Tag Archives: Mystery

Ten Little Indians Review

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I saw the original adaption of the novel a while back and it was pretty good. I’d say that this film was also enjoyable and at about the same level even though it was clearly not as good as the original. Just about anything that this film could do, the older one could do better. I do wonder how a more modern adaption of this film would go, no doubt it would probably not be as good. That being said, I’d love to see an ensemble cast try to tackle this film. We could have Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Chris Pratt, Arnie, Chuck Norris, and whoever else is super popular at the moment. It would be an interesting mix of personalities, which is why ensemble films are typically so fun.

As you may expect, ten people are invited to a mysterious place over on a mountain. The host invited everyone over on false pretenses, but once the ten arrive at the mansion he is nowhere to be seen. Instead they listen to a recording which exposes their previous murders and the characters start to die off one by one in ways that are very similar to how the 10 little Indians went out in a poem. Can they figure out which person among them is actually the nefarious host or are they all doomed to simply fade away into oblivion?

I quickly have to mention one big change from the first film which wasn’t cool. The original adaption had a fisherman who drove everyone to the island. The first adaption ended with him walking up slowly to the mansion while eating a sandwich. It was a humorous way to end the murder thriller and you could tell that this was someone that you didn’t mess with. Even the murderer wanted nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, this version took place on a mountain so there was no boat ride to begin with. A bit of a missed opportunity if you ask me.

As I mentioned earlier, there are other aspects where this film isn’t as good. For starters, we have Mike. He was a decent character in the first film and a music guy who may not have had much of a personality, but it wasn’t a bad one. Here, he’s only interested in romance and just staring at another character who rejects him. It’s a negative change that just doesn’t work for me here. It’s not like most of the characters are that good anyway though. I’m not a fan of any character in particular at this point, but better to be a non character than a bad one right?

This film was slightly modernized though, which wasn’t a good thing. The romance isn’t handled as well as in the first film where it was pretty much nonexistence. Here, the characters are very quick to forget the danger and engage in their romance, but it’s not fitting considering the situation. As such, Ann and Hugh aren’t very likable characters. Hugh is the James Bond kind of guy who talks a good game and even has a gun for most of the film. It’s simply not enough to make him a cool character since this isn’t the time to flirt. Likewise, Ann is just as guilty and makes the situation harder for everyone by being very cryptic about her backstory. Just saying it would have saved the characters some time and the way that she gets scared by everything is a bit much as well.

The actress is all right I suppose, but she doesn’t add much to the story either. She’s probably also the least apologetic about her backstory, which came across as a little drastic. The main characters who were pretty likable where the old folks. It’s not too surprising as they engage in most of the witty banter and try to keep each other from making any hasty moves. The detective also keeps everyone in check as he does have some useful professional experience at his disposal.

Ultimately, it’s pretty intriguing to see all of the characters go down one by one. Granted, you have to suspend your disbelief as the film goes on. Why does nobody think to simply stake out the room where the Indian figures keep disappearing? Even once the culprit is found out…or to be more precise, the fact that the culprit is revealed to be just one person makes it a little harder to swallow. This person shouldn’t be able to move so quickly and evade everyone with such precision. I’m just not sure that I buy that. Of course, you don’t need to buy it to enjoy the film.

Another change from the first film is an extended fight scene where one of the butlers goes into a frenzy and attacks Hugh. It’s pretty interesting as this pretty much came out of nowhere. Unfortunately, the fight scene isn’t that good, but you will be surprised at how many times the fight stops and then starts again. The cheap shots just won’t stop, but there is a winner in the end so that’s good. The other characters (for the most part) talk tough about how they shouldn’t have fought, but Hugh wasn’t exactly given a choice so it’s good that he took the win. The butler then decided to leave the mountain on his own, which was probably one of the worst decisions that he could have made.

I will give the ending props for still coming across as fairly realistic. The plan was sound and I actually wouldn’t call it out for being unrealistic or full of plot hax. When you think about it, this film was thought out fairly well and while some plot hax is inevitable, it was a fun mystery from start to finish with no real cop outs. You just have to choose which character you think is guilty and then go on from there. I always like films like that since you can just make your pick and enjoy the film. If you were right, then it’s time to buy a snack afterwards. Of course, I knew who it was this time since I saw the original, but I imagine that a lot of people will only see one version of the film.

Overall, Ten Little Indians isn’t quite as good as the original adaption. The increased romance, the characters being less likable, and the fight scene actually being sub par kept it from reaching the same status as the original. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good film, but it’s just not as good. It follows the original quite closely even down to the script aside from these changes so it is still a good movie, but why not watch the original instead right? These classic mystery thrillers are definitely intense and black and white does fit in quite nicely for it. You can tell that this film is retro even though it was a little modernized. I’d be interested to see a 2010 or later remake, but I can tell that it probably wouldn’t be great. Something to think about though and this plot is certainly one that can easily be reused in a completely different context while still being effective. Make it happen Hollywood!

Overall 6/10

House on Haunted Hill Review

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Whenever I see a horror film that is actually quite good, it’s hard to contain my excitement. It’s like going to McDonald’s and the cashier letting you know that they’ve brought back the McPizza. It’s really hard to top that. While this film ends very abruptly and I felt that more could have been done with the story, it ended up being a very nice adventure. The film was fun and also very short so it never got to drag on. I don’t think I’ll be forgetting…the house on Haunted Hill!

A happy family moves into a new house after experiencing some financial trouble. The father found a very good price for a house on an old hill where a graveyard used to be and people have died there every year for the last century. Strange things start to happen. Only one person ever notices these events so the rest of the family don’t believe the tales. Soon, shadows appear at night, noises come from nowhere, and a demon begins to walk around. Is the house haunted?

