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The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Review

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It’s time for a very old school romance with a little bit of a supernatural twist. It’s a very low key kind of film that works rather well but I will admit that the whole time you’re not really on board with the romance. To an extent it depends on what length of time you would consider to be a rebound but either way the heroine feels like she’s moving a bit too fast. The ending also makes things extra awkward when you really think about it.

The movie starts off with Lucy becoming a widow after her husband dies. Lucy has decided that she wants her life back as she didn’t particularly care for his family and dashes off. She finds a nice little haunted house where the rent is dirt cheap and settles there. She eventually meets the ghost who quickly debunks the rumors of his own suicide. His name is Daniel and he was actually quite the captain back in the day. He’s ready for a little romance but she isn’t and points out that he’s dead and gone. They both reluctantly put their feelings aside to live in the same house for now. Can she really deal with such an annoying ghost or is he going to drive her crazy?

A haunted house is definitely an inconvenience when you are just trying to have a good time but at least the ghost isn’t particularly sinister. Sure Daniel is a mean guy and he isn’t afraid to prove it but at the end of the day he isn’t trying to murder her or anything like that. In fact he ends up liking her which puts Lucy in a rough spot. Lucy is also approached by a flirty guy named Fairley who really doesn’t stop with his constant attempts from the very first time he appears. The guy ends up being supremely annoying. Sure he did help her to get the book deal with the publishing company but ultimately that was only to further his own ends.

I was annoyed that he lasted as long as he did. He completely got through to Lucy even with his rather aggressive way of handling things and she was completely under his spell. If not for a certain twist he would have won and so that ended up hurting her character a lot. Fairley was bad the whole time but Lucy is the one you would have figured would have really been ready and not fallen for this. Definitely a pretty sad moment.

It’s another reason why you can’t get behind the romance. So she liked her husband first. Then after he died she started to like Daniel. Then after that she jumped over to Fairley and once he was off the market, ultimately it ended up being Daniel again. Keep in mind that Daniel claimed she didn’t even love her husband when they first met and Lucy takes mild offense to that but doesn’t stop him. You’d think that would have taken him out of the running right from the jump.

The worst part is the film implies that maybe he was right after all and that’s why the ending works but its just pretty awful all around. For a good romance you need a lot of factors in play but one of them is definitely to have likable characters and that didn’t happen here. She is also very slow on the uptake with how only she can hear Daniel. You’d think she would be subtle then but instead she keeps talking out loud which doesn’t help matters at all. it should be easy to adapt to that.

The supporting characters are pretty weak here too. You have the guy selling the houses who seems to like Lucy. Fortunately she doesn’t like him back because the guy seemed desperate and wasn’t exactly the most honest soul either. He kept trying to make her spend a lot of money. You have her husband’s side of the family who were mainly here to poke fun and cause a lot of trouble. They were all super stuck up and selfish in their old ways. Lucy could be a little too polite at times but in other moments she did get some good burns in there.

While I know this would be unlikely right out of the gate, the film would have done well to have just had her and Daniel be good friends. They just bond over the house or something. Lucy gets a supportive friend who could be like a father since her new family was so rough and he gets someone to pass on his tales to. It could have been the reason he couldn’t pass on, that nobody was around to hear about his exploits. The entire vibe and tone of the film would have changed but it would have worked really well.

Alternately just make it a little more comedic as she gets into a lot of trouble with this guy always floating around and stirring things up. The fact that people can actually hear his voice at convenient times already adds a lot of potential to this. It is a bit of a stretch for the characters to think that it was Lucy’s voice each time though. The only time someone didn’t think this was Daniel’s big laugh at the start of the film. Admittedly it was a great laugh too, reminded me of Vincent Price I’d say. It had that very theatrical feel to it.

Overall, This is an okay film I’d say. It’s right on the middle, there is just little reason to watch it again. At times it can be a bit dull and the pacing is slow. The characters are very unlikable too which does take its toll. I liked the scenes that took place outside of the house like heading to the book publishing company or the awkward bus ride. So ironically the film could have stood to have taken place far less in the haunted house.

Overall 5/10

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War The First Kiss That Never Ends Review

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All right it’s time for an anime film to show us how to really make a quality romance. Kaguya-sama is an elite franchise for a bunch of reasons and one of those is that it actually has a quality romance without being rushed or making things about rebounds. Kaguya and Shirogane work because they were always each other’s first pick and nothing else was going on there. The movie really expands on that and gives the two characters a lot of closure. All in all this is a great title.

The movie picks up where the show left off with Kaguya and Shirogane finally getting together…or did they? See they may have had their first kiss but they haven’t been able to talk with each other since then so the situation is getting tense. Making matters worse is the fact that Kaguya appears to have fallen back into her icy persona from the old days so Shirogane gets the feeling that she is trying to put some distance between them. He needs to win her over one last time but can he really pull this off? Meanwhile Kaguya is fighting her inner demons and has to decide if she should finally remove all of the masks and risk it all by being with Shirogane. It’s a tough call.

So if you’re a fan of Ino, Chika, or Ishigami then there’s not going to be much here for you. This film is really about Kaguya and Shirogane all the way through. Those 3 characters barely get more than a few lines and while you know they’re off having their own adventures, the movie isn’t worrying about them. It’s nice to see them of course and I think more screen time would have been nice if the film extended its run time but the main duo always have the best plot anyway so it works out.

As always the animation is really solid here. Everything really pops out at you and the show has a lot of fun flexing for random scenes. A great moment with the animation was when Kaguya was trying to run away from Shirogane. She was suddenly leaping across the walls like a cat and zooming around. That was definitely real impressive. We may not have as many visual gags since the film is fairly serious next to the standard episode but they are still around at some points. I would also still consider the film part comedy since a lot of it is super fun. The movie just knows when to slow down and have an emotional scene.

The soundtrack is also excellent as always. The show had a great variety of themes and the movie continues this really well. While the opening song is not quite as strong as any of the openings that appeared prior, it’s still good. I’ve listened to it a good amount of times to prep for the review in case it jumped up but in the end I think it just isn’t quite as high speed and energetic as prior ones. I suppose that may have been the idea.

