Tag Archives: Movie Review

What a Way to Go! Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s very hard to make you sympathize with a main character who doesn’t want to be rich but this film is going to have a go at it. It’s a fun comedy film that embraces how crazy this concept is. I thought the film may have let their foot off the pedal for a bit in the second half and eased up too much but in the end you’ll definitely have a good time.

The film opens up with some guys dropping a coffin and realizing that they may get sued for all of their dollars. We then see Louisa running to the IRS and trying to give away her vast wealth to the government. They definitely can’t have that and instead take her to a psychologist: Steffanson. Steffanson wants her to explain why she would possibly want to give away her millions of dollars like this. Well, she doesn’t want the money because it always results in the death of her husbands. The rest of the film is effectively an anthology of stories styled after different kinds of romance films.

The first story introduces us to Louisa who really despises money. The reason for this is because her mother is obsessed with it and that has always left a bad impression with Louisa. The richest man in town is in love with her and the Mom is thrilled because their family will finally be rich. Louisa doesn’t like this though so she decides to instead get married to the poorest guy in town, a man named Hopper. Hopper is a man of strong character and family values who refuses to sell his house to the rich tycoon. Crawley (The rich guy) doesn’t take kindly to this and wants to bring Hopper down no matter what it takes.

This was a good way to kick things off. It was my favorite story of the bunch and I also thought the film was at its craziest here. Between Louisa’s mom referring to her as a product and Hopper not noticing when Crawley intentionally splashed him with mud you had a lot going on here. Hopper is really portrayed as someone who is as oblivious as possible but part of why I liked the guy is that he does step up when he realizes that this is hurting his wife’s reputation as well.

Naturally the moral of the film is that money itself is evil so this naturally corrupts Hopper. He starts working unlimited overtime and is never home when it counts. He becomes a millionaire and takes over the city quickly but it comes at the expense of hanging out with Louisa which is a shame. Hopper ends up dying of overwork but at least he did leave Louisa well off and still seemed like a good guy. He ended up letting work become his priority which was a grave error but he meant well. In this story there’s not a whole lot that Louisa could have done differently so I don’t think she should have any regrets.

Next up Louisa moves to France where she falls in love with a poor painter named Larry. All right, this time nothing could possibly make him turn rich right? The two have a pretty happy marriage for a while until one day Louisa suggests that maybe Larry should use some music for his painting machines instead of random noises. (He paints with a pretty genius style whereby sound vibrations power his machines and perform the artwork) Unfortunately the music works too well and Larry becomes rich almost instantly. Like with Hopper, Larry has no time for Louisa anymore and is promptly crushed by his own robots who decided to turn evil.

Ignoring the Sci-Fi ramifications of this, it was a pretty intense way to go out. Louisa didn’t stay in France to stop these would be terminators but I’m sure she wishes she hadn’t mentioned something about the music. Still, it’s hardly her fault to throw in a constructive idea, particularly as it was the first time. It is iffy that we’re on the second marriage so soon…but more on that later. Now she is even richer but still has nobody to share it with so Louisa realized it was time to move on.

Next up, Louisa married a guy called Rod who is already rich. Since the guy is so rich, her deadly curse should not affect him right? After all, before death occurs you have to get money in order to activate it. Unfortunately she is not so lucky. His assets still manage to multiply multiple times over and not even trying to get away from the money is enough to save him. This is probably the weakest of the segments mainly because the film doesn’t even try to give a reason for her to like him. It seems like she only married him to test the curse to be honest and of course this backfired. They knew each other for a matter of minutes before they got together. (Slight exaggeration I suppose but a few days at most)

Finally, we get closer to the opening scene as she meets up with a struggling dancer named Pinky. I suppose “Performer” might be more accurate as he does a lot of routines. Things are going well with their marriage until Louisa says he should try performing without all of that crazy face paint he wears. Pinky obliges and becomes a worldwide hit. Oh the shame. Now this is probably the only case where you could blame Louisa because you’d think she would have recognized the curse being in effect at this point right? Still, it’s a hard way to live when you have to watch your every comment or else you may end up becoming rich.

It was a fun segment and all but by now you could definitely guess how things would play out. The climax in the present is pretty intense though. I actually ended up liking the Psychiatrist as the main villain since he clearly had a plan going. That said, how the actual movie ends could have been a little different. I would have ended about 1 minute sooner from where it did which would have been a funny way to close things out.

So on the whole, the humor lands pretty well. It was fun to see the quick segments during each part where Louisa describes the kind of film each marriage was like. It was a nice tribute to the various films although the French one would get a little dicey. If that is an accurate picture of what those romance films are like then I can say those would probably lose out to the others on average. The writing is solid even outside of the humor so the characters are fairly well rounded and memorable. I would have changed the ending but what we got was still decently good.

It’s a comedy film so you don’t want to take things too seriously but at the same time, Louisa did marry like 4-6 times in one movie. That’s an awful lot of relationships over the course of a lifetime right? It just seems to go way too fast if you ask me. In fact, what that tells me is that they were all rebounds and these relationships weren’t all that genuine. I would say the only person she may have truly loved was Hopper and even then that was in part to spite her family so it’s hard to say. Marrying this many times just seems crazy even if there was no curse.

Also, despite all these crazy happenings, I still can’t imagine just trying to toss all your millions like that to the government. At least find some charities or businesses that you want to donate to but have some kind of a plan. If you just throw it away like nothing then that seems like an awful waste to me. Particularly since Hopper literally died to try and give her a better life. Surely throwing the money away would be a disservice to his memory.

Beyond that Louisa is a fun character. She has a good disposition and does her best to have fun. She was content even without any money in each scenario so it’s not like she’s very high maintenance. She has a lot of bad luck though which is definitely unfortunate. Things just don’t end up going her way which is most unfortunate.

Overall, What a Way to Go is a pretty interesting idea for a film. It’s certainly hard to frame being rich as a bad thing but I suppose if your husband is going to die immediately after you get rich each time then I can see why that would be an inconvenience. It’s just not worth it if you have to have the money by yourself. The film would be even better without the rebounds but then you would have a totally different film. I do think that it starts to lose steam towards the end as it just doesn’t shake things up as much as the opening half. It should have gone a little crazier and had the characters be more exaggerated in order to end on a high note. Still, this is a good film and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good rom-com.