No worries folks, that’s a plot for another horror movie. This one’s a little more original as an eccentric millionaire decides to invite some people to a mansion to stay the night. If the guests can successfully stay for 24 hours without dying, they shall receive 10000 dollars. That’s no small number and the 5 guests were chosen because they all really need the money. How can they refuse such an offer? One man actually stayed at the mansion once before, but went crazy and nearly died so he is now an alcoholic. Another guest is a lady who is the breadwinner for her family and this would help out a great deal. A psychiatrist, a newspaper person, and your average main character round out the 5. The choice of leaving is taken out of their hands when the mansion is sealed shut by the hired help and the characters prepare for their long night. Annabelle, the wife of the millionaire (Frederick) begins to drop clues for the heroes that her husband plans to murder her..not the ghost that everyone (almost) suspected. Is she telling the truth? She is clearly at odds with Frederick, but both characters talk to each other about the chance for murder.

Naturally, this means that one person must be planning to murder someone. There wouldn’t be a film if it was all fun and games the whole time right? Of course, it could always be the ghosts, the heroes shouldn’t eliminate that possibility before they have dinner. With 10000 dollars at stake, the main characters really have to be ready for just about anything…so they split up as soon as possible.

A lot of strange things happen to the heroes when they get into the house. A chandelier nearly destroys one of them off the bat, but a quick dodge stopped this fate. It’s fun to see the heroes overwhelmed the whole time and the situation grows more and more dire. That being said, after seeing the final twist, you have to wonder about some of these moments. Did the writers know what was going on? Were ghosts really a part of the picture?

Well, to answer the second question, I feel like the answer is a resounding yes. It’s never proven, but I feel like the sudden ending actually helps my case. You are clearly supposed to draw your own conclusions and come to terms with your own ending. We never actually saw the night end after all so did the heroes actually manage to stay alive right up til the end? The drunk claims that they are doomed and while I would take his word with as much salt as my average Super Smash Bros opponent, ghosts just make sense here.

At several points, things happened that can’t really be explained. The first of which being the part where the main guy was knocked on the head by someone…or something when he stepped into a dark room. Sure, it could have been the maid…but that’s more than a little iffy and I don’t buy that. At the very least, the guy would have known who hit him since she’s an old lady and the wound didn’t make sense. Another iffy moment was when the maid appeared in the shadows and seemed to float away, but the main guy did not see her. It was as if she turned invisible in the middle of the room. That’s certainly iffy. Minor things would be the piano playing by itself and the chandelier falling down, but we could attribute those to good timing by the villains I suppose.

In my ending, I’m confident that all of the heroes ended up dying in the mansion. The facts just seem to lead that way for me. That being said, the film isn’t afraid to deal with plot hax either. When Annabelle…dies, it just doesn’t make sense. Sure, you take the professional’s advice, but I think everyone knows the difference between a dead body and one that is asleep. Of course, it did ensure that someone would become the prime suspect for you, but I just don’t see this ploy working so smoothly. Another iffy part was the gun that everyone was given, which was loaded with blancs. Surely someone would have tried unloading their gun to see if it actually had any ammo right….?

Since I’m going all in with this review I may as well mention one more piece of plot hax. That would be when a lady starts to back away from a bedsheet that is flying towards her. She took several long looks at the vat of acid that was behind her, yet she kept on going until she practically threw herself into the pit. The bedsheet was so slow and obviously fake that she could have done anything else for a better result. Her decision just felt odd if you ask me.

While I did poke a lot of holes in this film, it was very entertaining as I mentioned. The characters were all decent as you would expect from a retro film. The Haunted House had a nice atmosphere about it and the introduction to the film was extraordinarily well done as everyone arrived in a funeral car. The writing in this film was very good and while the threats between Frederick and Annabelle could get tiresome (Even resorting to the classic pulling hair tactic) it didn’t stop the characters from having meaningful interactions with the other characters as red herrings. They’re both cunning and while the 5 guests are not, they try their best to solve the mystery rather than simply be used in a grander scheme.

Overall, House on Haunted Hill is a good horror film. It starts to become a mystery thriller as the film goes by, but this is what I like to see in a horror film. I still have mixed feelings on the ending as I dare say that it may have been too sudden, but I can see what the film was driving towards and it’s better than having a dragged out ending I suppose. Leaving the audience to come up with the ending also saves the writers some work. The film is only about an hour, but manages to fill it in with a whole lot of plot and details so I definitely recommend giving this flick a watch. With Halloween and my Domino’s desserts coming up, it’s a good time to give this film a shot.

Overall 7/10

The Wrong Man Review

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The Wrong Man is a unique film in the sense that it is a drama and a drama film. Those two sound almost the same though so it was probably just an error on the Google Search…maybe. I always like good retro films as the writing is always strong. I’d call this film a success although I did have one issue with the film that was decently sizable and kept it from being an epic 8. There’s another issue that holds it up a little in the realism angle, but it doesn’t affect the final score. Hitchcock says that this thriller is even more intense than some of his “fictional” ones and he’s probably right as the mix of court room drama and mystery made this a solid experience.

Manny is your average joe. He has a steady job and is known as a very dependable fellow around the neighborhood. Everyone knows him as a nice guy, but he is suddenly confronted by the police one day to answer for a list of crimes. He has apparently committed theft and assault several times. When asked, Manny claims innocence to all of this, but he is telling the truth or is he just trying to get off easy? Only time will tell!