Now for the movie, it’s interesting in that it’s a decently long movie but it can be a bit hard to go into the plot much because the story itself is quick. It’s ultimately just about the two finally having time to have a candid talk about the situation. Things just keep happening that prevents the two from doing this like Shirogane fainting or Kaguya turning chibi and then having a complete mental breakdown. The movie definitely did a great job of adapting chibi Kaguya too. That was a really fun part in the manga and the show really captured how crazy the whole thing was. The doctor who showed up for Shirogane is a lot of fun as always too.

Now for the romance itself, which character handled it better? Well that would probably be Shirogane since if Kaguya hadn’t panicked you can make the case that the film would have effectively ended during the first scenes. They would have made it official that they were going out and that would have been the end of it. Then once the icy persona was back Shirogane did a good job of trying hard the whole time. I don’t blame him for missing the hint about her hands being cold because that was out of character for Kaguya so he just didn’t pick up on it.

Throughout the movie he is a perfect gentleman. He may not always be able to read her mind but for the most part he does a good job of adapting to the situation and never giving up. In terms of not wanting to let his own mask fall off, that also makes sense. He worked hard to become the best at the school and thrive despite not being from a rich family. To an extent I think that would never go away. There’s a saying about how everyone has around 6 faces, the one they show family, friends, work colleagues, online, with strangers, and the one they have when alone. Some people are better than others at basically keeping them all more or less the same and others do this more as you get older but to an extent I’d say you will always be a little different based on the setting.

In a relationship though, the biggest factor is trust so you do need to be able to trust your partner with your true self. In this case if Shirogane isn’t ultimately able to trust Kaguya that far then their relationship would be doomed eventually. He would never be able to relax and the stress/nerves would ultimately get to him. You could make the case that even by the end of the film he hasn’t truly let go yet so that could be a plot to continue on even if he is in a much better place than where he started.

Then for Kaguya the problem is similar but she comes to terms with it quite a bit quicker than Shirogane. It helps that she has always been a very introspective person so she literally creates alternate hers from each of her age periods to talk about this. Once they come to an understanding she is able to just be herself and be with Shirogane. Perhaps as Shirogane says it is a little easier for her since it’s a side he used to know since that’s how she was at the beginning Of course part of that is just him making excuses but I would also say it is true to an extent. Her true self is still mega rich and had other suiters in the past while Shirogane is worried everything would immediately come crashing down. It’s the dark side of overthinking everything and it’s nice to see the series acknowledging this since that’s the entire premise really. Both characters just overthinking everything all the time.

Seeing Kaguya overcome her fears and finally come into her own was a great plot point. While I would say Shirogane slightly edged her out as the main character of the movie, the series is hers and you could say the whole series was building up to this point. Just losing the mask and being analytical all the time to just have a heartfelt moment and stop playing the chasing game. So yeah this is a winning romance and it worked well for the movie. You could probably even jump in to this film without watching the show since you have enough context and it still ends up being a really solid title.

Overall, This was a lot of fun. The romance is written really well and is one of the few ships I can get behind. If I ever write an editorial on how to write a good romance, this will absolutely be one of the examples I use. The whole thing is satisfying and the ending is solid. I still do want future seasons to adapt the rest of the series though. It may not have had the best final saga in the manga but it’s still important to get to the end of the series. The anime can probably end up buffing it as well since it has done such a great job of adapting the content so far. I’m confident that they can do something really good here.

Overall 8/10

The Empty Man Review

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

Okay so straight up this is a pretty bad movie however I do give it a point for actually having an ending that makes you really think long and hard about the movie. Way I see it there are 3 ways you can interpret the ending. I’ll explain my interpretation at the end and I think it makes the most sense. Is there a “canon” ending? Well maybe the writer will say but out of film stuff doesn’t count so the way I see it you have to come to your conclusion and just roll with it. Each of the 3 paths appear to have some holes but I could pretty much do an editorial just on the ending. Of course that does mean you have to make it that far.

The film starts off with a group of climbers scaling up a really snowy mountain. It isn’t easy but they have been making consistent work up there. Unfortunately as they’re getting ready to go back down, one of them starts hearing things in the distance. Then he really starts to loose it and now the others could be in danger. Is it just a lack of oxygen right now or is there something more sinister at play? One thing’s for sure, they can’t let their guard down!

Being stranded on a mountain like this with no real way out is a pretty tough situation to be in already so then when you throw a crazy guy it really goes through the roof. Maybe spending 2 hours on here could drag a bit but it’s rare to have a horror movie on a mountain. Crazy stuff for sure….but this isn’t actually the movie. It’s a pretty effective fake out though since this intro portion goes on for quite a while. It ultimately does tie in with the rest of the film though and honestly it’s really effective. I thought the opening part was handled extremely well so it was time to start falling after that.

In the present we have an ex cop named James who is still traumatized over some tragedy that happened to his family. It’s told to us through quick seizure moments so you get most of the details but the exact scenario is something we don’t find out about until later on. I can say that it makes him look awful though so his character basically can’t be recovered by the end. There are just some things that you don’t really come back from and this is definitely one of those. Unfortunately that’s just how it goes.

Well his friend’s daughter went missing one day so James decides to find her. He runs into a whole conspiracy involving a death cult that believes in the Empty Man. A being made up of pure maliciousness and negative desires over the course of human history. Summoning him appears to be rather easy, you just think about him and blow on a bottle. Well James isn’t afraid of any ghosts and does this just to spite the creature. The rest of the legend says that you now have 3 days to live so James has to find the girl and quickly before this is all over.

In some ways this film is 50% mystery and 50% horror. A whole lot of the movie is about James trying to find leads so he talks to all of her friends, infiltrates the cult, etc. There are some scenes that are actually pretty scary though like when he finds himself in an empty field late at night with hundreds of zombies. Mobs are very scary and if you’re not scared of one then you should rethink that. There is virtually no way to survive one because you’re getting hit by hundreds of people at once which means they are virtually bullet proof. James wisely tries running as fast as he can.

Because this is part mystery there are a whole lot of twists and turns. I’ll be avoiding those until the spoiler part of the review of course because if you know things beforehand then it’ll definitely alter your experience. It will cause you to look at scenes differently but your first time in you probably want to go in without as much knowledge as possible. The actual mystery is pretty compelling but also very ominous since the victims are also kids so you figure this is going to be dark no matter how it plays out.

