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Fright Night Review

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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 likely be more negative.
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Oh no, it’s my worst fears realized. Lets look at the checklist. Gratuitous violence? ✔ Horrendous writing ✔ Lots of fanservice? ✔ Animal Violence X Vampires ✔ Terrible characters ✔ Well, it may not have been a perfect score on how bad a film could be, but it’s quite bad. It’s been a while since I saw a film quite like this one, but I can assure you that this holds its own against most of the other big horror films. I still think it’s really difficult to make a vampire film good and this helps my argument. There’s just not much in the way of positives here at all.

The film starts off with good ole Charley being one of the “cool” kids. He used to be a guy who was really into fantasy, play fighting, and other things that were deemed “uncool.” As a result, Charley dumped his best friend and started hanging out with the bullies so he could look cool for a girl. It worked quite easily and now they’re together. Charley is so cool that he doesn’t care about anyone else anymore. The bullies pick on his ex-friend, but that’s not Charley’s concern. Students start going missing and it seems as if a mass murderer is on the loose, but again…that’s not Charley’s problem. It gets to be an issue for him though once his ex friend is murdered and he finds out that the perpetrator lives next door. Okay…now it’s time to care. Can Charley take this guy down to save himself and his family or is it already too late?

It’s like the old saying, “First they came for the Johns, but I stayed quiet. Then they came for the Smiths, but I stayed quiet. Finally, they came for me and there was nobody left to help” It’s like that as Charley really couldn’t care less about the rest of the neighborhood until it was just him. He’s the main character and it’s a mainstream film so it’s not as if he has much to worry about, but it didn’t make him a likable character in the slightest. The film actually goes out of its way to make him a terrible character as he refuses to explain anything. Even once he learns that the guy next door is a vampire, he refuses to tell his Mom or Amy about it because he doesn’t want to look bad. This doesn’t work so well as it comes close to wrecking all of his relationships. Luckily, they’re better characters who don’t panic at everything and actually try to talk things out. Charley just gives them a hard time about absolutely everything. He never develops into a good character as you can’t forget that he is essentially a poser who betrays his ideals just to look cool.

Jerry makes for an imposing villain I suppose, but certainly not a good one. He spends a lot of time trying to make conversation with Charley. I guess he wants to get in the main character’s head to psych him out, but he drags on and on. He was so obvious as the villain that I was expecting a misdirect from the film, but it never happened. He certainly didn’t improve my view on vampires. Edward is supposed to be the sympathetic friend that you can root for. He was ditched by Charley and as a result his social life has completely fallen to pieces. Now there is no one to help him when he gets bullied and he also has to pass by the bully’s home every single night. It’s not very fun for him and then Charley refuses to acknowledge him and this finally leads to Edward being taken out by Jerry. So, he should have been sympathetic, but what doesn’t help his case is that he resorts to blackmail. Yes, he decides to blackmail Charley with old videos of them fighting together and the old hobbies that Charley had. It may have worked, but it’s certainly not a nice move. He also started unloading some pretty personal insults at Amy which just made him even more unlikable. I forgot another part of Edward that doesn’t help his case…he’s on drugs. He casually admits this to Charley during another one of those really terrible written conversations. Even the way he lets Charley know about the vampire next door is handled pretty unrealistically.

Amy was all right as I mentioned earlier. She helped out a little during the skirmish with the vampires and at least she didn’t get paralyzed with fear the way that many characters do. Amy played her part well. Peter is the professional vampire slayer who turns out to be a fraud at first, but then we learn that he has actually encountered Jerry in the past. He’s pretty unlikable and is supposed to be that way. He helps out quite a bit in the end, but mostly he is reluctant. By the time he jumps into action, it’s a little too late to care.

So, there are a lot of negatives here as mentioned in the intro. The writing is horrendous. Luckily, the edited version cut out all of the language with the nice air filters, but with how often they occurred you can see how bad the script was. Every character was constantly yelling strings of words that make you shake your head. Even when we get past the language, the rest of the writing isn’t much better. The boring conversations with Jerry come to mind and the forced tension between Charley and all of the other characters. His excuse in the computer room for why he ditched class is another awful moment as it shows he will go to great lengths to avoid telling people about vampires even if it hurts his reputation even more.

Next, there’s the gratuitous violence. This one’s pretty obvious. The vampires bite people just about all the way through the neck and it’s pretty violent. Every character has a habit of blowing up some blood even after they’re already dead or in vampire form. The blood sucking is as irritating as usual and I don’t think I’ll ever care for that aspect. I’m still pretty surprised that there was no animal violence so that’s a good thing. The “romance” here is of the usual Hollywood variety. It’s basically just the characters deciding to skip the formalities and just jump into the making love part. It’s mostly all they talk about at the beginning and the end of the film. At least they got over all of the gruesome murders really quickly eh? The film goes for a lot of excuses to have characters in pretty risque outfits as the heroes head to a night club (Where naturally nobody notices someone getting murdered right in front of them) and Peter has a secretary with benefits rooming with him. It’s definitely not a film that tries to take the high road.

I can’t really think of any plot holes surprisingly, but if there is any then it may be with Jerry being weak against sunlight. I could have sworn that when he was planting the garden the first time he showed up that it was still daylight out. Maybe it was dark enough where the sun wasn’t potent or something. Just something that I noticed, but at least it can be explained away so that helps it a lot.

If there is one good thing about the film, it’s that the soundtrack is actually pretty decent at times. The rock music that played when Charley went to get his gear was pretty good. His montage may not have been as epic as the music would have you believe, but it was a slight silver lining at the very least. The special effects weren’t half bad either. The classic Vampire blowing up to sunlight and weapons was handled decently well. The super agility was handled pretty badly though as the Vampires moved in impossible angles with very obvious Photoshop kind of effects. It definitely didn’t seem like something you’d expect from 2011, but maybe I was holding it to too high of a standard.

Overall, Fright Night is your average horror film. It’s not very fun to watch and the characters are all poorly written. Everyone is so bad that you have to wonder at some points whether horror writers can read their scripts with a straight face. Lets put this into perspective. The kid who got bullied and ostracized by the school along with being betrayed by his friend was murdered by the main character. The bully who went around objectifying people and making the friend miserable got to live in the end. That’s just the kind of film that this is and I’d recommend sticking away from it. It’s a pretty mean spirited film and Jerry ends up being a pretty bad villain by the end. He’s even willing to use fake romance to get a reaction out of Charley, but that’s not very effective since Charley was more interested in finally getting to use his hastily prepared plan at that point. I should mention that the plan should never have worked and involved quite a lot of plot hax. Lets just say that Jerry conveniently decided to stand still and have absolutely no reaction times in order for it to work. The film stacked the deck against itself too well (As expected) by giving Jerry a great amount of regenerative abilities and speed. The writers couldn’t think their way out of that one. If you want a good horror film, check out Poltergeist 3. It’s actually a lot better than you would expect.