This is supposedly based on a true story and I can believe it as I’m sure that cases like this have happened in the past. That being said, if we’re treating the story as if it really happened, then some scenes really stretched that line in the movie. There was one part where the cops decided to have Manny copy the letter that the criminal wrote to see if their handwriting was the same. It turns out that they were almost identical and Manny also made the same typo that the crook did. That was a little much if you asked me and at that point, I just figured that Manny had a split personality and did do the crimes. I think that this makes more sense than the alternative that the film gave us. That was the only scene that hurt its credability in terms of realism, but one scene is all that you need for something like this.

The only problem that I actually had with the film was the part where Manny’s wife went insane. It happened so suddenly as she was fighting for his innocence one day and the next, she had quickly fallen into despair. Apparently she had already been dealing with this, but the sudden breakdown was still a bit much. It was also very unnecessary to the film if you ask me. The film really would not have changed almost at all if she had stayed strong. The film would have also been more fun that way and Manny could have had someone else on his side. We do get a happy ending for her after a timeskip, but it just furthers the point that this plot was really shoehorned in.

Back to the realism part for a second. It is a little iffy how two of Manny’s witnesses just died so mysteriously. I suppose that mystery films need some red herrings, but everything was conveniently against Manny. He probably would have been doomed in court, but at least he had the character witnesses of his boss and the hotel owners. What he lacked in evidence and proof, Manny made up for with personal connections. I ended up liking his lawyer even though the guy seemed a little fishy at first. He pulled through when it counted and noticed that the jury was very bias and against Manny so he quickly called for a rematch. It was a very good choice on his part and I had barely even realized what the jury was doing. This guy certainly knew his stuff.

Manny was also a good main character. He could have handled the situation a little better I suppose, like talking to the owners of the shop a little more. It’s possible that it would have helped them realize that they had the wrong man. Manny also acted a little suspicious when his wife started to talk to the lawyer about possible witnesses and he quickly made an excuse to leave. Extra red herrings I suppose. The wife was likable before she went insane. A decent heroine, but that subplot hurt her.

I did like the cops as they tried to give Manny a fair shake the whole time, despite the fact that they had basically decided he was guilty from the start. I guess they figured that lying to his face would calm Manny down. The fact that they did call his wife was very iffy though. That just felt shady. These are the cops, not the mafia. What’s with all the secrecy? A few times, you would have thought that they weren’t on the level,but since this is based on a true story, I disregarded that notion since it would have been a little too fantastic. (In the original sense of the word, not good, but just unbelievable) “An innocent man has nothing to fear” is a line that the cops use quite a lot and it’s a memorable one. While it is only mostly true, it’s still something to keep in mind when you’re falsely accused. If you’re a modern film lead, you could even crack a bunch of jokes despite the severity of the situation.

As you would expect, the writing and the script are spot on. Even when Manny and the cops are starting to get a little heated, they use sophisticated burns to stop each other. Another suspicious character was Manny’s step brother, but he ended up being on the level so that was good for the lead. Manny certainly couldn’t afford to have any more enemies in this film. His two sons were also all right I suppose, but you could also call them filler and I’m glad that their roles weren’t any bigger.

The main draw of the film is simply the suspense as the mystery hooks you in. I thought that the film was very enjoyable and the mystery was handled well. I also really liked the court scenes and still love those. There wasn’t as much back and forth as usual since we mostly only saw it from the attacking side, but it was fun nonetheless. The film’s decently long, but doesn’t drag out. I would have liked to have scene the fake Manny a little more, but it wasn’t necessary to the plot I suppose. While the characters looked similar, I still don’t see how it fooled so many of the characters.

Overall, The Wrong Man is a good retro film. The suspense is certainly real and Manny is put through the ringer. The court case was fun and I liked all of the cop interrogation scenes. They were definitely enjoyable and the cops were portrayed as they should be. They knew their job and completed the mission without a whole lot of difficulty. It was also fun to see the old meatstore owners take out the criminal near the end. They definitely had gusto! I certainly recommend this film if you’re looking for an old fashioned mystery and a story about a man who must prove his innocence no matter the cost! There are no real negatives in this film aside from the wife’s subplot so you can just kick back and enjoy the show!

Overall 7/10

Scooby Doo Team Up Volume 1 Review

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The concept of a Scooby Doo team up series is really good. I already like the Scooby Doo adventures a lot so adding in the Superfriends will just make it that much more exciting! The Mystery Gang is no stranger to crossovers as they’ve met up with Batman in the past. I actually saw those team up episodes several times back in the day and they were certainly a blast as you might expect. This comic is great for nostalgia and I always love to see that retro feel in a comic.

There are 6 stand alone issues to be found in this graphic novel so I’ll devote a paragraph to each one and state why that story was or wasn’t epic. The first story involved the return of the Man Bat. The mystery gang happened to be in the neighborhood so they decided to help Batman and Robin out. The Dynamic Duo was happy to have the extra help and Shaggy even got to prove that he was brave for a page or two before getting exposed by Scooby Doo. It was a fun story to start off with, mainly because of the fact that Batman and Robin can really hold their own issue.

Next up was a sort of continuation as Batman and Robin brought the Mystery Gang over to a detective conference as guest speakers. These guys are the best of the best after all so it was quite the honor to be among them. That being said, things get a little dicey when the Scarecrow decides to jump in and mess the heroes up a little. Batman actually falls for this at first since the illusions look pretty real so Ace decides to step up as he teams with Scooby Doo to stop the menaces. The Mystery Inc got to show their stuff and prove to the skeptics that they could hold their own in a fierce situation.