The Empty Man’s actual design is not really that scary. I would have handled it differently because it’s basically a normal dude in a cloak. You never really see much of him but he’s just not that scary and is basically only going after really defenseless people. When a gun is pointed his way he immediately jams it just in case so I wonder how strong he really is. He is probably a cosmic reality warper if I’m not kidding myself though. I don’t think the humans have much of a shot against him but like in the Grudge nobody even tries to fight back which is annoying.

We have the cops around but they don’t really do much here. They basically figure they can’t help out much and only really get involved once the body count starts to rise. Even then they don’t do a ton. The random cult leader is probably more important although the film was a little too content to give this guy a long boring speech that wasn’t needed. The intent is probably to spoon feed us just what the Empty Man is exactly and what he symbolizes but it’s not that hard to comprehend. We didn’t need a log speech about life itself from this guy except to remind us that cults are crazy and we knew that.

Okay now it’s spoiler time to talk about the ending. Skip the next 7 paragraphs if you haven’t seen the film yet.

Okay so basically James confronts the girl who went missing in the beginning and she explains that the cult actually generated him from their thoughts. They created him as the next vessel for the Empty Man since the guy from the intro’s body was finally giving out. The whole bottles thing was nonsense and everything is completely controlled by willpower itself. As best you can say that the bottle was merely the conduit but the power was in their minds all along. James tries to call his friend and she doesn’t remember him anymore. He was summoned 3 days ago which were the only days of his existence and so in the end he runs but the monster goes inside of him so he murders the old man and embraces his fate as the Empty Man. That’s basically the events of the ending so there are 4 ways to interpret this.

Explanation 1: James literally did not exist before the scene in the restaurant where he ordered something for his birthday. His memories are all fabrications from the cult. This includes his cheating affair, the family dying, etc. All of these are false memories and they basically brainwashed everyone in the area in order to pull this off. That’s why cops think they now him, the cult guy saw him before, etc. They have no real limit to their powers after all so why not right?

This is possible sure, but I don’t think it’s likely. It causes a whole lot of suspension of disbelief mainly because we’ve seen so many people who knew James from back in the day. Either they were in on it or their memories were being altered. But then why bother with all the theatrics? The girl at the end mentioned that they needed fear to truly activate James in the end and so they had to slowly break him but if they could manipulate the entire city and then some to keep altering the memories, that doesn’t really make sense. It’s way too convoluted a plan considering their abilities.

Explanation 2: It was all a dream. None of it actually happened and James himself does not exist. The entire film is taking place entirely in his psyche as he was created in the visualization and the whole film is basically just a metaphor for his struggle to fight against the Empty Man. In the real world he actually was the Empty Man murdering all of the teenagers and committing all of the crimes during the movie. It’s why when we flashback to the cult summoning the Empty Man we see that it was James in the shadows. Booo this explanation is pretty awful tbh and doesn’t make sense. Any “it was all a dream” scenarios are pretty boring if you think about it because then the whole thing was pointless. So not really discussing this one much because personally I just don’t like it. Not saying it isn’t a valid theory or anything but it would be supremely underwhelming.

Explanation 3: James was basically a normal guy until 3 days before the events of the film, the girl and her cult friends drugged him and stashed him in their basement. They then ran the trial experiments on him and turned him into a future Empty Man vessel. It would explain why he was seen by the Cult before and also why the cops recognized him. It would also explain why we kept seeing the empty chair every time he thought about his past. He was actually trapped for a while and then they released him into the wild with their memory alterations and of course removing his memories of being there. Mainly the part that doesn’t make sense here is the girl saying she created everything if the events actually did happen prior to being kidnapped. So that does help theory 1 more than theory 3.

Explanation 4: Okay so this is the one that I’m on board with and in some ways it’s very close to theory 3. Everything James knew prior to the film did happen. He lived a normal life and everything. When the crew “conjured him up” 3 days ago, it was simply activating him in order to be a host. She telepathically created a backstory for him to break down his psyche like causing him to cheat on his wife with the friend and then causing the accident. The accident actually happened but the affair was a fake memory and she had the friend under the spell the whole time. That’s why she didn’t remember him in the final scene because the villains let the mind control go. Both things would be pretty easy to maneuver without anything being much of a stretch. He eventually got broken due to the mindgames here and of course in the end he succumbed.

The main points against this one of course is that the cult leader had seen James before he said which doesn’t tie in with what James knows. You could say he was kidnapped at some point and indoctrinated as a sleeper agent but it doesn’t really match up. Additionally this doesn’t really address the girl’s speech about creating him with the exact backstory he had. Her just manipulating things from the shadows wouldn’t really explain that at all.

That’s it for the spoilers! So yeah a lot to dive into there. Regardless the ending is very memorable which is good. Would have been nice to have had more of a struggle or something but it is what it is. I do think the film’s dialogue scenes tend to be rather solid. While I did not like James by the end, at least I like how he always has an attitude with everyone. He has no time for all the nonsense and there’s a good amount of back and forth dialogue here. The mystery angle keeps you engaged all the way through with the horror angle and violence just holding the film back. Why did we need to see more dead animals? I feel like horror films just can’t help themselves and keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Honestly if the film had just leaned on the mystery angle and cut out a bunch of the horror stuff it would have been way better. Keep the atmospheric horror of course and the mind controlled cult but you can cut out all the stabby scenes and the more disturbing flashbacks. You’ll still feel a lot of tension and the imposing doom coming to the characters without being overindulgent and just wrecking the whole thing. Toning down the violence a bit would go a long way here.

Overall, The Empty Man is the kind of film that will keep you talking and theorizing for a long while. I have to give the film credit for that because it’s not really easy to pull that off. Still, in the end it’s a pretty bad film that falls into most of the horror tropes. You have the random animal violence that has no business being here. The dark shock twist to make sure you don’t like the main character too much. Virtually every character is massively unlikable with all of the kids falling to peer pressure immediately. Once we get into the human torture trials you know the film is just trying to hit you with everything. I think you could actually pivot this into an interesting action thriller for a sequel based on the ending but if you keep this as horror I don’t think it’s going anywhere because it’s another case of the humans not being able to do much. I’d say maybe they should have kept the whole film on the mountain but honestly that probably wouldn’t have worked very well. It would have dragged.