Overall 6/10

Fire in the Sky Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right, it’s time to look at a true story about someone who was abducted by aliens and lived to tell the tale…..? Hold up, wait a minute…something ain’t right! Aliens are already around and kidnapping people? Now, I will grant you that I don’t 100% believe that there is no chance of aliens appearing but if you ask me, we’ll all know when they show up. In this day and age I don’t think it’s a secret that could be contained and I highly doubt they will be going around and abducting people without causing a scene. It just doesn’t seem likely. Also if they’re advanced enough to reach us from some unexplored solar system while we still struggle to get more than a few people to the Moon at a time…we’d be pretty much doomed.

So, we start the movie off with a group of loggers heading to the mountains for work. It’s made clear from the start that none of them get along all that well except for Mike and Travis who are best friends…or so we’re supposed to believe. I have my doubts personally. Anyway, they are heading home when a spaceship appears. It zaps Travis with one of their mega lasers and he hits the ground hard. Mike and the gang immediately assume he’s dead and despite being “Best Friends” Mike decides to hightail it out of there. After driving for a while Mike’s conscience finally catches up to him and he turns back. Unfortunately, Travis is no longer there.

Now these guys are considered the primary suspects in a murder case. After all, with no body and a lot of bad blood in the group, many people think that Mike and the gang murdered Travis. Now since this is based on a book Travis wrote, you know he eventually returns and at least that helps stop the murder charges but their social reputations have all been hurt quite a bit. The film hurt itself in quite a few ways too. Granted, it is better than the Communion but I would still give this film a thumbs down.

Lets start on the iffy parts because that’s the most fun. Right off the bat the film tries to really hit you with a sledgehammer of how aliens are so real that someone randomly mistakes a street light for a UFO. Yes, the sheriff is driving in his car when he suddenly sees UFO lights approaching. He semi panics but then looks up and it’s just the lights that flash when a train is approaching. Presumably as he takes this route all the time he would have encountered this a lot so…why so scared now?

Now this next one was a doozy for me but you can technically rationalize it. So Travis calls Mike up after he escapes the alien ship and explains that he is by a gas station and needs someone to save him. The gang show up but now Travis can’t talk at all and is so traumatized that he can’t be touched either. After a lot of rehab and work in the hospital he is able to say a few words at least and blames Mike for all of this. How was he able to make the call though?

The defense you can give to this is that the trauma hadn’t sunk in yet and he was able to make the call before it all set in. The adrenaline stepped up and all that. It’s a defense and you can make it work but it still seems like a stretch. I feel like it would have been better for a grand light to be in the sky or something that let the characters know where he was. I think that would have worked a lot better.

As for his adventure in alien world, I think they probably shouldn’t have even included it. The film’s close to 2 hours and I want to say that this scene doesn’t happen until the final 20 minutes of the film. By that point you are so far to the end and the whole thing had been played out in a pretty realistic way that you might as well have kept it that way. If all we knew about the alien abduction was Travis’ word on it then this would really feel like a pretty accurate description of what went down. We would have what Travis claimed happened here and the interesting visuals at the beginning.

By showing us the inside of the alien ship it definitely steps more into full sci-fi town. The aliens seem rather weak individually so I have to say Travis missed his chance to win this one. At one point he knocks one of their helmets off and the alien looks ancient. I’m talking Yoda levels of old. The room was an anti-grav zone so Travis needed to use his momentum by kicking off of the wall and landing a direct punch. Presumably that would knock out the alien and then he could take his time trying to escape. Unfortunately he handled it in the worst ways possible as he just panicked the whole time before seemingly being knocked out.

The experiments that were ran on him were certainly pretty gross that’s for sure. Aliens seem to love torturing humans in pretty much every medium, no wonder why people are so scared of them. Between this movie, Alien, and Predator, it seems like they’re all out to get the humans once and for all. So yeah I’d cut out the alien scene and keep this as a very grounded tale of something weird happening to Travis and the rest of the characters having to wonder if they really saw what they saw or if they were mistaken. Perhaps it was an experimental plane from another country or something.

In the actual town is where you get the more interesting dynamics. I liked the cop that was brought in from another state who is supposed to be an expert on these things. He did a good job of taking control of the narrative right away and trying to get to the bottom of things. He doesn’t buy into the alien angle at all and is very confident the whole time. I liked this confidence, he didn’t suddenly start believing in aliens or panicking. He just treated it like another case to be solved.

I wasn’t a big fan of any of the main characters though. For Mike, ditching Travis was a huge mistake. That just shouldn’t have happened. In the heat of the moment you either fight or flee and now the rest of them will know what his gut reaction is. Dallas was the worst of the guys as he picks fights for no real reason the entire time. He really makes himself out to be an even bigger suspect than necessary. There’s also just nothing to like about the guy and I don’t see why they kept him on the crew.

The other members of the crew were less memorable and mainly here to fill in the numbers. Mainly the most important member of the crew is Mike as we see various characters begin to doubt him. Even his wife and daughter both keep asking him what really happened as if he was lying about the whole thing. It definitely doesn’t do wonders for his self esteem and as the film goes on he seems to have quite a lot of survivor’s guilt.

The writing is pretty solid for the most part here. It’s not a very eventful movie for most of its run but at least on a technical standpoint I thought the movie did a decent job. It didn’t take a lot of risks and the way it handled the town’s reactions seemed to be on point. It was nice to see the lie detector machine as well. I feel like we should hopefully have better machines by now but even recently I remember seeing a video of some billionaires trying one out and you’re still limited to responding with a Yes or No to each question or it doesn’t work well. That’s really limiting and it also seems like it’s hard to get an accurate response out of it. It’s nice but I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock into the results based on this.

Overall, Fire in the Sky hardly seems like an event that would have really happened but I suppose you never know. I’d like to see one of these films where the guy being abducted fights back a little more though or maybe at least one film where the aliens aren’t gross about everything. Maybe one where they actually have some noticeable cultures and seem civilized instead of pretty mindless the whole time. Give us some cooler alien designs too. Instead of the usual stuff, have them look like Vasto Lordes from Bleach or maybe Insects from Hunter X Hunter. That would be a nice change.