Overall 1/10

Warcraft Review

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I always like to see a video game adapted into a film…but not like this! It seems like bad luck that films keep trying to adapt games that either shouldn’t be adapted or ones that should be adapted…in 20 years. I get that World of Warcraft is a very popular video game, but I’ve never cared much for it and I don’t think it ever had a whole lot of movie potential. People will inevitably compare it to Lord of the Rings and it’ll fall short since everyone already has the nostalgia goggles on. Then we’ve got Assassin’s Creed….this isn’t the kind of representation of video games that I wanted. Where’s Mega Man, Mario, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Gravity Rush, or the really cool looking video games like that? The films keep on choosing the most realistic ones possible as I guess they feel this is the safe route, but it’s backfiring horribly. Wait…they already tried making a Super Mario Bros film? Nah….you must be mistaken, I’m sure I’d remember Princess Peach making her way to the big screen or that iconic Bowser design if the film had happened. Must have just been a mistake.

Anyway, Warcraft deals with two worlds coming together to avoid calamity. On one side, we have the world of the Trolls. Their world has grown desolate and soon it will be completely unlivable. To combat this, they have decided to invade the human world and eradicate all of the mortals. On the human side, they see that the Trolls are attacking and decide to slay them all. There can be no peace here, only war and destruction. Which side will emerge victorious here?

This film has a lot of problems, but action isn’t one of them. There’s a lot of action throughout as you’ll see people punching and tackling each other. A lot of guys are stabbed and it definitely feels like a war. I don’t care much for war fight scenes and prefer the classic 1 on 1’s. This doesn’t help to change my opinion of that, but considering that War is in the title, I knew what to expect from the get go. The CGI and overall special effects for the film aren’t bad. In the rare scenes where we actually get to see energy attacks and video game techniques, they hold up quite well. We get mythical monsters and fantasy backdrops that also fit in seamlessly.

The rest of the film is where Warcraft stumbles a bit. Lets talk about the characters. Gul’dan is the main villain of the film. He’s the corrupt leader of the Orcs (Trolls) and ensures that there is no peace. After all, you can’t make peace with a nation that’s trying to destroy you right? He rules with fear and is the only Orc to actually have special powers. He can drain your life force by making contact with an opponent and has a good array of energy blasts as well. This makes up for not being the strongest Orc on the battlefield. It’s really impossible for any character to beat him without plot hax and that’s a bit of an issue. The only way the film gets around this is by having the other Orcs pressure Gul’dan into retreating for honor reasons. He never loses and I guess this sets things up for the sequel. He was a pretty imposing villain and I suppose that I didn’t mind him being the big bad. I wish he would just get on with it though and I don’t see why he should even care about the Orcs liking him or not. His whole gimmick is that he rules by fear so if they start rebelling, can’t he just slay them all?

Lothar is the main hero on the human side. His character arc is pretty tragic as he decides to trust Garona and is then betrayed at the very end. He’s a pretty strong warrior and is headstrong. Lothar acts like a main character should for the most part. He can be a little generic and maybe not all that reasonable at other times, but he can handle himself in a fight and the humans wouldn’t have much of a chance without him. Llane is the more reasonable character, but at the same time he goes for the more conventional ideas. He decides on a full scale war against the Orcs and this doesn’t go well at all. He then makes a rather selfless decision to have Garona murder him so she can get out of there alive, but it’s also basically suicide since he’s asking to be murdered. You always got to fight until the bitter end even if the odds are stacked against you. The ending did not help him.

I actually place more of the blame on Garona though. Accepting this option shows that she put more value on her life than on Llane’s. Essentially, she was willing to continue existing at the expense of someone else. Lothar took this as a betrayal since he didn’t know the context, but it may as well have been one even with it. She was tasked with protecting Llane and she failed. Durotan is the main protagonist of the Orcs, but he is forced to work for Gul’dan the whole time. It’s a pretty tough film for Durotan since he doesn’t get the clan any closer to peace and is ultimately murdered in front of everyone. He put up a good fight, but was clearly outmatched thanks to the magic amplifications that Gul’dan had and it felt like his journey was rather pointless. He made some nice speeches, but since he had no control over the clan, it didn’t help much. He did inadvertently save the humans by getting the Orcs to doubt their leader though.

As this is Warcraft, there were other sub plots as well. One of the human’s strongest magicians was actually a traitor and ended up joining the villains. It was either his overconfidence that led the evil magic to slowly corrupting him or he was just a bad seed the entire time. Regardless, it was a huge blow to the humans since they need all of the magicians that they can get. They have another apprentice guy who wants to help out now, but that’s just a consolation. Honestly though, the humans should be doomed in this war. They now only have 1 guy with powers on their side while the Orcs have a few. That being said, the ending shows that there are many other factions of humans who will be helping now. Where were they the whole time? Who knows, I guess it just wasn’t their fight. Ironically the human mage sub plot was probably the most out of place, but also the most interesting part of the film.

The part of the film that will end up leaving a sour taste in your mouth is really the ending. Seeing Garona just accept the life and be accepted back to her people was a rather mean spirited way to end things. Now nobody gets along and tensions are even higher. It also feels like absolutely nothing was accomplished in this film. You should think of it as a promo to encourage you to play the game, but that doesn’t work so well as a large feature film. Especially if you were never interested to play the game in the first place. As the writing is also lackluster, it never really had a chance of getting you interested in playing the game.

There is also some iffy animal violence moments here. It sadly comes with the territory of war films as people ride horses and even birds into battle. It’s not a huge occurrence here, but enough so where it warrants a mention. It’s not as if things could have gotten much worse for the film though right? It was already rather boring and convoluted without a good ending so adding the animal violence is like the cherry on top.

Overall, Warcraft is a very generic fantasy war film. It’s just the same old Humans vs Orc battles that we’ve seen in LOTR and the Hobbit already. This film doesn’t really add anything to that. There’s not much reason to watch this film and since an ending is super important, having a bad one hurts the film all the more. I doubt this film will be getting a sequel anyway so it’s not as if the cliffhangers will be resolved anytime soon. If you’re a big fan of the games then you’re basically obligated to watch this one. If not, then I’d recommend just sticking away from it.