Overall 2/10

One Piece: Episode of Sky Island Review

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It’s time for the next One Piece special on the docket. This one is about Skypiea but I guess they went for Sky Island to keep it a little more vague. Additionally Enel is now called Eneru….I prefer the old version but hey it’s a pretty minor thing. The special is good and does a decent job capturing the arc but it doesn’t work as well as the East Blue special because this one really goes out of its way to skip the fights. It doesn’t nail any of the really emotional moments as well as the show did and so what you get is an arc that is wayyyy watered down next to the show version. This is still nostalgic though.

The special starts with Luffy and gang heading to a small island where someone explains that there used to be a guy called Nolan the Liar. He would lie about everything including seeing an island floating in the sky but this guy is a direct descendent and believes that the stories are true. So now he continues to dive underwater in order to prove it, but this ain’t easy. Well Luffy and friends are going to pay a visit to the sky island but they find that it is being ruled by the god of lightning, Eneru. Can they defeat him and save the local islanders?

So there’s a lot to enjoy here since this is a big One Piece arc but at the same time it does lose a lot of the powerful moments and I will explain. For example, one of the biggest scenes in the show is when Enel made a huge lightning blast over one of the strawhats and it was one of the first times we saw him use such a big blast. The scene went in slow-mo and it was all very tense because we could see the damage it did. That scene straight up doesn’t happen here.

We also miss out on Zoro’s entire fight against one of the angels which was unfortunate because that was a really fun battle. Even their big battle with Eneru was very short. I guess it wasn’t a super long fight in the main show either but this felt like a blink and you’ll miss it kind of moment which is definitely not what the original was like. Even the Luffy vs Enel fight doesn’t feel quite as long or grand as it should be. It does at least get way more screentime than anything else though so you couldn’t ask for much more there.

Chopper only gets a quick instance for his win as well which doesn’t show you much. There was a lot going on with the whole island survival game but the whole thing is basically shown in quick stills as everyone is wiped out. That’s what should have been expanded and I feel like the runtime should have just been extended a little. The special goes by quickly and considering that it’s a whole arc we’re dealing with, making it around 2 hours would have been really nice. Especially since this arc gets more important each time.

Now a common topic to think about is if Enel would still be a threat in future arcs. I’d say at best he gets up to the CP9 saga but that’s it because his speed wasn’t enough to dodge Luffy’s attacks while in Gear 1. So as good as you think his lightning may be, his speed isn’t at a level where he could seriously be a fierce opponent to most. I’m sure he will get buffed a lot if he ever does reappear in the manga but I do have my doubts on that. Of course it would be awesome but the series is slowly getting to the very end of its saga so in that case it’s probably over.

The special has a pretty emotional ending with Luffy and the gang proving that Nolan wasn’t a liar. I’m also glad that the people in Skypiea had realized this too because otherwise the whole flashback would have been pretty tragic. I mean it definitely was still tragic either way, One Piece doesn’t hold back on the feels. There was some hope though and it could have all been a lot darker. So like this I was pretty satisfied. I’m naturally a lot more interested in the present stuff though and the flashback gets a ton of screentime which is also part of why it doesn’t stand up to the East Blue saga where the vast majority was about the Strawhats.

In terms of animation the special looks good enough. I don’t think it looks nearly as good as the East Blue saga though and it’s clear this one wasn’t super high budget the way the other special felt like it was. The soundtrack brings in the classic One Piece tunes which is nice enough. One of these days the specials should bring a whole new soundtrack even if it takes away from the nostalgia feel a little. Just switch things up to really make everything pop out. It’s One Piece so to an extent it will always be very good no matter what happens but this would help to really take it to the next level.

Overall, This was a really fun adventure. It just feels like they left a whole lot of meat on the bone. While nothing will beat the original source material I’d say the idea behind these specials is to give you something more or less comparable so you can just enjoy that instead of redoing the whole saga again. That doesn’t work in this case because you’re just missing out on too much action. So now you have to watch the show again which unfortunately does destroy the point of this. It’s unfortunate but that’s just the way that it is. Still good though so I’d recommend checking it out if you’re an experienced One Piece fan but I’d probably deflect people unfamiliar with the series to the TV show instead.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Episode of East Blue Review

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It’s time for one of those classic One Piece remake specials. This one has to cover a lot of ground since it’s going over the whole East Blue saga but it definitely pulls this off really well. In a way it’s like a template for the live action series. While the general audience would probably be a little confused if it had been adapted exactly like this, I feel like it worked really well. It’s a great special and really reminds you of the classic days of One Piece.

The special is divided up into 5 sections told through flashbacks from each crew member. The first one is naturally Luffy as we see his very first adventure. Of course this involves getting his devil fruit and Shanks saving him from a giant monster. It’s a pretty good origin that has stood the test of time. Yes you may still wonder why Shanks didn’t awaken his advanced haki in order to stop the monster and how he got speed blitzed by a random joe with the help of a smoke bomb. All very valid questions but it’s best to just acknowledge this as a quick fumble and keep it moving. At the end of the day that is all we can really do. It’s still a very tense opening.

You also see how Shanks and friends were true pirates. When the going got tough they did not spare any prisoners, they straight up murdered their opponents. It’s a brutal reminder that as nice as they are, they’re still pirates and aren’t about to serve as marines in arresting everybody. Seeing Luffy come into his own as a pirate makes for a solid conclusion and you’re reminded how far he has come. So all in all that works as a really good way to start this up

Then we get to Zoro’s segment. His origin is still extremely emotional the whole time and definitely one that you won’t soon forget. I do think he probably didn’t handle the situation very well in terms of allowing Axe Hand Morgan to capture him though. That’s just way too risky even when it is intentional. Once he joined Luffy then it was all uphill though. They also included his big battle with Mihawk which is still an excellent fight. They even extended the choreography and made this a true fight from start to finish. Of course he was overwhelmed but the production values were on point and I dare say that it is the best looking moment in the special.