We can’t have a team up without adding in Batmite right? One issue brings him together with a Scooby Doo inspired guy and even Larry jumps in. Reality warping guys messing with the heroes gets old fast so this would typically be a bad thing, but it’s mostly handled well. At the very least, Batman looks very good as he constantly escapes from impossible traps in an instant. That’s the Batman that we’ve come to know and respect after all! Aside from the Batman props, this issue was fairly dull and you could skip it without missing anything.

Another issue had the team head over to Titans Tower when Robin called them over for some help. One could make a case for this being the normal Teen Titans, but it had a very Titans Go vibe for me. That was neat and the characters even mentioned how Robin acts very different with his friends than when he is with Batman. They explained that and it was fun to have the Titans on board. The twist with who the ghosts were was great, but Raven’s uncle was pretty annoying and not in a funny way. It was a fairly charming issue.

Velma and Daphne got to take center stage in this issue as they went to Themyscira to solve a mystery. Wonder Woman invited them because a lot of mythical monsters had been showing up, but then they would vanish as suddenly as they appeared. Scooby and Shaggy are around as well, but they can’t allow themselves to step on the ground or the amazons will lose their powers. That’s a huge weakness and I prefer the incarnations where they are simply not pleased when the event happens. There’s certainly not a lot of action here and the secret villain was a bit underwhelming so this would probably be the weakest issue of the bunch.

Finally, the collection ended with the return of the Legion of Doom! Dressed as ghosts, they quickly took down the whole league and so it was up to the Mystery Gang to rescue them. It was a pretty tense issue amist the jokes and levity from the heroes. After all, how could a bunch of kids hope to stop a group who has given the Superfriends a run for their money? Answer….they can’t! This is simply out of their league at the moment, but the heroes realize that not every battle is about winning. They just need to make a plan!

While this issue had the most action and was the best overall, there was a minor plot hole as one villain claimed to be stronger than Supergirl while in the ghost costume. The only member who could conceivably be stronger than her is Bizarro and it couldn’t have been him since the voice spoke in perfect English. Well, I suppose that plot holes should be expected in comedy/action hybrids, but I still thought that I should make a note of that.

The art is solid for this collection and everyone looks in character while keeping with that retro feel. This collection is made to look like the old Superfriend days so that’s always a plus. It’s certainly easy to read and while the series is certainly more comedy than action, it’s always satisfying to see the heroes land a solid punch. You can feel the power behind the blows!

I also enjoyed the writing as the characters have quite a few puns and subtlety put the others in their place. The Mystery Gang can be a bit much at some points though, like Scooby and Shaggy who constantly run away from their danger, but that’s their gimmick so I’m sure that people would be shocked if they didn’t act like that. I do like the overall confidence of the leaders like Fred and Daphne though as they strike a pose whenever they’re on screen. You can feel the confidence emanating from them and they don’t fear any of the so called super villains. Fred’s still my favorite member of the gang so it’s good to see him get his due props.

Stories like this one have a lot of replay value. The writers should be able to easily think up 50-100 stories right off the bat since each issue is very quick, any small plot can be developed into an issue. I hope that the series is still going or that it at least got a lot of issues This will tide me over until we get a true Superfriends nostalgia series. This also reminds me that we need more Scooby Doo comics since that series is a lot of fun. As a franchise, I’ve enjoyed the shows, movies, and games. Now I can add comics to that list as well!

There’s not much to say about the characters since they’re all using their public domain forms. They’re meant to be a little two dimensional in that way. Batman is essentially invincible and he can solve any case. The rest of the League is ready to back him up. Scooby and Shaggy are still scared of everything so it’s up to Fred to save the day. Daphne and Velma also hold their own and in the background they throw punches sometimes. It’s ironic that the writers of these comedy issues understand the DC characters better than a lot of the mainstream titles. That’s just how it goes sometimes!

Overall, This team up volume was a lot of fun. I definitely look forward to reading the next installments and I believe that Superman may get a bigger role on that one based on the cover. He surprisingly only got to appear in one story and since he was out of the picture for most of it, we couldn’t really see what he was made of. Batman got the biggest role and that’s fitting. With solid art and easily read stories, this is definitely a good collection to check out. It’s quite short so you will be able to blast through it!

Overall 7/10

The Black Cat Review

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Have you ever seen a film that was very different from what you expected? That happened to me with this film as I just expected a completely different plot and the whole film was as radically different as any I’ve ever seen. Luckily, this was in a good way! As much as a horror film about a Black Cat knocking everyone would have been entertaining, a classic “Who Did It” murder mystery is infinitely better. Aside from one mistake, the film does quite well, but it is unfortunately a big mistake!

An old lady is near death so her family members quickly head to her mansion so that they can pick up their inheritance. If they don’t like what they receive, they are prepared to attack her if necessary. Luckily, they all receive a decent amount of money so they are pleased, but the lady announces that this only comes to pass once her maid is dead as the cats need to be taken care of. One of the family members doesn’t like this and quickly stabs her. With the old lady out of the way, the main characters must figure out who did it as the body count will only rise from here!

One difference in this film compared to the average murder mystery is that the body count isn’t actually that high. The suspense is mostly grabbed by near deaths and the ominous feeling that someone is always watching you. Also, it isn’t played completely serious as it is part comedy. Similar to another murder mystery film that I saw a while back, whose title escapes me. The light tone with the classic mystery make for a winning formula in terms of how interesting the film is.

As this film came out in the very early 1940’s, you can expect that the writing is quite good as well. That makes all the difference in any mystery title and I can almost certainly guarantee that a modern version would not be nearly as good in this area. Whether it be the subtle threats or the not to subtle ones, you just don’t see dialogue like this nowadays. The film is a little on the short side, but there’s still enough time to flesh out the characters and not have a rushed ending.