Overall 3/10

Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers Review

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Picture’s a little fuzzy, but bear with me here folks, the soundtrack image didn’t work for some reason. Well it finally happened, we’re at the first and possibly only bad Digimon film. It all comes down to the main plot with an unfortunate moment of animal violence and a Sleepless in Seattle message about how you should be ready to let go. That’s a knockout punch and one that’s hard to get past unless you’re a super long running show or manga where you can have enough high moments to overcome the lows. In a 30-40 minute movie, there’s not enough time to get past this rather large issue.

Takato decides to head over to his Cousin’s place for summer vacation. It’s time to relax and unwind from the challenging adventures of the TV show. Unfortunately, that’s not part of the game plan here. Omnimon was unable to stop a mysterious new threat and because of that, evil Digimon are showing up all over the place. Takato’s cousin means well, but he is a little outmatched since he doesn’t have a Digimon and his Grandpa pretends to be oblivious to the whole thing. Takato will have to try and win this fight or stall until Henry and Rika show up, but it’s going to be tricky.

Lets get the obvious dragon in the road out of the way first. The part of the film that destroyed it was the sob story that was attached to the original character made up for the film. When she was little, her dog drowned while she was surfing. Boom. The film hits you with this hay maker and there’s no real way to recover from this right? The only way is to bring the dog back and the film couldn’t do that…could it? Well, the film brings the Dog back all right as a Digital Monster. He shows up to be her pal, but she doesn’t like him anymore because he’s not “real.” During the course of the film, she realizes that he is in fact her dog from a while ago. Then the film kills him off.

Wait a minute….why’d the film bring him back then? See, this is possibly even worse than just not bringing him back at all. You’re essentially destroying the dog twice. The film gives you some hope for a second there that everything can be okay and then snatches it back. It was very poorly handled and I was pretty dismayed at the whole thing. See, it ties into the film’s message about moving on. The girl needed to move past her dog’s death so the film got to have her say a final goodbye to the dog again and then watch it get destroyed in front of her eyes. It’s supposed to be calming as she can now be at peace, but it’s just distasteful. That’s why I’m typically not a fan of the whole “moving on” message. You do have to move on in life with a great many things, but not with some and not like this.

Anyway, past the animal violence, this film functions like your average Digimon film. We have some pretty good fights and solid animation for them as well. The opening scene with Omnimon scaring away the villain was pretty cool although I’m calling plot hax on how it just casually outran Omnimon to a portal and that Omnimon could not follow him. If it’s so easy to just make a portal and escape, then I don’t see how any of the villains are ever captured. It’s such an overpowered escape option. I wasn’t expecting to see Omnimon show up though so even if he didn’t look great, it was a nice homage to the rest of the continuity.

The soundtrack isn’t so good, but that’s just the price of subbed Digimon vs dubbed most of the time. Tri did have a pretty good battle theme at the end though so there is always a chance that more Digimon films will follow its venture into greatness. I’ll never get used to the really soft Digievolution theme though, it just doesn’t fit with the action that’s happening on screen. I need hype and intensity!

As always, Rika had a pretty good subplot here. Hers started out with a good amount of action and Renamon continues to prove that she is a very reliable partner to have. Rika’s easily the most likable out of the three main characters of Tamers so I was glad that the film was able to get her into the main plot by the end. Henry’s just around and at least he gets to help I suppose. It was awfully convenient of him to also be in the general area, but that’s Henry for you. He’s always around when needed and will give you some support….you do need someone stronger if you want to win though.

I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the side plots and less of the main one. Takato’s cousin just isn’t a very interesting character and there’s not much that he or his grandpa can contribute to the story. They’re really just here for pep talks and to remind Takato that he’s a pretty tough guy. It’d be more moving if they were big characters from the show or actually had a Digimon.

I wasn’t crazy about the island as a setting, but the film was still pretty interesting. I wouldn’t say that the pacing ever completely died. It may not have been as eventful as the previous films and had a more laid back approach, but that was probably intentional with the island backdrop. The stakes never got as intense as the Diaboromon films, but then again…how do you top those? It just operates as a fun little side adventure where the heroes had to combine their might with a cool super attack. Nothing fancy, but a chance to see some good fights and reconnect with the characters. If not for the dog scenes, I’m sure this would have gotten a casual 7 or maybe a high end 6. So that means if you can get past the dog moments, then you can enjoy this film.

Overall, I cannot get past them so the film was doomed. I like to think that a plot like this won’t surface again though because seriously, what are the odds right? At most we’ll have a plot about a Digimon dying and everything which Tri is possibly looking to do, but that’s a lot more acceptable. It’s like how Goku dies or if you want a more serious example, Mami from Madoka. It’s pretty emotional, but in a more legitimate way and I can work with that. A tragic death with no other purpose to be tragic like Eren’s Mom from Attack on Titan is another story, but that’s a topic for an editorial someday. I’m one step closer to watching all of the Digimon films with this and with Tri Part 2 coming relatively soon, the Digimon experience continues on.

Overall 4/10

House of Wax Review

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It’s time to look at a remake of a film that I saw not too long ago. Unfortunately, this is one of those remakes that decides to play it very by the books and doesn’t change much. I find this to be a waste since a remake/reboot should always make drastic changes so you have a reason to see it over another version. You’re basically watching the same film, but without the classic black and white effect that makes it more tense or the solid writing of the old days. Well…prepare yourself!

The film starts off with Jarrod in good spirits. He has finally found someone who is willing to buy his partner’s share of the business. Burke had been pretty mean lately and Jarrod would be glad to have him out. Unfortunately, the rich fellow couldn’t buy the place right away so Burke decided to burn the place to the ground. Jarrod resisted a little, but he was outmatched. Burke was simply too strong and burned the place down along with Jarrod for good measure. No worries though, Jarrod survived and quickly went over to murder Burke and his fiancee. He then decided to open a museum where he could show off his murders and nobody would be any the wiser. Jarrod gets a little too overconfident though and decides that he wants Sue as his masterpiece. Can he get away with it?

The whole film’s premise relies on the police being inept and no reporters existing at all. Lets look at the facts. This is a Wax Museum so the models are so realistic that nobody can tell that they were real. I find this to be a stretch personally, but lets run with it. It starts to get a little more dicey when Jarrod murders someone and then immediately puts her in the museum. This is where we can’t deny reality any longer. The cops know that a body has been snatched and they also know that the museum just got a new exhibit. In fact, Sue is able to tell that it is her friend immediately.

Now, the cops don’t chat with Sue all that much, but they should have been looking for the body in as many locations as possible. A suspicious new wax museum should be one of the first places that they look, especially with the sculptures being so realistic. Likewise, Sue probably should have said something to the cops herself instead of prowling around after hours and getting kidnapped. At the very least, she couldn’t depend on the male lead. All he did in this film was get knocked left and right by every villain in the book. He was actually losing quite badly to one of the henchmen and considering that her life was on the line, I think Sue would have wanted him to put up some more resistance.