After that we have the Usopp arc. He lied so many times that eventually nobody believed him which has to be a rough situation to be in. He definitely shouldn’t have lied so often though, this was the only way that it was going to go. Captain Kuro still makes for a very imposing villain along with his teammates. We get to see Luffy shine and of course Usopp does man up in the end. It’s easily the weakest of the 5 segments in the special but of course it’s still solid either way. Usopp just wasn’t ready out of the gate the way that the others were.

Then we have Sanji’s story which is a lot of fun as you would expect. I like how bold he was in attacking anyone who got in his way and this is back from when he was a lot more charming and wasn’t being overly flanderized with the flirting. So this version actually had a lot of dignity about him with a clear vision on finding the All Blue. His flashback is also another really sad one and of the main 5, probably the most brutal aside from Nami’s. They also really extended his fight with the minion that he fed.

The fact that the villain actually beat Sanji was something I really forgot unless the victor was changed here. Sanji was completely overwhelmed the whole time and didn’t stand a chance. It’s a reminder that while Sanji is very skilled, he wasn’t quite up to the level of Zoro here. Some really good determination moments for Luffy in this arc too though, when he punched through the spikes that was really intense! Moments like that are why he is the captain here.

Then we have Nami’s arc which of course ties into the famous Arlong Park saga. We get her origin story which was really intense and her Mom was a really fantastic character back then. She really never wavered and did her best to stick up for Nami and her sister. Then in the present of course we get the famous scene of Nami asking for help and Luffy really dishing out the pain to Arlong. That’s what you like to see from the climax and it’s still one of the most iconic moments of all of One Piece. It works really well having this as the last part of the special since it’s the biggest climax at least by that point in the series.

So there’s really nothing to dislike about this special. It’s filled with tons of top tier content throughout and constant action. The characters are all developed really well and the animation is really solid. The colors are striking and the choreography is on point. The soundtrack has aged really well and they brought back some of my favorite retro themes. The technical elements were on point here, now I just need them to do Episode of Marineford already. That one already looks awesome but I’m always down to revisit one of the best moments in the series.

Overall, Episode of East Blue is definitely a great special. It took a lot of really excellent moments from One Piece and brought them all together. The length is also pretty solid considering the amount of content here so it wasn’t super rushed. It is rushed of course to an extent because it would be mathematically impossible not to be but it all works out pretty well. I would say that a bunch of the fights do start to get skipped especially by the Arlong arc but Luffy’s fights all make it at least. I would like to have seen more fights because that’s my thing but I know others would prefer the story beats. All in all it’s a reasonable compromise/division of scenes between action and story. I would definitely recommend this to any One Piece fan, you’re bound to be in for a good time! Even to general anime fans you should be able to enjoy it.

Overall 8/10

The Grudge (2020) Review

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

I’m going to be brutally honest here folks, I much prefer when films, games, and any sort of media follow a linear path. Jumping back and forth across timelines and such often times is more convoluted than interesting. It’s just being complicated for the sake of doing so as opposed to actually enhancing the story and that’s what happens here. There is no actual benefit and even the inevitable “aha it’s all connected!!” moment isn’t enough to overturn that.

The movie has no evil cat possession sounds this time which is a massive mistake so its mainly Sayako’s body doing the dirty work for the Grudge. There are a few others though. So we have a few different plots here. You have a new detective who is trying to find out what’s going on with this supposed haunted house. She’s a bit old to believe in ghosts after all and figures its fake but her partner who has been on the scene refuses to even step foot in there. He believes that it is fully haunted. In the past, a lady will be having a kid soon but unfortunately he will be born with an illness as seen in the pre birth scans. Is the Grudge working overtime and cursing people before they are even born now? Unfortunately she is probably in the wrong house to try and survive this. Then in a middle plot we have a lady who helps in assisted suicides who checks in on an old lady and her husband but the lady is crazy and seems to be able to see the Grudge. The lady should have immediately left but she decides to stay the night which may end up being her last.

So what do all of these plots have in common? They’re all fodder for the Grudge! Nooooo, but it’s true though. You know the sooner that these chuckleheads appear on screen that they are absolutely doomed. The old lady with aroma therapy and such? The Grudge probably smells like sewer water based on how long she’s been dead in the water so she’s immune. The cop with his handgun staring down the haunted house for years before destroying himself? The Grudge is most likely bullet proof! And if not she’ll just use her telepathy to jam the gun. Thinking of burning the house down? Well the fact that she even lets you approach the house with the gasoline means that she isn’t worried.

When your opponent is all powerful and just playing with you there just isn’t much you can do. Naturally destroying yourself like the second cop is absolutely the worst thing you can do because one..The Grudge won’t allow it. Seriously she can alter the trajectory just enough to ensure you live in pain for a long while. I choose to believe that explanation over him just missing a point blank shot to the head personally. So you either play her game and hope it means an instant end or you try to do something drastic like blow up the planet. Honestly that would be an interesting angle. A character can’t stop being haunted for all eternity by the Grudge so he decides to end it all for humanity.

Now there’s a world destruction motive that I could possibly get behind because it’s all so unfair. As always the film is definitely really violent. A lot of characters are dying left and right and we also get a lot of gross visuals like people’s dead bodies being covered by worms. The Grudge definitely isn’t holding back on any of that and as always we’re reminded of the origin of all this.

It’s almost impressive that there are basically no happy moments in the film because you’re always waiting for what’s about to happen next to the characters. For the most part you aren’t even given much hope for any of the plots except the one taking place in current day because you already know the others are doomed. I suppose there’s the tension of seeing how long they last. The constant rain is also a good backdrop because everything is scarier during a downpour. There just doesn’t seem to be much of a point to this film even more than some of the other Grudge titles although I guess they’re all pretty close in that respect. We need a character to try and counter the Grudge at some point. Give her an actual opponent to fight against and the film would immediately get a whole lot better.

The twist ending of the film is definitely pretty intense and maybe the best out of the Grudge films. Sure on one hand you might roll your eyes because it feels like the film is going against its own lore again but you have to remember that the Grudge will never lose. As the Flash villain once said: “You can’t hold me!!!!” That’s basically the Grudge’s catchphrase at this point. No matter what you do she will eventually defeat you. Honestly the lucky ones are the fighters who die immediately because at least they are put out of their misery. You’re really unlucky when she spares you for like 50 years only to murder you later on for the lolz. Everyone is in the palm of her hands and the sooner you embrace the futility of the entire movie series, the sooner you can be free!