The film does a good job of making everyone look a little suspicious. There’s the main character who really reminded me of Bill Murray from Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. Seriously, the guy looks almost identical to him complete with the voice and a similar role. He was definitely one of the best parts of the film and I’d say that he earned the role of best character. As he’s the main character, most of what we see is from his side of the story, but you can never discount the lead as they sometimes don’t tell you everything. I was rooting for him to close the deal though!

The main character’s friend is here to break things to make them more valuable in the future. He’s extremely scatter brained to the point where he can never follow a sentence and it takes him hours to realize what people knew in seconds. He was a fun character as he constantly trolled the rest of the cast and found the secret passages before anyone else. He was in danger many times, but the good part about being oblivious is that fear won’t slow you down! Naturally, he’s suspicious because you have to wonder if it is all truly an act.

Next up, we have the family of three. There’s the step son who threatens his step father several times not to break his mother’s heart as he knows that the guy is cheating with someone else. Considering the threats and how much the money would help him, it’s obvious why this guy is a suspect. Likewise, if the father is willing to cheat on his elderly wife, we don’t know what he is capable of! He definitely wants the money from the will as he constantly yells about it. Maybe he wants it for sinister purposes!

His elderly wife is always in the background and prefers to let everyone else to the talking. She keeps up the pretense of liking the old lady even though everyone else constantly insults her and just waits for her inheritance. Is it possible that she actually cares or is she just playing along to throw away suspicion from herself? There’s the main heroine who believes that no murders took place and that her family are still decent people deep down who wouldn’t cross this line. She tries to distract the main character from this train of thought several times. Is it possible that she is right or does she just want us to think that?

Rounding up the list of suspects are out final members. We have the maid who threatened that the heroes would leave the house one way or the other. Wow, that’s pretty ominous right? A bit obvious, but perhaps that’s the point to lower our guard! There’s also the grounds servant, Eduwardo. He is always listening and watching from outside and he has free reign over the place. He would certainly have the time to commit the acts and the motive as well since he received almost nothing from the will in the end. Finally, we have the old lady. Maybe she cheated death somehow by using a fake poison right?

So, we definitely have a lot of suspects. I’m glad to say that the film doesn’t cheat with the final verdict. The culprit does have a good motive and was one of the suspects so that was good. Cop outs are the one thing that you don’t want in a mystery film! The opening of the film reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode. The mask party one where the relatives all wanted the old man to die and ultimately had their true faces exposed to everyone. The opening was definitely similar and I wouldn’t be surprised if one borrowed from the other.

This film would have been an easy 7, but there was one big mistake, which really hurt it. Unfortunately, one of the cats is poisoned and died. That was a really low blow and it definitely hurt the film. At least the cat wasn’t injured as that would have been even worse, but the death still ensured that I wouldn’t be giving this film any higher than a 5. It’s just hard to recommend a film with animal violence like this at times. For a show that has over 200 episodes or a long series like that, it’s much easier, but a single film….it’s just not happening. This was the one big mistake that the film made, but boy was it a big one!

The romance angle was surprisingly nonexistent for the most part. Of course, we have the main character and heroine who are polite to each other, but it never goes anywhere which is nice and realistic. There’s also the cheating subplot, but it also doesn’t really go anywhere. I’d say that this is a good thing as those plots weren’t needed to make the film be enjoyable anyway. As it stands, most of the character personalities were enjoyable, which really helped the film.

Overall, The Black Cat was much better than I anticipated. The score was lower due to the animal violence, but otherwise it was essentially the ideal mystery. It’s short, but there are no cop outs and the writing as done quite well. The film was pretty funny without going over the top in the comedy aspect. It wasn’t much of a problem back in the day though as the humor was almost always great or you would just miss the joke, but we never saw the kind of jokes that you see in something like Pixels. The horror aspects were also handled well as you would see an ominous hand reach out to take someone down or someone’s frightened expression as they realized that they were doomed. From the classics, this one easily takes down Frankenstein and Dracula without a doubt! In pure entertainment value, this would probably beat all of the other Universal classics.

Overall 5/10

Dengeki Daisy Review

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Dengeki Daisy is a series that I started a full year and a half ago. It’s definitely been a while and I was wondering if the series would be able to finish as strongly as it started. It was a gamble because for a Shojo, typically the longer that you go, the more chances there are for things to go downhill. This is probably the most interesting Shojo title that I’ve read in a long time and it was a lot of fun, but one of the villains does manage to bring it down.

A long time ago, there was a virus created by a man named Daisy, which crippled systems around the world and was massively overpowered. Around the same time that the incident ended, Teru’s brother died. Years later, Teru is attending a school and basically having a happy life when she ends up working for a janitor after breaking school property. It turns out that the guy is a nice person despite acting like a delinquent. He can be gruff, but Teru is always chipper since she has texts with a guy named Daisy who sends her inspirational texts every day. Naturally, the Janiter is Daisy, but she doesn’t know that for a while.

At first, Daisy mostly just helps her behind the scenes by defeating bullies and keeping her out of trouble. After all, his mission in life is to keep her safe since he made a promise to Teru’s brother. That’s when a villain organization decides to strike. They want Daisy to use the virus or maybe they’ll open it up themselves. Unfortunately, this means that Teru is in constant danger. Daisy has to use all of the contacts that he has accumulated over the years if he really wants to keep her safe.

The plot probably sounds more than a little convoluted, but that’s because I covered the slice of life part of the series along with some of the plot. The series is 16 volumes so a lot of events happen as the series goes on. The best part was probably the first half as the slice of life time was cool, but I did like the action that was brought to the forefront in the second half. The only thing that dragged it down was one of the big villains.