So, I don’t buy into the plot. Moving past that, I don’t see how Jarrod was so powerful all of a sudden. Even though he was badly injured by the fire, he can move with great speed and has a lot of power as well. He’s able to fight off a good number of cops and is strong enough to throw people around. He even has a super mask that can allow him to take blows to the head with no real effect. That part makes sense since he had a disguise the whole time, but he should absolutely be in no shape to fight at all. He is sitting in his chair all day and barely moves around, he should be fiercely out of shape.

None of the characters are very interesting either, which doesn’t do the film any favors. Sue is about as generic as you can get and isn’t all that smart. When confronting the big villain, you should try to have some kind of plan right? The male lead is even worse as he’s so mild that I couldn’t be bothered to remember his name. He gets suckered by the whole cast and then doesn’t even get to save Sue. He should be pretty ashamed of himself to be honest. Jarrod’s a two dimensional villain who could have gotten away with the whole thing if he hadn’t become so greedy and gone after more people. He’s just your average serial killer and the film didn’t do anything to distinguish him from the others. His minions were also not interesting as one couldn’t even talk which didn’t help his character development.

The only characters who were good here were the cops. Even then it took them forever to put the simple pieces together and watching a bunch of them get wrecked by an old guy was so sad that it was almost funny. I can’t stress enough just how sad it is to get beat by a guy with multiple third degree burns who has rarely ever gotten up from his wheel chair. It should go down in infamy as one of the worst moments of the Police Force. They got the results though…..fatal ones.

Overall, House of Wax is a dreadfully boring film. Nothing really happens and the characters may as well be reading lines off of a script for all the emotion that they show. The plot doesn’t make sense which means that the writers weren’t even paying attention when they made this film. Whatever semblance of heart the first film had is gone here and the film doesn’t even serve its purpose as a good remake. If the original is better than the remake, that’s a problem. (It’s to be expected, but it’s still a problem) This film should have taken more risks and changed things up to make it more interesting. It needed to do something rather than just ripping off the original film and hoping to make a few dollars. I’d recommend sticking away from this film, the House of Wax is just not good and the premise limited its options from the get go. I’ve seen three murder films about hiding the victims in Wax and none of them were good. That proves that the plot just can’t work.

Overall 3/10

Dr. Strangelove Review

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It’s time to look at a critically acclaimed political film. This one takes a pretty interesting look at the good ole Cold War days and our tensions with Russia. Back then it was all about getting the bigger weapons, but we all know that such a build up can only have negative results. This film points that out with America’s half thought out attack protocols and it leads to a very tense atmosphere where all of the characters are wondering what to do about this. It is definitely a well made film.

So, the long and short of it is that one of America’s generals is fed up with the whole thing. He wants to wipe Russia off the map and nobody’s going to stop him. He orders his men to execute the order where they are to fire a nuke at Russia. The command was given as if it was a critical red scenario meaning that the homeland was taken over so this was a last act of retaliation to ensure that Russia died alongside the U.S. Naturally, this was not the case at all, but the pilots had no way of knowing that since they were already in the air and set about to complete their mission. This was a suicide mission so they would not be able to return to see its effects anyway. The President finds out about this and gathers all of the top ranking officials to decide what to do about it.

The problem? There is nothing they can do about it. The order cannot be taken back due to radio silence and there is no way to override it. The President can tell Russia about it, but that will demand retaliation so the U.S. would also blow up. That means there are two ways this can go down. 1. The U.S. alerts Russia to their impending demise so they fire their own nuke and we both die. 2. U.S. keeps silent and Russia dies before they can retaliate, but then we will be known as villains around the world. It’s a tough call.

The cast of characters is of a reasonable size. We’ve got the President as a main character which is always cool. The flaw with this guy is that he’s very timid and I can’t imagine someone like that winning the oval office. He has a hard time talking with Russia since they end up being more aggressive and his whiny disposition makes it hard to sympathize with him. I’m sure this president did a pretty good job during the term, but he wasn’t cutting it. He’s a decently humorous character if you keep in mind that this is a parody though. Turgidson is a pretty charismatic character and one of those guys who gets a lot of witty lines, but is actually a bad character if you think about it enough. He is a little too enthusiastic about implementing a terribly selfish plan at the end of the film to save himself and he doesn’t mind shirking his duty for no real reason. What helps to combat these negative traits is how devoted he is to stopping the Russians. He is willing to lie or do just about anything else to convince people that they are behind all of this. Naturally, he opts to just stay silent and let Russia grow up. While the rest of the council made sure to ignore him during the decision making, you couldn’t ignore him because of how loud the guy was.

Ripper was really the main antagonist of the film and the guy who got the ball rolling. He’s definitely pretty crazy so there is no reasoning with him. It was surreal to see him start firing on his own soldiers just so he could stay alive and once he had stalled enough, he just shot himself. Shooting himself definitely hurt his credibility since he took the cop-out way in the end. The crazyness may have added to the film’s overall atmosphere, but I wouldn’t have minded if this character was cut out. Poor Mandrake was caught in the middle of this breakdown and he did a good job of trying to make the best of the situation. He did come close to stopping the catastrophe, but it was too little too late. Guano is a random general who showed up to take command of the situation over there and I’ll give him a little shout out for being fairly tough. Considering everything that had just happened, he took the situation in stride.

Finally, we have Dr. Strangelove. He is certainly quite the character and that’s to be expected since the film is named after him. The concept of an ex Nazi working for the U.S. and getting a seat on the council is pretty ludicrous but we’ll let it slide for now. His main gimmick was that he kept trying to salute by mistake and telling treasonous things like “My Fuhrer” and hoping that nobody noticed. He is pretty well educated about weapons of mass destruction and nuclear deterrents so he is consulted quite a lot in this film. It’s always interesting to have a traitor in your midst as well and he added some tension to the film. He was without a doubt, one of the best characters in the film.

There is really only one scene here that holds the film back a little and that is Turgidson’s debut. It’s just a really drawn out scene of his secretary answering a call for him while not fully dressed and the scene just stays here for a while. It felt like obvious fanservice and while it wasn’t anything drastic, it is enough to make you shake your head at the whole thing. The deluded general Ripper’s fixation on bodily fluids was also mildly alarming and the final desperate plan that the U.S. considers was also rather twisted. You’re liable to have some iffy plots in a black comedy since it’s part of the humor, but at least it was kept to a minimum. If you consider that this was really the only negative in the film, then that’s actually a pretty good sign. The film may not be amazing or as good as it could have been, but I’d call it a solid film in the end. It’s a movie that I could actually re-watch right now since it’s been a while and it does have a good amount of replay value.