Overall, The Grudge basically goes through the motions of murdering everyone. By splitting the film up into different time periods and going back and forth it does slow down the pacing a lot though. This film would have actually been a lot better as an anthology and I can’t believe that I’m saying that. Yes that’s how dicey things have gotten here because i just don’t want to be going back to the past so many times. It’s not my idea of a grand time. Give me a linear plot to move around in and just use a few flashbacks if you have to. The idea can work I suppose but the Grudge definitely couldn’t pull it off.

Overall 1/10

The Grudge 3 Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version. Note that a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time to return to The Grudge series. Definitely not one of my favorite horror series to say the least. Part of the problem with this series has always been how overpowered the villain is. Basically you’ve got someone with the powers of a Shonen Jump villain going up against below average mortals who couldn’t throw a punch to save their life and have no mental defenses. At the end of the day that means there is absolutely no hope for anybody here so the whole film is really just there for show.

The movie starts off with a kid trying to explain that he needs someone to break him out of the psychiatric ward because The Grudge has already infiltrated. The staff laugh this off and explain that the place is completely secure so nothing can happen to him. The poor kid’s mangled beyond recognition in the next scene and the doctor tries to find answers but good luck with that. Meanwhile we cut to Lisa who is temporarily staying with her brother Max and his daughter Rose in the house where all of this had gone down. It’s a rather eery place to live but Max figures he can fix the place up really well and eventually turn things around. He’s in the red right now so he will definitely need things to really work out well for him. Unfortunately The Grudge isn’t satisfied yet and starts murdering more people. It’s possible that the only one who can stop her is Naoko, the sister to the original host.

Technically “The Grudge” is more of a supervillain name and it’s for both the girl and the cat who are running around. You could make the case that these are just the physical manifestations of the Grudge since it’s more of a non physical form anyway so I’ll keep saying Grudge for convenience sake. One thing the series does really well is to show just how spooky they are though. Grudge’s movements are very erratic which makes it hard for you to predict her next move. She can be deceptively fast and also has an incredible grip. Basically if she grabs you then it’s all over.

I would say the frustrating part is that absolutely nobody tries to attack her at all. They all just fall down and start crying, hide under the bed, or give their back to the creature. Look, you’re going to die anyway but wouldn’t you at least want to go down with a fight? The film doesn’t even try to make it look like these people are ready to fight back and I think that’s a mistake because it makes no sense. They’re literally on the the edge of defeat getting close to death. If that’s not enough to make you fight back then I don’t know what would be.

Characters consistently make the wrong decisions. Near the end of the film Lisa is trying to escape and just watched someone get butchered in front of her. The next move is to run for it right? Instead she just falls to the ground and extreme plot armor saves her from being the next victim. Everyone should have a fight or flee instinct but for some reason that turned into a just fall down and whimper effect. I just don’t think that would be the case for most people. I would argue almost none of them would have that effect at least even if it’s a few.

Okay so on to the negatives. Wait…were those actually the positives? Yeah we ran out of those a while back. The only real positive here is that the Grudge has an awesome design and I really like the sound effects. They are really scary and this is a film that will always be scary to watch. I would go as far as to say the Grudge may have the scariest design for a horror villain but I would have to think about it. The close runner ups who could also take the title would probably be the main villain of Insidious who has the red mask and the classic Xenomorph.

As always this is a very bloody film with a lot of over the top violence and dark themes. We can never seem to escape the cat dying which is a very unfortunate part of the mythos. It really doesn’t add any benefit to the film so I’d rather skip that. Having a little kid get murdered in the opening scene really sets the tone here but then you also have the Grudge possessing people to stab their friends and make the whole thing more personal. This is a very dark and dreary film from cover to cover that doesn’t exactly make you thrilled to watch it.

As I mentioned earlier, the Grudge has no weaknesses so it’s not like there was ever any hope here. Naoko’s big master plan is basically to transfer the curse onto the little kid by having her drink a bunch of blood. Gross factor aside, this plan makes absolutely no sense to anybody who managed to pay attention to the lore at the beginning. The Grudge came into existence in part because of how Naoko’s sister had to drink the blood and dark essence of every curse. Basically the curses all merged into a super dark influence which took control of her and made her commit all of these deeds.

So drinking that blood would just make a new host but wouldn’t stop the demon. In what world would it destroy the demon? Maybe you can say Naoko was planning to murder the kid after that but why would that have any effect on anything? Her sister died a while back and the curse is still here. So in short, I don’t see any purpose in including Naoko in this film. I don’t think the writers really thought this subplot through because it doesn’t work as a twist about the plan not working when it never had any chance of working in the first place. It doesn’t make any senseeeeee!!

At least the Grudge does give us a classic twist ending which is more inline with what you would expect for this kind of film. It works pretty well and the execution is on point. It doesn’t exactly make you feel any better about the film having any kind of central purpose other than showing people dying in all sorts of ways. At this point there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to these film. They’re just like Halloween or other slasher types where it’s really just about seeing a bunch of deaths. Still, at least in some of those you can pretend that the heroes have a shot and it feels like they do because the villains are a bit more mortal. When the villain’s all powerful with no weaknesses then it takes the bite out of the whole thing.

Overall, The Grudge 3 is a pretty terrible film all around. The heroes never stood a chance and you knew it so you’re really just watching everyone getting bumped off and hoping against hope that there is some kind of twist to save the movie. Inevitably it never comes and so there isn’t really a reason to check this one out except to have a grudge against the film itself. It’s not the kind of film that will be saving the horror genre or anything fancy like that.

Overall 1/10

The X from Outer Space Review

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It’s time for a classic Kaiju film from way back in the day. I do have to admit that I was not very familiar with it but hey that happens. After watching it, it definitely does deliver on the Kaiju action but the human plot is particularly weak even compared to normal. You really don’t care about these guys and the random love triangle going on. It takes forever for Guilala to appear but once the monster does show up then things start to get real interesting. Get ready for a lot of buildings to be destroyed!