His name was Akira. He has the ability to understand and memorize insanely large amounts of code. He can accomplish the same task as a super computer with ease so no math problem is too difficult for him. He can’t fight all that well, but he does battle Teru once or twice. While he could have been a neat rival to Daisy, he ended up being a bad character as his wanting to compete with Daisy angle was played up too much. He ends up attacking and taunting Teru when they first met up and it was one of the low points of the series as it was just a terrible scene and the generic stealing a kiss moment has never worked out well for any series. The fact that it’s played so seriously is also pretty bad as it wrecked any chance he had of being decent.

The other two big villains are certainly better. Chiharu is essentially in charge of Akira. While she acts like she cares about him at some points, the mission comes first for her and sometimes she does seem to just lose patience with him. It’s sad for Akira since nobody wants to help him for the majority of the series so he basically has no friends. She certainly can’t be counted as one although at least she has some honor as she helps the heroes out at one point since she owed them a debt. She can actually fight as well as she took out Matsuda in a fight. Granted, it was a shot from the back.

Antler is the main villain of the series though. Throughout the series, there were a lot of petty crooks and one shot villains who would always end up turning good, but Antler was the mastermind behind just about all of the main characters’ troubles. He was a fairly epic villain, but unfortunately, the series seemed to basically be cancelled before he could do anything. The ending was fairly rushed as the arc ended decently well, but plotlines were still around. Antler basically just threw the heroes a bone at the end and watched them sail away as he presumably blew up. This just made you wonder what the point of it all was. What was Antler’s end game? It seems like he was just testing the heroes, but that’s such an anticlimactic way to die. Just watching the heroes get away like that.

Similarly, one character died, which was too bad. Souichirou was dead before the series began, but he was actually the best character in the series. We mostly only see him through flashbacks and a bonus chapter at the end of the final volume. He was a really hardcore character and had no problem talking back to the villains. They didn’t dare mess with him and I still like to think that he could have survived somehow. The problem was that I figured he would end up being Antler, but they met in a flashback so it’s no longer possible unless he took up the mantle and I like to think that this didn’t happen. Either way, that’s probably for the best as Souichirou turning evil would have been bad for his character development. It’s a shame that he missed the series, but that didn’t stop him from easily becoming my favorite character in the series. He’s extremely brilliant and was still way above the other characters in terms of intelligence by the end of the series.

Matsuda is the boss of the group and he has a lot of government connections at his disposal. He’s very tough and helps to give the heroes that war experience that they needed. He’s a fun character. Matsuda doesn’t get a huge role, but he helps the heroes get a lead whenever the vilains are nearby and you can completely trust him through and through. I was surprised when he lost the final big fight after all of the hype, but I suppose that made the scene all the more surprising.

Another one of the supporting characters who helped Daisy and Teru through the whole adventure was Riko. Riko has been around with the team since they first created the group and she was very helpful during the arcs. She gave Teru a place to stay and also helped to get everyone’s heads back in the game after Antler hurt their feelings. She is certainly determined to see the mission through to the end and made for another great supporting character. For the most part, the series was good with that, but we had less luck when it came to the school friends.

Kiyoshi was a really terrible character and I never liked him from the start. He started out as a villain, but after the heroes crushed him, he decided to go to the other side. While he acts sincere about it, he was definitely willing to do anything as a villain and it’s hard to overlook it so easily. I’m glad that he decided to turn into a good guy and that’s great for his character, but I never became a fan of his. I could have done without him being in the series to be honest. More screen time for the epic dog instead would have been great. One of the villains who turned good had a dog and that was certainly epic. If the dog had appeared more to show everyone who’s boss, that would have been neat.
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Rena is one of Teru’s other friends and Teru helps her realize what it means to have real friends and not to waste your life on frivolous pursuits. Teru also helps to save Rena from the villains at another point. Rena started off as a fairly shallow character who made a lot of mistakes, but by the end she was certainly a solid character and easily Teru’s most likable friend. She’s not as cool as Daisy’s friends, but a good character all the same.

Time to actually talk about the main characters! Teru is the lead and she’s a good heroine. Teru actually gets a few fight scenes, which was certainly unexpected and certainly helped me gain respect for her as a character. It’s too bad that she couldn’t have defeated Akira right away when they first met though. Teru doesn’t always win, but at least she always puts up a good fight. By the end of the series, her bond with Daisy is quite strong and they are able to rely on each other no matter how bad the situation looks. Teru always gives her friends good advice and tries her best to stay strong so that her allies won’t get sad. She’s definitely far better than the average lead.

As for Daisy, he’s also a pretty great lead. His origin story helped to give him a lot of development. He made a mistake, which haunted him for years and years, but he is finally able to get past that and worry about the present. He’s a character who managed to stay upright throughout the tough situations and you’ll be rooting for him by the end. He’s not afraid to throw a punch if the villains start to throw around insults and he has the strength to win just about any fair fight. As a great hacker, Daisy is also exceptionally smart. The series definitely had a strong pair of leads.

So, does that mean that I actually approve of the romance? Spoiler alert, I could have done without it, but that may not be a surprise to you. Still, luckily there isn’t a whole lot to worry about here. There is constant romance of course, but the shaprones are always watching Daisy and Teru so no funny business can happen and the relationship is typically given a lot of time to develop. The second half of the series starts to actually have the two accept their status of boy friend and girl friend more, but then the series gets ready to end. The romance is handled much better than a lot of the other plots that you will see nowadays. It’s not perfect and it could still be better, but it’s not enough to actually cripple the score.