Overall 4/10

Live Free or Die Hard Review

Posted on by
Reply


This time the series goes back to its roots with quite a lot of action right off the gate. Within the first 10 minutes you’ve already got your opening gun fight and a big action scene after that. The switch to a more tech based villain makes sense for the modern era. This definitely ends up being a very solid watch all around.

The movie starts with John scaring off a guy who was trying to pull some moves on his daughter. You’d think she would be more appreciative but Lucy basically just yells at him and tells John to go away. John then has to make one detour on his way home to pick up Matthew, an expert hacker. John doesn’t know why he has to bring this guy in yet but it’s clear that this is something serious since a group of trained professionals show up to take Matthew with them. This results in a pretty good fight but John manages to escape.

So the issue is that someone seems to have started a Firesale. They are using technology to try and take down the country. This targets many different aspects such as television, phone companies, gas, etc. It’s all based on a plan that Matthew helped with although he didn’t realize just how real this was. John now needs Matthew to think carefully about where these hackers are and how to stop them in time. If they are too slow, America may end up being defeated this time around.

With hackers causing trouble it is a little difficult to know how to stop them. They could be logging in from anywhere and on the net they are also pretty versatile. Unless you take them down at the source they can just sign on again. There is a lot of running around here but unlike the last film, John’s team is usually on the offensive. If they can just find these guys they can deal a finishing blow in no time flat.

John looks pretty solid as always. At this point he’s definitely a veteran and knows how to handle himself. He has a tough time with Matthew because he is the very opposite of experience and determination. Matthew spends a great deal of time complaining before he finally ends up being helpful in the movie. Before that you can expect him to just hold John back.

I’d say the best sequence in the film is when the two are attacked by Mai. She’s the main villain’s right hand woman and can fight quite well. She gives John a pretty good fight and also survives some hits that would take out most fighters. Mai gets hit by a car and keeps on ticking. The battle goes a few rounds and she really leaves an impression on you by the end.

The movie also just went more all out with the fights than it has in a while. The battle with Mai for example felt more like a Jason Bourne or comic book kind of battle. There was some good hand to hand and using whatever object you could find in the background was also crucial. It was two fighters just trying to survive and taking the opponent out right away too.

As for the actual main villain Thomas, he was pretty good. The guy is definitely not a fighter but has a plan for everything. He’s all about shutting the system down with hits wits as opposed to his fists. At this point that’s probably the easiest way to do things too since it’s hard to picture someone using physical force to try and take down the whole country. You’d need to find a few nukes or something to get in the right position for that.

This movie does offer another reminder though of how easy it is to take a badge. At one point the villains have to convince someone that they’re a cop so they just flash the ID real quick. So the person is convinced but I don’t see how that would convince anyone. Badges could be faked ever since their inception and if you’re suspicious about someone already, I don’t see how a badge could help. There isn’t really any good way to find out if the person asking you to follow them is legit though so you just gotta go with your gut. In this case it’s not like she really had a way out anyway.

Live Free or Die Hard looks a lot more modern than the older films. The city has certainly changed a lot and the effects during the night time battle are on point. It was also cool to see the villains using fake footage to cause panic in the streets since that does make a lot of sense as a strategy when you can manipulate all of the channels. It was a good way to stir people up and cause a whole lot of trouble.

It’s only a single scene so this isn’t a big deal but the “romance” in the film is rather weak. Not only does it come out of nowhere but it’s for two characters who barely even interacted. It’s going for more of a funny ending but it doesn’t really land. It doesn’t help that I didn’t like either character involved in it. One just seemed super ungrateful throughout her screen time and the other one spent a lot of time whining. Both traits don’t make you a winning character.

Overall, This was a pretty good installment in the series. If it can keep up this level of action in the next one then we’ll be good. Of course you can’t survive on only action but this film had a pretty good mix of elements. The writing was on point and the story was interesting. The hacking was used pretty well and while it’s not a new concept to hack into the government, it’s one you don’t see a whole lot of thrillers take on. I thought it was a fresh angle and as a whole this is an example of taking the story in a different direction and succeeding at it. I didn’t have any real issues with the film and it’s the kind of title that has a lot of replay value.

Overall 7/10

Enter the Dragon Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

Enter The Dragon is a pretty interesting movie. Right away you’ll be reminded of Mortal Kombat as you’re watching through it. From the tournament to the island itself, it just feels like that one although of course the Mortal Kombat original film is a living legend so this one isn’t quite up to par there. This one definitely gets more violent and incorporates a bunch of rather dark elements. It may pale next to MK but it does deliver on some big fights.

The movie starts off with an agent approaching Lee with a mission. He wants Lee to go to a private island and enter a tournament run by the villainous Han. Han is effectively the leader of an underground criminal enterprise. The issue is that there is no proof of him actually doing any wrongdoing. Effectively it’s an open secret but the guy is technically protected. No weapons are allowed on the island either so your best chance is to be a living weapon.

Lee is one of the most powerful fighters in his Dojo and that is why he has been selected. The leader of the dojo also encourages Lee to go because Han was originally trained here and has brought disgrace to them all. Lee is still reluctant but then the agent takes out his trump card. Han is directly responsible for the death of Lee’s sister. Han ordered a few of his men to take her down and this is something Lee did not know about previously. He agrees to go and sets off to murder them all.

Now while this is a tournament film you don’t actually see any big battles for a while. Most of the film is actually for set up as we meet the other fighters. Each fighter has a backstory. You have Roper who loves gambling but is now super in debt. He needs to win this tournament so he gets a lot of cash again. Then you have Williams who got into a lot of trouble back home and this can help him jump start a new identity. They all have reasons for winning but of course Lee’s is the most personal.

It’s not as widespread with characters as Mortal Kombat though as anyone outside of these main 3 are definitely expendable. The movie does make sure to show that they are all quite skilled in their own right although I don’t think there is ever any doubt that Lee would defeat the other two. Lee is very impressive in the battles so it’s worth the wait once you get to that section. He’s also the most likable member of the main 3. He takes the whole situation very seriously.

I wasn’t a big fan of the other two but they’re okay. Roper can fight well too and gets some quality moments. He isn’t as much of an active participant as Lee but he gets the job done when it’s time to move out. Williams also gets a big role and even has a chance to confront Han directly. That may not have been the best move for him but it was a good fight. Ultimately it’s just hard to beat someone who has a robotic part at the ready.