So the movie starts with a space crew heading off into space. Unfortunately their doctor gets sick so he has to be replaced with another one who is really not happy about being up here and makes this clear from the jump. Previous expeditions continue to disappear with all of the crew members dying but it’s unknown why that is happening. Well it turns out that there is some kind of tractor beam and an odd sponge/spore type object here. The heroes end up bringing this back to Earth and unfortunately it ends up being a massively powerful Kaiju that is determined to destroy the planet. They must find a way to reverse these effects or its all over!

While I mention Guilala in the summary that is still fairly deep into the film even though I mention it now. I like the deign a lot and Guilala seems to have a lot of powers but they are too much for the budget. For example at one point he starts glowing blue as if this guy thinks he’s Godzilla but then nothing happens. I do like the reaction times of plucking jets out of the sky even if they shouldn’t have been so low to begin with. Don’t underestimate the power of a Kaiju after all. Guilala is definitely the highlight of the film though.

Back to the humans though, so we have the weak romance going on. Sano is a guy in high demand as the local correspondent from Earth is in love with him as well as a new astronaut who is on the mission. It seems like Sano and the first girl are semi official but it’s hard to really know this for sure. She has a picture of him on her desk after all but it could just be her being possessive. During the first call to Earth the new girl makes sure to be extra clingy with Sano so the first girl quickly gets an attitude and gives off the silent treatment.

It all feels a bit unreasonable because Sano was actually doing really well on the ship. He refused the second girl’s offer to dance and basically dodged all of her flirting attempts. I don’t see how he could have handled it any better short of constantly talking about how he was in love with the first girl which would have been a bit tacky. Ultimately the astronaut gets the hint and near the end of the film it’s played off as a really sad moment. Look romance can be tragic, the person you like won’t always like you back but you just gotta buckle up and keep it moving. Don’t be desperate, don’t try too hard, and just move on.

All that being said, Sano is the only one who came out of this looking good. The second girl was moving way too fast and the first one was just way too insecure. She never actually made a move to talk to Sano about this or discuss rationally. Instead she just became super upset for no reason. If she is going to fly off the handle that much when any girl talks to Sano then I suspect this will be a pretty rough romance going forward.

As for the doctor who didn’t want to be on the mission, I think the idea of the character is good. I’d like to see this guy complaining constantly and bringing everyone down but his role is rather minimal so he doesn’t end up actually doing a lot. His role could and should have been a whole lot bigger. I guess he had the one moment where he cracked and ran for the controls at least….it’ll have to do.

Meanwhile the sense of distance was a bit odd here. So the whole mission is super dangerous and stuff because you have to go deep into space where people keep vanishing right? Well at one point they run out of fuel…so the main heroine flies in from the base with the extra fuel. She gets there in a matter of minutes but we could say it was hours in real time. Either way it seems like it was absolutely trivial to get to where the main characters were in space so how does that make any sense? It’s just a bit odd if you ask me.

The whole film I wouldn’t say is thought out all that well which is why the Kaiju is what is saving it the whole time. Without the Kaiju this film would have just ended up being boring. At least this way there was something to keep you engaged even if there could be some recycled animation at times. There wasn’t a whole lot of monster footage but it was a decent start. The effects of the Kaiju deforming were pretty good at least.

Overall, Creature X isn’t nearly as good as it could have been but I would still say it was fun enough. I had a good time watching the film even if I was taking shots the whole time. It’s an easy film to poke fun at for all of the missed opportunities and such. At the same time the Kaiju is still cool and while the characters aren’t good, the film avoids making any big mistakes. It’s short enough where even the poor pacing of the first half won’t hurt the replay value too much. I could watch this one again even if there is not much point as long as the main Godzilla films exist which absolutely crush this one.

Overall 6/10

When a Stranger Calls (2006) Review

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It’s always rare for a horror remake to beat the original but this is one of those rare times where it worked out. Now this still isn’t some amazing film or anything like that so lets not get ahead of ourselves. That being said, it is well above the average horror title so you love to see it. Add a few more interesting characters and you could almost have made a good film out of this. The potential is there at least.

The movie starts with Jill getting ready to babysit for some rich folks as they head out for a while. It should be an easy gig and the kids are very young so they’ll just be sleeping the whole time. Yeah it doesn’t get much easier than this but then things begin to get a little tricky when she receives calls from a nefarious character. He starts out by being really silent but then starts to threaten her life. He intends to murder her before the night ends and makes it clear that he can see her. Jill has to find a way to murder this guy before she is destroyed but can she pull this off?

The whole film is basically her in the house trying to figure out what’s going on. For this reason the film can be a bit of a slow burn. Things don’t really happen until we get near the end so they do overplay the phone calls a little bit. I feel like he probably calls her at least 20 times during the film and each time she has to try and scramble to gather her bearings. She does call the police which is good but they basically say they can’t help her out since the threats haven’t been direct enough and it might be a prank caller. I dare say this is where she should have exaggerated a bit and talk about glass breaking and loud explosions in the background. Something to get the cops here a little quicker.

Where the film also drags a bit here is that Jill is basically your average main character. What that means is a lot of tears and panicking the whole time after each of the calls. It’s realistic perhaps but not the most entertaining. I’d like to see her talking smack back to the guy, grab a baseball bat and get ready or something like that. Unfortunately she makes a ton of the rookie horror main character mistakes. For one thing she turns off the alarm system for a while. Gee I hope he doesn’t get in the house while she was messing around….

Jill takes a massive risk in running next door to the spare house in case a neighbor was back home but this was a pretty bad call. There’s no positives to doing this since she had already called and there was no answer. So either the neighbor has already been murdered or he is the villain. In either case going there by yourself and leaving the kids is a bad move. In fact I’d argue she should have brought the kids with her way earlier in the film. Find a room and barricade yourself in or make a break for it with them. By staying so far apart you’re just creating a whole lot of vulnerable areas for the guy to make his move. Trust me that’s exactly what you don’t want to do.

There isn’t much of a supporting cast here which is another weakness. You can tell the film does not care about anyone other than the lead and villain so the rest of the characters are paper thin. You have Tiffany who apparently worked as a homewrecker in cheating with Jill’s guy which hurt their friendship. Things don’t go well for her and there’s actually not a big body count here but the rest of the victims are basically non characters here too. The way the film forces characters into this abandoned house plot can be a little funny but the film should have leaned into it more. Have the milk delivery guy show up, maybe a debt collector, etc. Have a bunch of people show up to get bumped off. It would be a little dark but you could also play it up as some dark humor for a while.