Dengeki Daisy was also surprisingly epic for a Shojo. #ShotsFired. There are actually quite a few scenes with real danger and epic cliff hangers like when Daisy prepares to fight the big boss or when Teru attacks Akira. Some of the cliff hangers felt like something that you would expect to see in Shonen Jump! The plot involving the cyber virus was also very interesting as well since it was a battle of wits between the heroes and villains. Both sides would try to manipulate the other one into making a move so neither side could be confident that they were doing the right thing. The constant deceptions and manipulations definitely made this a real page turner.

In fact, I’d say that it was easily one of the most interesting and enjoyable manga titles that I’ve read in a while. It was just as much a page turner as Bakuman, Fairy Tail, Gamaran…okay, maybe not Gamaran level, but you get the picture. That being said, like Ant Man it did have some issues that stopped me from giving it a great score. The Akira scene is really what hurt it and of course, the romance also helps to put a bit of a stop in the way of a series. So while it could have easily gotten a solid 8/10, I lowered the score. That being said, it’s still positive and I still recommend it. While you’re reading the series, you just won’t want to put it down! It’s the difference between a good read and a great one.

The art for the series was quite good and definitely above average for Shojo. For any manga title, the art would certainly be able to hold its own and I’m glad that it was so good since it helped to make the action scenes more epic. This series did have quite a few moments that would leave you eagerly anticipating what would happen next and I like to think that the art always plays a decent role in something like that.
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Overall, Dengeki Daisy was a very interesting manga and certainly more of a suspenseful thriller than any title that I’ve read in a while. As far as Shojo titles go, this may be the most epic one unless I’m missing something as there are likely quite a few others out there. This is also easily one of the best romance series that I’ve read. That’s good since I can use this as a counter if anyone says that I don’t like any romance titles! Of course, the score could have been higher without it, but I don’t have to necessarily mention that right off the bat! The writing was very well done and the characters were all developed quite nicely. It’s one of the few series where the flashbacks were about as good as the story in the present time. Even the filler adventures like infiltrating a lost tomb that Souichiro built turned out to be quite enjoyable. If you’re looking for a Shojo thriller, this is definitely a title that you will want to check out!

Overall 6/10

Still of the Night Review

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Time for a modern mystery film! The poster is quite good as it takes the classic saying and throws in a knife for good measure. The only reason why it doesn’t work is because none of the characters look particularly intimidating in that scene. Hmmmm….ah well. I appreciate the effort. This film was not quite as good as the last two that I mentioned and it never ended up rising above itself. While I get what the film was aiming for with the flashbacks…it shouldn’t have bothered.

The main character is named Sam. He is a pretty good psychiatrist, but one of his patients is murdered one day. Sam takes this personally and begins to look into the matter. A mysterious lady who says that she had an affair with the guy appears. Her name is Brooke and she works with auctions. Sam forgets that one should always stay objective in a case and falls for her right away. That’s pretty embarrassing for the guy given that she had been messing around with a married man. Doesn’t Sam know a trap when he sees one? It becomes more and more evident that she may have destroyed the guy, but isn’t that too obvious? Sam better hope so because his life continues to be in more and more danger as the cops suspect that Sam’s days are numbered.

I almost chuckled when I googled this film to grab the names and saw that it said PG on the right. This film got a PG….really? You can tell that the Indiana Jones film was needed as the days before the PG-13 rating were certainly scary.The film isn’t that violent, but the Teddy Bear scene alone would make it PG-13 and that’s before the film becomes a horror thriller when the girl appears with the knife. Even the fact that there are flashbacks with a terrible character would make it PG-13 for all of the insanity that he is spewing.

As I’ve essentially established, I didn’t care for Sam. Going for someone who’s already been in a pretty bad affair is not the way to start a romance. Later on, we find out that she was calling it off, but it’s still a bit much and Sam didn’t know that for a while. Sam is also not the bravest action hero that I’ve seen recently. His life is at stake of course so he should be nervous, but going to the laundry room in the creepy basement at life is not the greatest of moves. Even if my life was not threatened, I wouldn’t be doing something like that.

Then, Sam also went to Central Park at night and was nearly destroyed by a random mugger. Again, that wasn’t his best move and the mugger wasn’t even that tough as he was easily defeated a few minutes later. I don’t see how the guy wouldn’t hear the heels getting close to him so he evidently lost in what must have been close to a fair fight. Sam just took too many risks in solving the mystery. I definitely couldn’t get behind him.

Naturally, I also didn’t care for Brooke. The beginning really destroyed her chances of being likable. Especially when you consider that she was hanging out with a guy who seemed to not exactly be a nice guy. She also didn’t help make herself less suspicious since Brooke was constantly acting a little shady and it’s easy to picture her destroying the guy. There are several times when she is following Sam and acting very suspicious so that you can think that she did it. But…did she do it? That’s the question!

No matter who the main villain was, Sam didn’t look too good at the end. He forgets to lock his car door and his reflexes and hearing are pretty bad. You’ll know where the scene is going as soon as there is some rustling in the backseat and it’s hard to even feel bad for Sam. Why would he not notice someone in his car? Definitely not a great move on his part and you’ll just be facepalming as it goes from bad to worse when he makes his last appearance. He basically just yells “Stop!” without making a move. I wonder if the villain will decide to stop…

The film certainly has a lot of misdirection as it tries to make everyone seem pretty imposing and scary so that Sam is unsure of who to trust. The scene with the laundry was a perfect example of this and it was also quite iffy. Someone was certainly messing around down there so were they doing it as a prank or were there ghosts in the machines? I prefer to think that it’s the latter, but you never can tell sometimes.