I have to give a brief shout-out to the ending. It was handled beautifully and I was not expecting it in the slightest. It’s an ending that I can’t imagine a modern film getting away with. Not because of content as there is nothing violent about it at all, but just because it’s not a mainstream ending that people would probably approve of. That’s why it was so shocking when the film just suddenly ended with a quick song and a slow montage. I can’t say what the montage was about since that would definitely be a spoiler, but it was classic nonetheless.

Overall, Dr. Strangelove is a very clever film and most of the humor is actually rock solid. It’s a film that will breeze by in no time at all. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and just has a lot of fun along the way. The characters are all very crazy and charismatic. While some of them may not be all that likable on their own, they do make the film more enjoyable. It’s a very crazy film and while that can sometimes work against it, the uniqueness helps the film more than it hurts. If like me, you enjoy watching films that deal with politics and even poke fun at it in the process, then this is a film that you can definitely get behind. The film has a much larger title which will make a lot of sense once you watch the movie. I’d love to see a remake of this film someday as the concept is something that could easily be used again.

Overall 6/10

Sleepless in Seattle Review

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While better than the last two romance films that I’ve reviewed, Sleepless in Seattle falls into some of the typical romance film traps. While very different than the horror movie tropes, Romance ones can be about as harmful. Here are some of the landmines that this film steps into. Rebound guy/girls ✔ Love at first sight ✔ The bad advice friend ✔ It doesn’t step into other landmines like characters immediately forgetting social etiquette and jumping into bed so I’ll give the film some credit there. As I said, it’s a fairly decent romance film, it’s just that romance is typically not going to get a very high score because the genre ends up limiting itself.

Sam is not in the best of moods because his wife passed away. He’s decided to respect her memory and not move on with his life. Unfortunately, Jonah wants to have a Mom again so he calls a radio station and gets them to give Sam a live interview. Sam tries to decline this, but it’s too late now and he ends up spilling his life story to the rest of the world. One of the people listening was Annie and while she had a steady relationship with Walter to the point where they were very serious, she decides that she wants Sam. The problem is that she needs an excuse to get to New York City to meet him on top of a large building like in her favorite film. Meanwhile, Jonah needs to get Sam up there since he already found a new girlfriend himself. Those radio stations do work quickly don’t they? Can Jonah get the main two characters together or will he respect Sam’s feelings and not put him in another awkward situation?

From the start you can tell that the ending of the film may not be all that satisfactory. I’m an active backer of the friend zone and believe that if a character doesn’t want to move on, Hollywood shouldn’t make him. Sam’s wife died so maybe it isn’t good for him to get a new girlfriend and marry again. Personally, moving on like that just isn’t a very good move if you ask me. Movies try to make it seem normal and make it sound like a good thing that you’re moving on, but it just makes me question the character’s devotion in the first place. If the chosen love of your life dies, I don’t think you should try to find a replacement.

It gets worse when you consider that Jonah pushed him into this by calling that company. The fact that Sam got so many letters is a little alarming since it shows how many desperate people there are out there. The plot gets a little suspect when you realize that one of these letters if from Annie. I mean, I don’t blame Sam for not wanting to go all the way to NYC to meet someone based purely on a letter. That would have been pretty desperate of him as well.

I’ve always been against love at first sight, but is this even more shallow than that? From Annie’s perspective, she has no idea who Sam is or what he looks like. All she has is a radio broadcast to go by and she’s willing to axe her relationship over that and takes a huge gamble with her life. It may be a classic Hollywood ending as everything works out for the best, but you really have to question the whole thing from all sides. I wonder how Annie feels about being the third choice as well. After all, Sam had been dating someone else before he was forced to go to NYC. I guess he’s going to have to awkwardly tell her that he dumped her for someone else that he literally just met. Gee……that’s probably going to be a fun day for her.

Lets not forget about the other guy who was dropped like a sack of potatoes…good ole Walter. He’s a nice guy who just wanted to have a good time. He bought Annie whatever she wanted and his only character flaw was that he is allergic to a lot of things. Beyond that, the film never gives you a reason to root against him. Walter even realizes that Annie is treating him like the rebound guy so he decides to let her go and start his life fresh. It’s great that he was understanding about the whole thing, but it must be rough to suddenly get dumped for a random stranger after being with someone for months. That’s life I guess and when you enter the arena of romance you never know what’s going to happen.

The main cast is relatively small since it’s really about the drama. Sam’s not a great main character since I disconnected with him after he listened to a radio show and immediately got a girl friend. It all happened so fast that you have to wonder how serious any of them were about it. I don’t have much more hopes for this next romance either. Annie is possibly worse since her position was really unreasonable the entire time. I don’t care how charismatic someone sounds over the radio, you don’t make a life altering choice over something like that to just dump someone and get together. Listening to strangers making promises over the internet and asking to meet somewhere is just going to get you in trouble in the real world. Jonah is as annoying as your average kid. He keeps trying to mess with Sam and forcing the guy’s hand by heading over to NYC on his own was very selfish and dangerous. It was the only unrealistic part of the film and Jonah never met any consequences for this. On the contrary, he’s probably pleased with himself for playing the role of matchmaker so efficiently. If I was Sam, I’d probably be a little upset.

All right, this review’s had a pretty negative tone so far so lets talk about the positives. The film has a pretty good soundtrack. The songs are fairly emotional and add some impact to the film. It feels pretty high budget and all of the landscapes really stand out. The writing is pretty solid during the film so you don’t have to worry about the characters getting too crazy. We see some aspects of the film that could have been pretty interesting like Sam’s job, but they don’t get too much screen time to give more of that to the romance. So, the film is fairly reasonable and I’d say that it’s one of the better romance films that I’ve seen.

Overall, Sleepless in Seattle is a film where the premise will throw you for a loop. It’s all about moving on and getting to the next battle, but I’ve always disagreed with that moral. It’s the complete opposite of Madoka Magica Rebellion. Homura never moved on from Madoka’s memory and decided to do something about it. Now, Sam can’t just run into Heaven (If his wife was a Christian) and snatch his wife back like Homura did, but I do think he could have just stayed single and lived a content life until they were reunited. This way he could be ready to have a nice reunion with the wife instead of a very awkward one when he shows up with his new wife and the brief girlfriend comes by to say hello. So, I think the film was barking up the wrong tree here. There was also no time for chemistry or development with the romance since the characters didn’t get to actually meet until the final 3 minutes of the film. (Unless you count a brief hello where they see each other across the street) It’s hard to call that a real romance. It’s very Hollywood and akin to something out of the olden days, but doesn’t work too well in practice. That being said, the film does manage to avoid any real objectionable content since it’s only PG and it’s a relatively mild romance film. If you like romance, then you will enjoy this one. For myself, I couldn’t give it the thumbs up approval in the end because I disagree with the film’s message too strongly. If you want to see a counter argument to this film, then check out Madoka Rebellion to point out why you shouldn’t always move on.