Where the film works is a lot of the scares are more about the atmosphere as opposed to being over the top violent. Knowing that there is someone out there getting ready to murder you is pretty unnerving. Particularly if you aren’t able to do a whole lot about it at the moment. The attacker usually has the edge over the defender for this reason because Jill has to be tense and stressed out the whole time while the murderer can relax and choose when he wants to make a move. The rich house makes for a good backdrop since it is absolutely massive which means there are a ton of hiding places available.

There’s an entire mini river in the house after all and it’s all super dark. Again this is why you need to pick a room or escape as soon as possible. One thing I was surprised didn’t happen was for Jill to use the emergency system to her advantage. When she tripped the alarm at the start is caused security to call her right away. So trip it again and if they call say it is a real emergency this time. Or if it’s later in the film and she can’t come to the phone then they should ideally show up pretty fast.

I was going to take some points from Jill at the end for when she stabs the guy and then runs off instead of finishing him. It’s still a risky move and I get that it’s a stressful situation but if you have the guy on the ground you have to finish him right there and then because it could be your last chance. Fortunately the film basically ends there so no harm no foul. We do get one of those sorta twist endings but it’s very weak compared to most. It’s clear the film wasn’t trying as hard as it could have to get the sequel set up. I mean it makes for a bit of a happier ending sorta compared to what it could have been but the twist ending is a horror staple. You have to have that!

Overall, This film was better than the original in just about every way. I’d still say it was not a particularly strong film because there are no real likable characters and there just isn’t much to it beyond being a horror film. You have a bunch of jump scares and a tense atmosphere which works well enough but you aren’t given enough of a reason to really care about anything. The villain not having a character was actually a good move though. Don’t give me some kind of tragic sob story. It makes sense once in a while for the villain to not have some kind of personal relation to the main character. He’s just a random psycho who happened to target her this time, sometimes it’s scarier for it to just be random like this. If you like the premise t hen give this one a shot but it’s really nothing special.

Overall 5/10

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man Review

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All right we’re back to the Abbott and Costello adventures! What trouble will these two get into this time? Well we’ve got some actual boxing on the docket in addition to the usual slapstick comedy and it makes for a good mix. We’re still not quite up to the level of the film with the Werewolf but this does beat the Mummy film so in the end you would have to count that as an absolute win!

The film opens with Bud and Lou graduating from detective school so they can be official PIs. You may wonder how Lou actually made it and it turns out that Bud actually paid off the teacher! The brilliance of the gag is you can take this at straight value or assume Bud was taking a shot. I prefer the former but both work pretty well. They get a first client right away, a boxer who is on the run for attempted murder. This boxer isn’t just anyone though…he is the new Invisible Man!!

You can probably guess how his being invisible is going to mess with Lou a whole lot. Lou gets framed constantly and is the butt of every joke because he can’t properly explain himself. It means that things keep on going from bad to worse for him. Poor guy is what you might think right? I’d usually feel bad for him but he’s just a bit too desperate all the time and the film has a final gag at the very end which destroys his character. Lets just say that he’s the type of guy who would abuse his power immediately so whenever he is on the losing side or getting defeated by everyone…I’m actually kind of glad now. Seriously there’s no coming back from that.

A big chunk of the film involves boxing. Basically the way the boxer was framed was by an underground circuit of mafia members betting on the games. This guy refused to take a dive and so they murdered the trainer and pinned it on this guy. At least that’s what the Invisible Man says. Bud basically couldn’t care and doesn’t believe him so he tries to betray the Invisible Man many times and keeps on getting into hot water. Honestly he’s lucky that the guy didn’t bump him off after a while. Lou usually ends up taking some punishment too despite not being on board with betraying him.

To an extent you can get why the Invisible Man would not be trustworthy though. He makes a whole speech about how he could use this power for evil and has a super evil laugh the whole time. The guy seemed to be cracking immediately and we already knew that the serum had some side effects. It’s almost a bit hard to root for the guy at some points because he’s also not very smart. He talks and moves food around when other people are around which nearly outs him.

This is a comedy of course so you expect some stuff like that but I’m still going to be taking shots at the guy anyway. At the end of the day he’s the one performing the actions so of course he has to be blasted for that. The Invisible Man wasn’t quick on the uptake and you expect that form someone like Lou. Lou really looks bad here but that’s to be expected. He barely moves to play along during the fights at times and it nearly costs him big.

Bud is pretty fun in that he’s great as bluffing and reading the situation. It doesn’t always work out well for him but I appreciate the attempt. Like when he stood up to the opposing boxer who was trying to intimidate Lou. That was fun. Ultimately his confidence gets the best of him as he gets punched out when expecting the Invisible Man to come to his rescue but why would he right? Bud was getting on his bad side the entire film.

One thing that works out well here in addition to the main plot is how the Invisible Man actually has his own set of supporting characters and things happening. That helps it to all feel a lot more like a real film all the way through. The characters do tend to be a bit annoying and in particular the doctor strapping him to a table and nearly costing him everything was rough. If he can’t prove his innocence he would be sent to the electric chair anyway so at that point you have to let him try to clear his name.

The climax actually involves a full battle scene which was pretty fun too. Naturally Bud and Lou can’t really fight but they are good at running around which buys some time. The mobsters also made for fairly decent villains. Nothing special of course but i liked the scheme and it added a little danger to the film. Having one of their minions dress up as a security guard to stop the police from suspecting anything was pretty smart.

If there’s something that would have made the film better it would be to take the boxing scenes a little more seriously. Now completely serious of course but I think there is some wiggle room between what we got and what we could have gotten. Also the idea of an invisible helper assisting during the match is a pretty fun idea for even a serious film. I suppose it would be really hard to beat that scheme but you could say that’s the point right?

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. As with any comedy film that has tons of gags like this one, not every gag will land but most of them do and that’s definitely the important thing. The film goes by really quickly and if you like the series then you’ll like this installment. For better or worse it’s not really trying anything all that different from before. I would say if anything the strength of the series is probably in its familiarity to the fans who watch each installment. You know more or less what to expect in each film and it’s a calming experience.

Overall 7/10