As for Han himself, well he’s your classic evil villain straight up. The guy runs every kind of criminal business imaginable and seems to enjoy his work quite a bit. The guy is also pretty bold to be hosting a tournament every year, he’s basically calling the other countries out by saying that they can’t touch him here. His robotic arm makes for a pretty good weapon in battle. Without it, it’s safe to say that Lee would dispatch him with ease. The guy has to use every trick in the book to even stand a chance here. Otherwise he would not have lasted for most of the film.

You’ve also got his right hand man O’Hara who can fight reasonably well. He had no shot against Lee though, that’s for sure. Especially once Lee knew that this guy was one of the main people responsible for the murder. The villains also had a fairly strong member of the police who is here to destroy anyone that doesn’t live up to Han’s expectations. There’s not a whole lot to him besides being tough though.

As mentioned, the film doesn’t hold back on the violence. Some times it isn’t quite on screen though as you can tell what is happening with the villain finishing someone off but it’s just out of camera. Other times you do see the blows so it depends, but the movie can be quite savage with these beat downs. This is definitely a martial arts film where anything goes which usually doesn’t bode well for the fighters.

The whole flashback with Lee’s sister is also pretty sad since there was really nobody to help her out. No matter how many blows she landed or opponents she knocked down, it felt like she was not making any headway through the mob. It’s good that she wasn’t captured since the film made it clear that this would not be a good fate. We see the villain’s operations as he gives Roper a tour and it’s quite disturbing.

These are all elements I’d rather have been cut from the film. Keep it focused on the fighting and how Han is someone that needs to be taken out. That’s about all you need. The other elements may serve to try and up the stakes but the film gets almost depressingly dark with how much Han has already gotten away with. The death scenes also look and feel extremely painful. It shows why you do not want to be on this island at all. We don’t need to know about people vanishing or turning up in the river the next day. With a villain mastermind you can already deduce that he is not exactly the nicest guy around so a lot of things are happening behind the scenes.

The film is at its best when it is focusing on Lee running around and finding out intel. The film does well as it gets that espionage angle on point. The music is also pretty solid. Quite a few solid tunes can be found here and they have a nice blend of different sounds. As mentioned, the fights are pretty great as well. You can expect some really solid hand to hand action here without a doubt. The writing is on point as well. I’m not sure if there are going to be a lot of lines you’ll remember specifically but they flow well.

Overall, Enter The Dragon is very much like watching another version of Mortal Kombat. Of course I would recommend watching that film instead but if you just want a lot of good fights these are almost as good. A hand to hand fight is always a lot of fun and the final battle here is quite long. Naturally Han has to use more tricks up his sleeve to make this close so expect a lot of trick mirrors. He knows that he needs these in order to keep things interesting but otherwise it would get dicey for him. The movie has too many things holding it back from being higher but if you don’t mind things getting rather dark and gritty then you can expect a solid martial arts title here.

Overall 4/10

Runaway Review

Posted on by
Reply


Runaway is definitely a film with a pretty interesting premise. In some ways it’s like Mega Man as robots are now a part of normal every day life and there should be no risk since they can’t hurt humans. As always, that also means that if someone hacks them that’s pretty much game over. The fact that there’s even a task force to handle the “Runaways” (Robots which go berserk) is neat. It’s a universe that has a lot of potential even if the film wasn’t all that good.

The movie starts out with Jack, the best agent in the biz having to take on a new partner. Her name is Karen and she’s eager to do her part in fighting off this robots even as Jack says that nothing exciting ever happens here. Naturally this means that the next mission is about to get explosive. A droid goes crazy in a house so Jack has to take him out before the family is injured. That was a pretty effective opening scene to be honest, the robot was not playing around. It was probably more intense than any other scene in the film. Surprisingly the father of the household doesn’t seem very concerned about his family’s safety with the killer robot and dashes off. He ends up going out like a chump either way though and since he’s in on the upcoming scheme…the whole thing makes him look pretty bad.

Our main villain here is a guy named Luther who has basically found a way to remove the safety features out of the robots. He can now make any robot turn into a “Runaway” that wants to just cause a lot of havoc and destruction wherever it goes. Seems like he is doing this to get rich as there’s a big market for this kind of thing. Can Jack and Karen stop him before it’s too late?

Unfortunately I wouldn’t say that Jack is a great character. One thing that hurt him right off the bat is how he immediately gets distracted by one of the villains. (Jackie) When she shows up he quickly makes a fool out of himself as he tries to show off by beating a robot 1 on 1. He should be trying to be objective since he’s the best agent in the field but you wouldn’t really know it just based on watching this film. He gets quickly overwhelmed in most of his fights and spends a lot of them running away.

He’s scared of heights but that’s fine since it’s a normal fear. The romance in the movie is also on the weak side. Karen spends a lot of the film flirting with Jack but he doesn’t seem to notice and always ends up letting her down. He’s only interested in Jackie but once she is out of the picture he is very open to being with Karen. Seems a lot like this guy just switched sides at the drop of a hat eh? The romance is way too fast as a result.

Meanwhile Karen’s a decent heroine. She tends to stay on target more than Jack. I do think she takes it a little too personally when he invites her over to focus on work instead of the activities she was hoping for. It is reasonable to do some free overtime to make sure you’re ready for what is to come right? Karen does end up contributing a lot throughout the movie so she does well as the heroine.

As for the villains, you have to give Luther credit for coming up with some cool items. His robotic homing bullet was incredibly handy. It can follow you anywhere and moves at incredible speeds. If anything it’s so good that it’s hard to picture the guy losing. He should have kept on using these super bullets but once we approach the climax he doesn’t take full advantage of this. There’s not a whole lot to the villain besides the fact that he’s evil and wants to be rich but he’s decent enough. He won’t leave a grand impression on you but he gets the job done.

Some of the other villains in this film are not very smart at all though. Jackie definitely got herself into quite a few messes when helping this guy out. When you’ve got tech at this level it’s pretty hard to try and get away with lying to the villain. By the time she thinks about escaping it’s already far too late to be honest.

She’s better than the random henchman from near the beginning though. The guy wants Luther to give him a bigger share of the money than they agreed upon. This is already a huge red flag for any villain but Luther throws him a bone. He tells the henchman what a shame it is that another villain and his family were all wiped out. Pretty tragic eh? Luther’s basically hinting that the guy should drop this subject of a raise right now.