Overall 4/10

The Terror Review

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Prepare yourself for a very eccentric film. I know that I sometimes critique films for not having any real twists or turns, but this film takes that a little too literally. There are twists within twists and nothing that you see or hear can be trusted in this film until the very end. Even the atmosphere of the film is fairly mysterious and eery. One thing’s for sure, you may not remember the specifics of this film, but you won’t be forgetting the actual adventure.

Andre is a lost soldier who somehow got separated from the rest of his French regime. Luckily, he was saved by a fair maiden by the name of Helene. The girl vanishes, but Andrew asks around and figures out that she lives in the Baron’s castle. An old lady in a cottage told him this and while she seems to practice voodoo and has a Raven who can shape shift, she is clearly trust worthy. The Baron does not want to let Andrew in, but the “hero” threatens to bring down the full wrath of the French government if he is now allowed entry. (He is a high ranking officer so he can do this)

The Baron has no time for these games though. He is being haunted by the ghost of Ilsa. She wants him to destroy himself because he murdered her after finding out about the man that she kept around on the side when she thought he wasn’t looking. Meanwhile, his loyal butler Stefan murdered the side man (Eric) The Baron is reluctant to comply with the ghost for obvious reasons, but he starts to wonder if maybe he should. This Andre person is complicating things though because he can see the ghost too, but calls her by a different name and while she did try to murder him a few times, he never takes it personally.

All right, lets pause here before getting into the twists. Yes, there will be spoilers this time because you can’t not explain the twists here. It’s what makes the film so priceless. First off, Andre is clearly not the brightest bulb on the block because the murder attempts that Ilsa goes for are fairly obvious. Her ghost leads him to a marsh of quick sand, but he noticed in time because of a pebble that he kicked. She almost led him off a cliff as well, but he noticed on time. She tried to destroy him several times, but Andre is oblivious to all of this and just wants to find her anyway. The Baron acts as if he doesn’t know what Andre is talking about, but it’s a little too obvious to try and deflect. Moreover, acting tough and trying to talk back to Andre fails when he is shaking in his boots the whole time because of Ilsa.

All right, you may be wondering what happened to the old lady and the shape shifting Raven right? This is where the film slaps you silly with plot twists. First off, The Baron and Stefan never managed to murder Eric and Ilsa. See, we thought that Stefan murdered Eric while The Baron took care of Ilsa right? Wrong! Somehow, The Baron managed to get to Eric after taking down Ilsa, but Eric ended up murdering him instead. Eric then suffered a complete mental breakdown and began to really think that he was The Baron. Stefan knew about this, but played along for kicks so I guess he was never that loyal after all.

The old Witch was the mother of Ilsa and she blamed the Baron for her death. She couldn’t have known that Eric had actually beaten the Baron and assumed his identity. She was pretty clever and used her black magic to give a Raven the ability to turn into Ilsa, but with the ability of flight, super speed, and shape shifting so fast that it appeared as if she vanished into the fog each time. How did she manage to keep this up for 2 years while having Ilsa appear everywhere and nobody ever noticing that it was actually a raven? It’s magic! Thing is, the Raven began to have ideas of its own and somewhere along the way, Ilsa’s actual ghost decided to show up. Perhaps she was tired of watching “Amateur Hour” being played out by all of these second rate villains. Ilsa decided to finish everyone off once and for all by breaking the underwater dam that “Baron” kept around to drown them all. We get a pretty fierce fist fight between “Ilsa”, “Baron”, Andre, and Stefan.

Suffice it to say, Andre managed to get out of there alive with Ilsa, but then she decomposed since her mission was complete. Now Andre can go home and share this story with the other soldiers…if they’ll ever actually believe him. A lot happened in this film all right. It may take you a little bit to process just how crazy this film got. It may have gone overboard, but I salute the enthusiasm that the film showed and it was a good effort. It really kept you guessing the whole time…even if the plot twists didn’t always make a lot of sense. You really can’t trust anyone here.

This is the kind of film where everything is so strange that you wouldn’t be shocked if it was all just a dream of meta with some kind of deeper meaning. Regardless, the film did a good job with the tone. Between the mist, the empty backgrounds, and the creepy castle, this film always had a tense and mysterious atmosphere. It accomplished that part of the film pretty well. I can’t say that the film was all that good though. The main character is pretty annoying and the black mail may have been hardcore but it didn’t make him any easier to root for. The Baron was clearly unhinged and likewise with Eric. This film certainly shows you that rebounding never pays, but it’s not as if any of the characters got to live anyway.

Overall, This film is a tricky one to score. It’s a rare film where I didn’t even know what score I was going to give it as I was writing the review. It’s partially because the film wraps itself up in a haze so it’s hard to remember some of the specifics. I can’t remember a whole lot of negatives except I do remember a general recollection of not thinking the movie was all that good. I suppose it’s not that bad either so a solid 5 sounds about right. It’d definitely a strange little flick and I’d recommend checking it out if strange is what you’re looking for. You can think of it as a Twilight Zone episode of sorts, but the slightly modernized version. It’s not all that long and giving it at least one watch may be good for you. I won’t really recommend it, but I wouldn’t tell you to steer clear of it either. The film’s just around and it’s one that I won’t soon forget.

Overall 5/10

A Face in the Crowd Review

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It’s time to look at a fairly old political film. It’s a good time to do so as it went back to theaters to “celebrate” the arrival of our new President. It’s a pretty fun film that overstays its welcome a little bit by the end. It went in a different direction than I would have expected, but nonetheless it’s not all that bad. I dare say that it is a little mean spirited though so get ready for everyone to get their just desserts.

Larry was doing time in a prison cell when a reporter showed up. Her name is Marcia and she had a neat radio show where she gets people to sing. Larry agrees to do it in exchange for his freedom and the cops are cool with that. He sings some tunes and Marcia realizes that he is destined for greatness. Larry already knew that, but it was nice to see it confirmed. He rose up from small time radio host to a celebrity so influential that even the President answered to him. Life was going well, but unfortunately, the power corrupted him. Larry began to go after everything money could buy and no longer identified with the average joes of the world. He began to destroy everything so Marcia and the others realized that it was time to put him down for good.

