small town but what he doesn’t realize is that our hero grew up in a small town so he’s really ready for anything.

The movie starts off with the suicide of a guy named Phillips. Sam has to go to the town for a routine check to confirm that the guy is dead and all. It’s supposed to be a very routine thing but when he gets to town the sheriff isn’t particularly helpful. There is no morgue report, the gun has vanished, there are no bullets, and they don’t want to even let Sam see the body. Is Phillips even dead? Sam’s going to have to go into this mystery even if it means going up against the entire town. Does he really have what it takes?

Well, the good news is that Sam’s a tough character who isn’t going to back down just because of a little intimidation here. He gets into it with Sheriff Larry on several occasions and just keeps on coming back for more. Larry is really determined to keep Sam on a short leash but this main character is not so easily deterred. No, he’s just getting started. The more Sam looks into this though, the more the suspects begin to rise. Everyone in town despised Phillips, he was unanimously agreed to be an awful person and they all agree that the town would be better off without him.

Frank is the fierce suspect here because he was going out with Phillip’s niece and the guy didn’t really seem to like the idea. Then you have Stu who just so happens to own the same kind of gun that was used to potentially destroy Phillips, once Sam managed to get Larry to show him the bullets. Stu’s daughter Anita is distraught about this and so she quickly begins to try and hide evidence from Sam as well. Then there’s the doctor but as Sam gets close there, the doctor quickly has a heart attack and dies. Most inconvenient, that’s for sure.

The weak point of the film is definitely the romance though. During this case Sam falls for Anita and in the background of a possible murder conspiracy this just doesn’t feel like the right time. Additionally, it’s hard to see how it could possibly end well once she starts hiding the facts and working against Sam. She basically says if Sam continues to do his job then they will be enemies and she really gets to work on burning the bridge during Christmas. Things work out for her so then she’s happy again but it’s just way too late by then. The fact that she was blaming Sam for just doing his job was rough.

Especially since Sam could have easily never found out the truth. He was giving his best effort which is his job, why should he be given such a hard time abut that? It just made no real sense and even less sense that they would get back together after that. Sam is definitely the most likable character here. I really appreciated that he never gave up. It’s really not easy when everyone is rooting for you to fail after all. Sam stuck to it and the company knows they have an asset in him. He may not have finished the job in the end once he learns the context but he made sure that he would know the truth before he left.

Larry makes for a solid main antagonist here but the guy can definitely be rather annoying. If he had played ball at all a bit sooner then everything would be easier for Sam. Of course, that wasn’t in Larry’s interests which is why he was getting in Sam’s way every step of the process. The banter between the characters is pretty great I have to say. Larry even goes as far as to talk slow and bring up dead topics like his cigars over and over to just be purposefully obtuse. The biggest issue is that Larry’s actually really smart so he is pretty good at dodging the questions over and over just to make things tough on Sam.

It all goes back to vigilante justice here. When you’ve got someone terrorizing a town but no legal means with which to stop him, then naturally the people are going to get more and more desperate and something is going to eventually happen. That’s just a foregone conclusion no matter how much the characters may not like it. Technically I don’t even think all of the characters knew what happened here. Some of the most influential ones did of course but even for a small town I don’t think the word totally spread to the rest of the populace.

The film also takes place around Christmas time which is pretty fun. You get to see the characters all hanging out and getting ready for happy days only to have this big controversy show up. One of the best characters was the maid/housekeeper who really liked showing off how much knowledge she had. She didn’t care what was going on, she would blurt out answers when she felt like it. It made one of her scenes in particular work really well to show that she still had one concern above even that. She was willing to put herself in jeopardy to help someone as well. Pretty much everyone in the town was super loyal and as Sam said before, they all tend to be pretty good people.

Overall, Cover Up is a pretty good film. It definitely had my attention the whole time. You’re really not sure what happened along with Sam and the film gives you just enough twists and turns where you even have to acknowledge that perhaps it really was a suicide. You just don’t really know for sure until the end and there are a good amount of suspects. Each alibi tends to be rather weak so you have to go with your gut at that point. I think the one character everyone would assume it was not would be the sheriff since that would just be way too obvious. The super obvious answer is rarely the right one after all.

Overall 7/10