Instead the henchman grins and just says that it was terrible. He misses the obvious clue and doubles down on wanting the money right now or else. You can probably guess how the scene ends for him. I’ll never understand why some minions are so bold around the boss. They have a front row seat to how the guy is always murdering everybody so you’d think that they would have a little more tact in these circumstances.

The special effects are pretty solid here. I’d say that they have aged well. The robots look cool and there are some classic gun fights here. The homing bullet still makes for the most impressive looking scenes but the normal fights are decent as well. The film can get a little violent at times with how the machines blow up in people’s faces or with how Luther goes down. Some films really want to make sure you know that the main villain is down for the count. You certainly don’t have to second guess whether that was the case here or not.

What ends up holding this film back is mainly the characters. If you had a more interesting main character than Jack that would help a lot. The future aspect of the story is cool but at the same time you also wouldn’t say that the world appears to be all that futuristic for the most part. You could easily mistake this for the modern day and it wouldn’t really change anything. The film’s writing is also okay but you may not be very engaged here. The movie does have large chunks of time where there isn’t a whole lot happening.

Overall, Runaway has a pretty unique plot. It’s definitely an interesting look at what could happen if robots decide to take over the world as expected. I do think there are a lot of areas where the movie could improve though and add some more energy into the experience. That being said, the movie shows why you would probably need more than a quick task force. You would never be in enough places at once and all it takes is a quick virus chip to cause a lot of them to go haywire. It also seems inevitable that they would start looking into military applications for these bots. The moral of the movie is that you need to stay focused while going after these robots. Ultimately you can probably find a better sci-fi experience than this one though.

Overall 4/10

Overboard Review

Posted on by
2


Whenever a main character has amnesia in an action series it can be pretty annoying since you have to wait a long time for them to gain their old abilities back. In a comedy angle it definitely works a lot better though. There’s a lot of interesting things you can do with the premise but unfortunately Overboard misses the boat on this one. It ends up being fairly mean spirited for a while so by the time the characters are all getting along it just feels a little too late.

The movie starts by introducing us to Joanna who is incredibly rich. She enjoys living the high society life on board her huge yacht. Joanna isn’t a very nice person to be around though and is rude to everybody. One day she hires Dean to put in a new bookcase but then complains about it after he’s done. She even goes as far as saying she will not pay for the job and throws him as well as his toolkit overboard. Dean’s upset but there’s no real way for him to get revenge.

Joanna has that covered though as she sets the roots for her own demise. Late at night she heads back upstairs to grab her ring but slips and falls off the boat. She suffers amnesia as a result and winds up in a hospital. Her husband realizes this but is rather happy at the outcome since he now has riches of his own he can squander in her name. So he heads off to have a bunch of affairs. Dean happens to see a news broadcast of Joanna in the hospital and figures he will have a little fun with this. His master plan is to convince Joanna that they are married and make her do all the chores. Once she has paid him back for the lost tools though this grunt work, he will tell her the truth. Will things really play out like that?

Now this is a comedic romance so this is all portrayed in a rather light manner. Dean’s pretty selfish here but at least you know he’s not a bad guy so things won’t get crazy. My main issue here is really just that he takes the whole prank too far. Is it really still a prank when he is actually making her do everything and making fun of her in the process? He has a blast making her feel pretty bad about her past throughout and doesn’t make her job any easier. Dean also likes to troll her about their sleeping arrangements.

It would have been nice to have seen Dean at least help out a bit. As Joanna gets used to the role and performs more tasks, it feels like Dean does less and less. When his kids are having a tough time in school and flunking, he refuses to help her out and even says it’s none of her business. So he comes close to messing up his own cover story several times and is actively neglecting the kids.

Now, we know Dean has a golf course to work on and has two jobs but you’d think he would at least listen to Joanna a bit. She turned their home from a dump into a rather respectable place. Joanna even got the kids to be a lot more reasonable compared to their opening appearances. The fact of the matter is that even as someone with no memory or practical experience (It’s made clear that she has never cooked or done common chores in her life) she was doing a much better job than Dean ever did. She was really trying hard and he wasn’t supportive.

As brainwashed Joanna, she was a pretty solid character. She did her share of whining but ultimately got the job done. In her normal self she’s certainly not a likable character but you don’t see her in that form for very long. As for Dean…yeah I didn’t like him. Even as a gag, manipulating someone who is currently suffering from amnesia is very sketchy to say the least. He lost more and more points for neglecting the kids as well. Dean even chooses the absolute worst time to try and come clean with Joanna about what’s going on here. It’s like he couldn’t really get a lot right. He’s a good carpenter but that’s about all I could say for him.

As for Billy, he’s Dean’s best friend and gets a decent sized role. He’s usually the voice of reason here and keeps Dean from making any mistakes that are too large to walk back from. I didn’t care for the guy though, he’s not exactly good about keeping his eyes to himself. The only thing I’ll give him credit for is at least not letting Dean self destruct in the climax but that’s about it.

The humor in the film can be decent at times but not nearly as much as you would expect with this being a comedy film. Quite a few of the jokes don’t land nearly as much and any scene with the kids can usually be more on the annoying side. They may get a little better by the end but have a lot of screen time before that as well. For a good supporting character, Joanna’s mother is at least determined. She was the only one who even seemed to care that the heroine was missing and did everything she could to track her down. We do see that the mom is as rude as Joanna (So we know where she got these traits) but I’ll give her credit for actually going on an adventure personally.

Really, fixing this film would be fairly easy. I think you just tone down the extent to which Dean is pranking her. You still keep in the premise of him tricking Joanna and going home with her since that’s the whole point of the movie but have him actually contribute. His cover story is that he wanted her to pay him back for the tools/installation so her doing the dishes, laundry and such is all helping pay this back.

Fine you keep that and then stick with it as the baseline. Dean should still be hanging out with his kids and at least not actively making a mess. Surely he can help out around the house as well. It would give a real reason for a romance to actually develop since they would get along better. Joanna may even like the home environment compared to the yacht and Dean would also see her true character shine through like when she defended the kids. That would make for a much more organic experience.