So, the film started out pretty reasonably. It was nice to see Larry slowly grow more and more popular while keeping his ideals in tact. He wouldn’t accept sponsors and liked to do things his way. Little did we know that it wasn’t because he was super noble or anything like that. No, it was just because he likes being his own boss and didn’t want to have to follow someone else’s rules. To an extent, Larry is likable. He’s a very charismatic guy and his yell/laugh hybrid is pretty iconic. He’s definitely a take charge kind of guy and he never would have been such a success if not for his personality. He did earn his spot at the top in this film, which is why it’s a shame that he fell so far. He began to go after every girl like James Bond while still acting as if Marcia was actually important to him. He also became as two faced as the politicians that he had always strove to be against.

He said one thing on TV and then another once the cameras were off. It was definitely a pretty drastic change and you can’t blame anyone but himself for how his career ended. I mean, you have to not be very smart to go on such a rant the instant that the cameras were off. That’s really just asking for trouble. While Larry started out as good character, he wasn’t likable by the end and I suppose that was the point. I can’t say that I cared for Marcia either. She started out as a tough reporter, but by the end she was being used as much as all of the other characters. At least she did make sure to walk away with the money before sabotaging Larry though. That was a smart move, but it didn’t make her any more likable either.

There was a reporter who spent a large part of the film trying to get Marcia to realize that Larry was a bad apple, but it was futile for the most part. He was meant to be a pretty likable character who kept it real and just stuck to the facts, but it felt like he was just talking nonsense half the time. He was trying to be very deep and eloquent with what he was saying, but it just backfired and he didn’t get a good line until the very end of the film. It was a little too late by then.

I thought that the ending was handled well. For a second there, I actually thought they were going to make it really dark and have Larry off himself in the end. While it is left to your interpretation, I like to think that he did not. He was crushed pretty badly, but he definitely seemed like the kind of guy who would keep on trying and that makes the ending a little less intense. If it had flat out had him die in the end, that would have hurt the film quite a bit.

I suppose the film was trying to make a point about how people flock to magnetic personalities even if the individual isn’t all that good. They can be mind controlled via group think, but at the same time, this moral came at the expense of Larry’s character. It’s not as if he was a saint in the beginning. The guy did start off in jail after all. However, he was a likable enough guy and he always made sure to just do whatever he wanted. He just let the job control him in the end and I would have liked the film to have taken a different path, but it’s not as if the film did a bad job with it.

I’d just say that the film wasn’t all that fun during the second half. It became more about Larry betraying Marcia over and over again until she finally betrayed him. The film got to be very somber with every character constantly heading to the bar to collect themselves. It was very dramatic and in stark contrast to the very lighthearted, comedic beginning. You could barely even believe that this was the same film. It was a pretty long movie so it was able to have these two “acts” while ensuring that both got a lot of screen time. I certainly preferred the first half.

Overall, A Face in the Crowd is a decent political movie. I prefer to see more of the actual politics since Larry is more of a middle man, but it was a nice little look at the whole thing. Politicians do get advice from a bunch of people so they can hopefully get elected and make connections along the way. We rarely see this aspect of the whole thing. I would have liked for Larry to have stayed as more of a protagonist and it would have made for a much more enjoyable film, but it just wasn’t in the cards. If you want to see a film that also serves as a warning about not forgetting your roots and losing your identity, then this could be a good film to check out. If you’re already confident that this is not a problem, go watch DBZ: Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan since you can turn your mind off and just enjoy the fights.

Overall 5/10

Bride of Frankenstein Review

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Looks like it’s time to take a look at the original sequel to Frankenstein. I did not like the first film and I’m not a Frankenstein fan in general. I didn’t walk into this film with high expectations and I was not disappointed. That being said, it is a considerable improvement over the first film. It’s not nearly as violent or grotesque and handles itself rather maturely this time around. It can still be a bit of a tragic film at times even when it tries to be funny so it can be hard to tell when you’re supposed to be laughing or feeling sorry for the characters. I usually voted for the former.

The film starts off in the “real” world as Mary lets everyone know that the story isn’t over yet. We have some really over the top actors who yell about this and everyone gets excited so she tells them what happened. It turns out that Frankenstein’s monster didn’t die because he fell into the river and Frankenstein didn’t die because his body is very durable. This prompts Doctor Pretorius to arrive and tell Frankenstein that he wants to make a female version of the monster. Frankenstein halfheartedly refuses so Pretorius kidnaps his wife. Frankenstein now has to work against time in order to save her, but can he really duplicate the experiment?

The main improvements from the first film all stem from the reduced violence. The first film had a little kid drowned and we saw way too much brains and body parts for my liking. It was pretty distasteful and this one steers clear of all that. Even when they’re creating the bride, it’s never graphic. The film just isn’t violent in general and the victims are far fewer in number. We do have a few people die of course, but they’re casually thrown aside for the most part so it isn’t all that bad.

Frankenstein has changed a lot since the first film. He’s now incredibly timid and fears everyone. He’s always getting picked on and forced into doing things that he doesn’t want to do. However, he reverts back to his mad scientist phase whenever there is work to be done and it’s like he never changed at all. It would have been nice to have seen him have a little more will power. Naturally, he did have to go ahead with the project to save his wife, but he could have done it in a sane way instead of losing his mind once he was back in the lab.

Pretorius takes over Frankenstein’s role from the first film and I do certainly have to admit that he is smart. The first thing he does is to get the monster on his side and that was crucial since his plan would not have worked otherwise. His use of “Miller Time” and Cigars was a very potent combo. He always has the upper hand on the monster as he even drugs the poor guy later on. Pretorius fears nothing and is just very confident from start to finish. He was a pretty good villain and while it never felt as if he had much of a reason to do what he was doing…do mad scientists ever need a reason to do something? They just do whatever they want for kicks.

Minnie is the main comic relief character of the film and she does a good job in the role. She always talks a good game and is one of the only characters to insult Pretorius to his face. She is smart enough to actually run away from the monster and tries to warn the heroes even if they refused to listen to her. She certainly did a fine job if you ask me. As for the Bride, I guess she was fairly reasonable. Her reaction wasn’t all that bad when you consider that the heroes didn’t give her a chance to relax. Plus, who wants to be thrown into an arranged marriage the instant you are born into existence? Nah, the first thing you’d want to do is get out of there!