I haven’t touched on the romance but as you can probably guess, it really doesn’t work. It’s about as shallow as you would expect. Now, I can’t say it comes out of nowhere since they are together for a pretty long time throughout the course of the film but when Joanna inevitably gets her memories back you can’t possibly imagine this working out. Imagine finding out that someone’s been playing you for weeks/months? Nah, that’s definitely not going to end up being a romantic ending no matter how you slice it.

Overall, Overboard has some potential but ultimately doesn’t live up to it. The writing’s okay and the general idea is interesting but the execution should have been handled better. Make the characters more likable and then you’ve really got something here. Dean should have stuck to his goal of just trying to get a fair shake with the money he lost as opposed to just trolling her for the fun of it. He just takes the joke too far to the point where it isn’t a joke anymore. If you want a good comedic experience, you’ve got better options than this one.

Overall 4/10

Fast Five Review

Posted on by
2


Time for some more Fast and Furious action. This film really dials up the action and turns the series into more of an epic thriller. It’s a transition that works well for the series as it is easily the best film I’ve seen yet. The first 4 can’t touch this one. You’ll be at the edge of your seat for the whole movie and the fight between Vin and Dwayne that is hyped up for the whole film really ends up matching that suspense. It’s going to be tough to top this one going forward.

The movie starts off with showing us how Brian and Mia broke Dom out of prison. More specifically, they break him out of the truck driving him to prison. The gang then end up trying one more robbery to get some money but it turns out to be a trick to bump them off. Dom and friends escape but not before a few agents end up getting murdered by the villains. Naturally this turns into a frame up with the government calling in Hobbs, the greatest agent of them all.

Dom and Brian have big plans though and they don’t have time to flee. They want to take revenge on the mobster who framed them and what better way than stealing all of his money right? They’re going to pull off a heist but to do this they will need the best of the best. So they call in various characters from the first 3 films and prepare to race the clock. Can they get the money or will they be caught by Hobbs?

Right away this film is just so much more interesting than the others. I like when you’ve got multiple parties running around all aiming for different things and this film pulls that off really well here. You’ve got the mobsters, the heroes, and Hobbs’ group. Technically speaking while Hobbs is rather extreme, his group are the only heroes here. Dom and Brian are repeat criminals and if they weren’t betrayed in the first scene they would have gone through with the mission. This time they’re stealing from other criminals which is more of a gray area (Personally I’m cool with it. The criminals are basically officially sanctioned at this point so the only one who can stop them is Dom and the gang) but Hobbs and his group are official government agents who do their best to uphold the peace.

They may not look too much into the situation but then again that’s not necessarily bad. In this case of course Dom was framed but Hobbs is right that it’s not really their job to look into that. Odds are that being framed is rather rare and that’s something you wait for the courts to decide. Not everyone can be a vigilante or things would really start to go off the rails right away.

I also liked Hobbs group. For one thing they are shown to be highly competent. They have several fights with the mobsters and they manage to come out on top each time. Until the climax of the film they don’t even take any injuries and win quite cleanly. After seeing so many films where the agents lose to untrained thugs it was a nice change of pace. Meanwhile Hobbs has a lot of the best lines throughout the film.

One hype moment is when the translator Hobbs hired starts looking through the files and saying that it doesn’t make sense. Hobbs throws the papers away and says that this makes sense (The action of throwing it away) and it was just such an out of the box answer that I found it hilarious. Hands down it was my favorite line in the film. In general I also really liked the banter between him and Dom. Both of these guys are the definition of the “tough guy” character so they don’t tend to back off.

The fight between them was also the best fight in the series without question. They were throwing each other through walls and even leaving dents in the car with each hit. You can see how the characters were starting to get superhuman here. Throughout the movie there’s a lot of good action. You can’t really expect to see any big races here this time but the brief racing that we do get looks pretty solid. I liked the scene where all of the main characters have a big race although you won’t be surprised at how things turn out.

The effects are good as always and the character cast is also at its best. Hobbs aside, Dom is a great character as always too. He looks after his family first and foremost. The guy has a lot of drive and can fight with the best of them. He has a good conversation with Brian about his father. The two may not always see eye to eye but at the end of the day Dom always has his back.

As for Brian, he’s also a pretty solid character as always. He’s not quite as smart or capable as Dom but he doesn’t let this hold him back. He’s still the second toughest member of the team and comes in clutch when needed. Then you have Mia who also helps out a lot in the fights. It’s pretty tough for her since she’s expecting a kid soon but doesn’t let this hold her back.

Now for the rest of the heist crew, I wouldn’t say they’re the most memorable guys around but they’re okay. Roman and Tej get their moments as each person uses their specialty skill to help out. Gisele has a lot of confidence and keeps the others at bay although the way she manages to help out could have been handled a bit differently. You sort of know exactly how things are going to go down early on. Meanwhile that pretty much got rid of Han’s big moment so he didn’t have one here. It was nice to see him…but he ultimately didn’t really contribute. Elena was a solid newcomer to the series. She’s a cop who couldn’t be bought off the way that all the others were. That alone already makes her a pretty solid character and she also has a great motivation which helps make her such a tough character. Elena jumped into danger on multiple occasions and really ended up contributing.

So there’s a lot to like in this film. On the weaknesses side the film still jumps whole heartedly into the fanservice angle. The writing isn’t always great with the side characters making a lot of comments that make you want the villains to bump them off already. In a way maybe it’s for the best that we cut out the racing from these films since that’s all that really happens when the heroes get to the track. I found it pretty ironic that the actual race was cut out so we only got the atmosphere instead. If the writing could be tightened up a bit and we get past the unnecessary moments then the film will really make it into the great territory. Now, there are a lot of funny lines as well so don’t get me wrong but the film isn’t super consistent is what I would say. Tokyo Drift still has the best ending in the series but this one is very solid. It wraps everything up quite nicely.

Overall, This is the best installment in the series yet so it feels like things are moving up now. This is more like what I expect from the series just based on what I knew about it before actually entering the franchise. We get to see a lot of cool looking cars, rock songs, and an intense main cast. The fact that we’ve finally gotten into a lot of big hand to hand fights only helps. I would go as far as to say you could basically start with this film and you’re set since the first scene recaps the important part of the last film anyway.

Overall 7/10

Fast & Furious Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to continue to the Fast and the Furious series. This time we’re going away from Tokyo and back to the main plot with Dom. You’ll get your share of explosive race scenes here and a pretty good story. The film still holds itself back a bit with its reliance on fanservice but you will get some hype rock songs to keep you in the mix. I don’t think it quite tops Tokyo Drift’s soundtrack but that one still has one of the more iconic film end songs.

The movie starts out with Dom and the gang stealing some more gold as they take down a truck. He feels like it’s all getting a little too dangerous though and decides to put some distance between himself and the rest of the family. Things are quiet for a while but then his friend Letty is murdered by a gang lord. Everyone warns Dom that he shouldn’t pursue this since the guy is an incredibly infamous villain but that’s not going to stop him. You don’t mess with family after all.

Then you have the other main character Brian who has been put back on the task force. He has not had the best track record as of late so this might be his last shot. He barely captures someone after an extended chase scene but he gets some clues. At the same time as Dom, Brian finds out about a big race that is about to happen. The winner gets to transport some of the goods which means that it is the perfect time to find the gang lord. Only one person can win the race though so this is going to get close.

The movie does a good job of contrasting each of the characters’ theme music. In Tokyo Drift the main character had an electronic theme that fit in with the neon atmosphere of Tokyo. Here Dom always gets a fast paced Spanish song and Brian gets an intense rock tune. They’ve all got different ways of handling their business after all even if there are a good amount of similarities. The soundtrack is definitely on point and reaches the intense levels you would expect here.

Fast & Furious doesn’t hold back with the special effects either. It looks good throughout with a lot of fun cars involved. The action scenes are good and the pacing is on point so the film doesn’t drag out. If anything you just wish it could be longer at times since it’s all over in the blink of an eye. The first race doesn’t even happen til almost halfway into the film. It’s cool for setting up the action that is about to happen but it also means that you can’t expect too many different races. The climax has a lot of action though. There’s a lot you can do with cars and that’s really the appeal of these films. Whenever Dom uses the nitro I’m reminded of the various racing games for Gamecube.

On the flip side, as always the movie does tend to dwell on its own fanservice issues a little too much. The characters inevitably go to night clubs and such where everyone is acting really sketchy. One of the villains certainly has a pretty cringe worthy setup going for him before Brian brings in the cops. I could do without those scenes so we could focus more on the action. None of the romances are particularly impressive here either and could really be cut out without any issues.

As for the main characters, I still prefer Dom to Brian. Dom really gets the job done and feels like an experienced veteran when it comes to racing. While Brian did appear to have the edge in the race, Dom always makes up for this with his own creativity on the track. As he is in revenge mode a lot here, you can expect a lot of intense scenes with him breaking into places and taking people down. He’s certainly a strong fighter.

Brian is still a good character too though. He is pretty torn at the moment with his friends and also with upholding the law. His agency looks a lot less reasonable here though as they jump in before he gives the signal and one guy in particular was trying to give him a hard time. Brian didn’t let that slide though and I liked how he landed a pretty good combo right away. He’s no pushover.

Then you have some of the supporting characters like Mia who is still pretty upset at Brian for his choices when they first met. The guy did lead off with a lot of lies and deception so you can see why there would be some sore feelings there. She seems like a good character and will hopefully get to do more soon. Letty doesn’t get to appear for very long before things get dicey for her but she was not someone who would back down from a tough mission. She did her best to the end.

None of the villains are particularly memorable though. You have the guy who took out Letty and he acts as evil and petty as possible. There’s just nothing really making him stand out from any other gangster. You know that he is doomed the moment he messed with Dom’s family. There’s Gisele who seems rather high up in the villain ranks but she doesn’t really get to race here. Hopefully that’ll change soon.

Overall, Fast & Furious is a fun way to bring the cast back. I’d like the films to really start focusing more on the races and less on the nightclub kind of scenes. Once it does that I think we’ll be off to the races so to speak. I do think it beats the first two films in the series though. Does it beat Tokyo Drift? That’s a pretty close one but ultimately I would give it the narrow edge. Due in part to the end stinger but I also liked how much influence it took from the Need for Speed series. Dom is definitely a better main character than the last guy though. We’ll see how the series continues from here because I’m really looking forward to seeing when the series goes really off the rails with the stunts and everything.

Overall 4/10

Thunderhead: Son of Flicka Review

Posted on by
Reply


Uh oh, it’s time to go back to the adventures of good ole Flicka. Let me tell you, this is not a story for the faint of heart. It has drama, intensity, and a lot of other horses. While the film is going for a much more dramatic vibe than the first film, it ultimately fails due to the same faults. As I said in my earlier review, perhaps this is just something that is extremely difficult to escape for any film based around a horse.

Many years have passed since the first film and Ken is not much more ready when it comes to having another horse. Time isn’t going to wait now though as Flicka has a kid named Thunderhead. Thunderhead is extremely wild of course and doesn’t want to live inside the farm cage. He wants to be a free spirit who can just run around as he pleases. Ken is determined to break-in Thunderhead which has always been a rather odd term but effectively it means to get him trained. The problem is that Ken isn’t very strong so he has to be careful not to injure himself.

In the more dramatic subplot, we learn that there was once a stallion of incredible power. He was as white as a sheet of snow and would often visit the various ranches/farms in order to steal a bunch of horses and have a bunch of kids. This guy even gets villain music and has a pretty unique design for a horse. For years he has continued to haunt the main characters but nobody could ever catch him. If they don’t do something soon, there will be no more horses to protect.

So as you can see, this is going to be a very difficult situation for the characters. It’s also a sub-plot that should raise a lot of red flags because for the horses who fight back against the Stallion, they can never win. Some brave horses try fighting back but are all promptly murdered by this beast. It’s a shame because they were just trying to do the right thing and paid for it.

I was surprised that the film had so much action. Naturally this even leads to a big climax battle with Thunderhead. Here’s the issue of course, you can’t have big animal fights without animal violence. It’s not going to happen and these fights get pretty brutal. At one point you even have Thunderhead stomping another horse to death. It’s off screen as you can only see the stomping and not the other horse but that was pretty brutal.

This installment definitely ramps everything up compared to the first film. So right off the bat this one couldn’t be salvaged but at least it is easier to find some silver linings here compared to the first. I liked the idea of a big race with the horses. It actually felt like this movie had more of a central focus compared to the first one as a result.