The Monster is all right I suppose, but he’s still not very smart and the monster noises can be annoying. I was glad that he finally learned how to talk a bit as the film went on. I figure that will make him a much better character in the sequels although it seems like I wasn’t on the same page as the writers. At least the monster tried to live a calm life at one point and was doing just fine with the blind guy in the hut. It’s a shame that the hunters had to wander in at that point and wrecked his one chance at a happy ending. He didn’t get burned this time and while he was captured at one point, he was able to break free pretty quickly. He certainly had a much more enjoyable adventure this time around.

Be warned that the title of this film is pure click bait. The Bride doesn’t appear until the final 5-10 minutes which is pretty disgraceful. She only gets roughly one line before the film has to end so if you were watching the movie to see her in action, prepare to be disappointed. It’s really just Frankenstein V2 as the film takes a lot of similar twists and turns. It seemed like it was meant to be a homage to the original in a lot of ways even though it had just come out. It was just handled far better than the first film and as a result, the film wasn’t half bad. I can’t say that it’s the kind of film that I’d want to watch again, but it wasn’t a chore to watch the way that I would have expected it to be.

Overall, If you’re looking for a horror comedy film, then this could be the right film for you. At the very least, it’s one of the best Frankenstein films that you can hope to see. That being said, it’s still not all that great and it’s short length ensures that the film has to run through the plot. The ending is pretty satisfying though and that’s always a good thing for these kind of films. Scooby Doo may still be your best bet when it comes to horror comedies, but this one gives it its best. Can the third film manage to defeat this one? I somehow doubt it, but we are getting closer to the Werewolf and that could certainly end up being another story.

Overall 5/10

When Harry Met Sally Review

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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 likely be far more negative.

It’s time to look at a romance film from not so long ago that has two characters over complicate the topic of whether a man and a woman can be friends. The answer is as obvious as it is simple, yes. Still, it gets to be a little harder when you’re the two main characters of a mainstream Hollywood type film and both constantly run through relationship after relationship. Maybe it is then inevitable that the friend zone will start to crack.

The film starts off with Sally and Harry going on a road trip over to New York City. It was convenient for them to share the car and I’m assuming that they both paid half of the gas cost. That’s when Harry brings up the topic that they could never be friends while Sally disagrees. Eventually, she realizes that she won’t be able to convince him otherwise and they part ways upon reaching NY. 5 years later they run into each other at an airport and then continue to see each other briefly after 5 years. Finally, they both run into each other again and decide to hang out. As they are both in relationships, Harry declares that maybe they can be friends again, but only time can tell if he is right.

As the film is all about trying to answer this question seriously, it’s time to bring my insight to the table. It’s actually sad that the film spends so long trying to answer this question only to bring back the incorrect response. Spoiler alert, Sally and Harry get together. Men and Women can absolutely be friends. Unlike what Harry would have you believe, you don’t immediately look at someone and wonder how you can be more than friends. That’s just Hollywood. For myself, I’ve had more female friends than male ones. Now, we can discuss the differences between friends, acquaintances, and co-workers, but getting into all of that will just take a while. Needless to say, the difference isn’t extremely large. Friends are people you’d spend time with outside of work whereas the other two categories have meetings that are exclusive to the location you’re at.

I like to think that I get along with just about everyone. Outside, I tend to attract either the elitist “PC Master Race” crowd from guys or the more business stuffy ones who have no hobbies. I still find topics to talk about though and everyone has a hobby if you dig deep enough. However, I end up talking more with girls because they are the ones who actually end up being big anime or video game fans. With guys I talk about politics and life a lot which is fine, but I certainly prefer to talk about my hobbies. Also, I just don’t have as many opportunities to talk to guys because in my classes it’s usually 80% girls to 20% guys and at work at one point, all of my floor’s co-workers were girls. We finally got some more guys, but for a very long time there were none. I don’t think there’s anything complicated about the whole thing, you can be friends with anyone and that’s why this film’s premise is pretty laughable, but I tried not to hold it against the film too much…

Unlike Hannah and Her Sisters, I can at least say that this film was pretty amusing. It had a far more upbeat nature and didn’t dwell on any really dark plots. It’s not meant to be the kind of film that gets you thinking or wanting to subtly get out of the theater. It’s supposed to give you a few laughs as you go through the adventure. It’s entertaining enough to mask its flaws during the watch. This isn’t a good movie in the end, but as far as romance comedies go, it certainly could have been worse.

Unfortunately, I did not like Harry or Sally. Harry is your standard Captain Kirk esque character who moves on from one person to another very quickly. He is constantly in an affair, but they usually don’t last a week. He actually made it all the way to marriage once, but then he was still dumped. After all of these rebounds didn’t work, Harry finally remembers good ole Sally. Meanwhile, Sally has also gone through a bunch of different guys and has a hard time getting over her multiple ex’s. I don’t get why the two of them have such an issue with that though, you’d think that they wouldn’t really care much after they were broken up. Certainly not enough to have a panic attack in the middle of the night right? Well, I guess they just weren’t ready for the romance game.

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t care much for the ending since it was basically trying to prove that Harry was right all along. That’s the last thing that I wanted to be proven since Sally certainly had the right idea all along. They could and should have been friends rather than just having a one off affair for no reason. Based on who they are, it’s hard to imagine the ending sticking either and she’ll have to look at everything that he says carefully since he was a very iffy person from the get go.

Harry and Sally each have a best friend who they use to communicate with each other behind the other person’s back or just for life advice in general. Naturally, those two get together since nobody can not get together by the end of a film. It was just another sad coincidence for the main characters, but either way I’ve always found blind dates to be rather dubious. It just seems rather desperate if you ask me and if you’re meeting for the first time as a date, then it’s hard for that to be a proper relationship since it seems like both parties don’t care much to learn about each other. They’re just launching right into the date.

Overall, When Harry Met Sally is a very cynical kind of film where you learn to doubt what everyone says at face value and always look for hidden agendas. It’s not a very fun way to live and if you followed Harry’s advice, your life would be pretty miserable. Even if you don’t automatically believe what people say, there’s not much reason to think on it. Just move on from one conversation to the next and it won’t matter too much whether it was true or not. The film isn’t quite as deep and wise as it leads you to believe, but it can be fun to see the heroes over complicate every single issue and act as self proclaimed experts. At the very least, you should have an enjoyable enough time watching the film if you sidestep some of the dicey conversations and just focus on the comedy. If you’re looking for a film with valuable life lessons, check out Magi Madoka Rebellion. It’ll help you debate with yourself whether it is right to save someone without their consent at the expense of other people or to strive for the greater good, but lose your best friend. These are the tough questions that require a long explanation as opposed to this film’s premise which you can answer correctly with one word.

Overall 3/10