The main race is fairly quick but it made for a pretty intense scene. Ultimately it does show that Thunderhead is the fastest horse but being the fastest doesn’t always mean you will claim victory. As a main character while Ken may be ever so slightly improved from the first film, I still don’t like him. He quits rather easily and gets really upset at his horse the whole time. He’s not a very good leader nor is he someone you would want to follow. He wasn’t ready for another horse and is basically just a cheerleader in the climax as he watches the two horses fight.

The supporting characters have less of a role this time compared to the first film. For example the parents are still around but don’t do much. The Mom helps Ken by getting him a uniform and the Dad ultimately relents to him entering the race but that’s about it. Not a whole lot would change if they weren’t even in the film. Likewise the sister is mainly here to call in the grownups when Ken is messing up but that’s about it.

Thunderhead was a good horse though. He’s pretty tough and ultimately has some heroic traits like how he charged into battle. Thunderhead is quite free willed but I wouldn’t say he ever makes the wrong call except for randomly running into the field at one point instead of following the path. That felt pretty random and maybe even a bit forced but otherwise he was on point. Definitely a leader that you could follow into battle at any time.

As mentioned, the more interesting plot is with the mysterious Stallion even if you know that it’s not going to end well. I’ll give the film credit for having a real soundtrack this time. It’s not every day that you have a hype villain theme like what this film had. The writing is okay as well I suppose. It was nice seeing more of general society like the race track betters. I’d like to see more of that in future installments. Perhaps a change in scenery would do the film good. I’m not sure how you would squeeze the horses into a city plot like that but maybe you don’t. Make this more of a human based story instead.

Overall, Thunderhead, Son of Flicka ultimately loses to the first film. While it wins in some areas like the soundtrack and story, it ultimately doubles down on the horse deaths and showing that they live in a very dangerous world. I was rooting for Thunderhead to escape while Ken was trying to tame him the whole time. Thunderhead knows that he is destined to be a King and needs space to move around. In that way he is a lot like Spirit, king of his herd. Surprisingly Flicka barely has a role here at all. The whole jumping out from the water is probably her last big scene in the film. I suppose she already had a complete movie experience but I was expecting more moments. Either way you’re going to want to give this one a skip.

Overall 1/10

My Friend Flicka Review

Posted on by
Reply


Whenever you have a film based around an animal you have to tread very carefully. Odds are that things are about to get real dicey real fast. Unfortunately this film was unable to avoid that as Flicka is put through the ringer and there are animal deaths here. That’s a quick way to put yourself in a losing position and the film never quite recovered.

The movie follows a kid named Ken who really wants a horse of his own. To that end he has basically stopped studying and is flunking every test at school. Ken is forgetting his chores and doesn’t even know how to look over the horses properly so Nell suggests that Rob get Ken his horse. Rob is pretty dubious since he points out that Ken should be proving himself worthy instead of getting the prize at the beginning. Still, they allow Ken to have his own horse which he names Flicka. The problem is that Flicka is quite wild and not like most horses. Can he really be tamed?

So the premise itself could be decent enough I suppose except for the fact that right off the bat Ken isn’t a good main character. He’s rather whiny the whole time and way too young to have a horse of his own. Near the beginning of the film he disobeys his father and runs out to the field where the horses are at. Naturally he trips and scares them which nearly costs the lives of every horse on the farm.

It’s not a great first impression and Ken never gets better after that. He’s rather rude to his sister the whole time as well with him constantly telling her to get out of the way with the horses and that she’ll never ride one since she’s a girl. She does manage to take him down for the count early on though when she forces him to confess to his father about where he found a saddle.

Ken’s not the most honest fellow out there that’s for sure. As for the parents, I wouldn’t say I was a big fan of either of them. Nell’s decision to get Ken a horse just felt like it was ill timed. He wasn’t ready for a horse as he clearly demonstrated with his early actions. Meanwhile Rob is quite open about shooting horses and such so he was out right from the start. It’s crazy so look at these times and how rough they were on the animals. It made for a very unlikable main cast.

Meanwhile Flicka is a nice enough horse. She’s quite wild but at the same time horses were meant to be free so you can’t blame her. You only have the cage to be blamed and the main characters for not working things out peacefully. Her mother had a rough time of things since even though they knew she was vicious, they still tried taking her away on the main road were an accident occurs.

You can expect horses to die out here that’s for sure and it puts a pretty big damper on the film as a whole. I wouldn’t even call this an uplifting film because of how sad it is for the horses. Aside from the parent dying which is already a full origin story for most characters, Flicka then gets injured by the barbed wire and has some rather serious cuts. Flicka really can’t catch a break at all.

My Friend Flicka is effectively a slice of life story about Ken finally proving himself and getting along with Flicka. The issue here is that this only works as a happy story if you either like Ken and the other characters or if you don’t find the horse scenes to be too sad. If both of those areas don’t go through as intended, then you’re really sunk and that’s what happened to the film.

On the plus side, it is fairly short so I wouldn’t say it drags on or anything like that. It definitely could have still trimmed some scenes but that’s not really addressing the core issues. You either needed some new plot element to keep things interesting or maybe even switched out the main character. After all, what positive things could you really say about the movie at the moment?

I suppose the writing isn’t bad. The characters may not be likable but I wouldn’t say that it reflects on the writing as a whole. None of them just clicked with me and this isn’t exactly the kind of film where you can expect a lot of snappy dialogue or anything like that. It’s more by the books from start to finish. I suppose as a positive or at least a back handed complement, I wouldn’t say it’s a boring film. It’s low key but should keep your interest well enough I guess. It just doesn’t have any weight to it.

Overall there are a lot of ways you could fix this film to make it more enjoyable but unfortunately the film didn’t take any of those avenues. It could have removed the horse violence or made the main character someone more likable. Either one of those changes would have done wonders for the movie. Still, I don’t expect a film with the horse as a main character will ever fare well. The deck is just stacked against them and by a large margin I should add. Even the ole whipping the horse to make it go faster always makes me wince. If you want to do a film about a horse and try to succeed then you should probably make it a robotic horse. That’s the only way I can see this working out. Ultimately the moral of this story is that Ken was not ready for his own horse.

Overall 2/10