One reason why the film is not so good is naturally the romance between the two leads as it makes them look pretty bad. The dream also had something to do with it as the Teddy Bear getting injured was completely unnecessary. That was an example of the film just trying to be gritty for the lolz. That was pretty not cool and the film quickly turns into a horror for the climax as the heroes nearly don’t make it.

Still, that’s not really enough to break the film down to a 3 is it? No, the final piece in the puzzle is the flashback scenes with the guy who died. The film is trying to be deep and have a lot of layers by adding in this feature, but it was better off without it. We quickly learn that the guy was a pretty bad individual and almost all of his lines will just make you cringe. It’s easy to see how this guy was murdered and his speeches just bring down the overall quality of the film. His lines give us some hints as to who got him of course, but we could have found out that intel another way.

Did I mention that the cops also don’t look too good? The Detective starts to get onto the trail of the villains so he is quickly taken out of the picture. I suppose that he never had any proper combat training as he was taken down so quickly that it ended up being off screen. Yeah….that’s not cool. He was around a lot, but he never really got anything done.

Overall, Still of the Night is a film that took a lot of wide turns and didn’t succeed. While it started out as your average mystery film, the ending decided to play out like a horror film as the villain moved in with the knife all Jason Voorhees style and started to cut the cast down to size. It was handled decently although the protagonists IQs started to drop as the scenes went on. The film was simply riddled with too many problems along the way like the romance, the flashbacks, and the Dream. The Dream was totally unnecessary and we had to see it more than once. Not cool! There’s also something about the actual film that will keep it from catching your attention. Perhaps it is the characters as they definitely do not grab you. If you’re looking for a good thriller, horror, or mystery film, you can do better. This one is better left at Blockbuster this time.

Overall 3/10

North by Northwest Review

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Looks like it’s time to check out one of the classics by Hitchcock. This film plays out like a James Bond adventure in many ways, which is good and bad. The film is certainly nice and long so there is enough time to fit in quite a few plot points, but the movie ends up being one of Alfred’s weaker ones. It just can’t hold up to some of his other classics, but gives it a good effort.

Roger was just an ordinary joe for a while. He had a good job and he was satisfied with how his life was going. One day, he is kidnapped by a group who claims that he is actually Mr. Kaplan. Roger is angered by these accusations, but he drinks a beer and is nearly tricked into driving off a cliff. He regains his wits in time to survive, but how will he prove his innocence? The police are irritated by his driving while drinking trick and then Roger is framed for murder. With everyone after him, it’s going to be tough for Roger to escape. This will take all of his extreme skills.

As I mentioned, the film is a little like James Bond. One of the ways in which it is similar is how long the film is. The plot is constantly changing as the film goes on and new situations present themselves. It’s safe to say that you won’t see the ending coming from the early parts of the film because of how many transitions are present. Length can be a tricky thing, but this film handles it rather well even if I do prefer the first half of the film to the second.

See, at first, Roger is just your average joe. He is framed so he tries to clear his name after he escapes the country. We get to see him jump on trains and outrun the government. The second half has him become more of a special agent as he tries to deal with the villains. The film turned into a bit of a spy movie as we had special agents and villain organizations. Still pretty good, but a pretty big shift.

In an unfortunate similarity to James Bond, Roger begins to like one of the antagonists and they have several prolonged scenes of trying to start a romance. It goes on for quite a while and these scenes are what brings the film down. Even when Roger is trying to enact a plan or get revenge on the enemies, he takes the time to flirt and ignore the fact that Eve wants him to just leave her alone. How many times do you have to be betrayed to get the message right?

The “heroes” are also more than a little shady. I’m talking about the council who is aware of Roger’s plight. Not only do they do nothing to help the guy, but they actively try to destroy him at one point as they don’t want to risk Eve’s safety so they allow Roger to walk into a trap with one of the airplanes. (Or was it a helicopter?) It’s hard to forget that Eve was in on it so the romance should have been over and done with it. None of that “It wasn’t personal Roger” talk could get out of that one.

Roger’s mom is a pretty funny character to have around. She doesn’t take the situation seriously at all and puts Roger in many tough plights. As far as she is concerned, Roger is guilty and just making up stories to make himself look better. She had to miss a show because of Roger and I like to think that she is holding it against him for the whole movie and that’s why she’s giving him such a hard time. Missing the opera is certainly not fun.

Roger was a likable character for a while, but then he went James Bond and it was all over. The guy stopped being the epic protagonist that he used to be, but he still had his moments. The auction plan was brilliant as he did a good job in summoning the police. He started to act with more confidence in the second half of the movie as he finally began to gather his bearings and accept his role. It’s easy to root for the guy even if I don’t care for his character.

Eve is in a tough spot right from the start. She is forced to make quite a few tough decisions. It’s hard to say whether she makes the right ones or not, but then she shouldn’t have continued to mess around with Roger. There was no reason for it and endangering the mission is not cool if she was still planning to take it seriously. The main villain is fairly dull. He talks a good game…but he really doesn’t have much of a role. He’s simply the villain and there’s not a whole lot to say about him. He actually still liked Eve the whole time until he found out about the treachery as she was his girlfriend before she ever defected. He simply underestimated the power of morality and money.

As with most spy type films, there is a bunch of plot hax to be found here. Right from the start actually as Roger is held a gun point while in a very high class restaurant. The place is bustling with people and nobody notices this. Roger isn’t exactly subtle about the situation and the gunmen don’t really try to quiet him down. You’d think that the place had been deserted and the no witnesses part comes back to haunt Roger. Roger also walks right into a government establishment and allegedly take out a powerful politician. Where were the guards and how did nobody notice that Roger did not actually commit the act? These are the kinds of questions that you will have to ask yourself as you watch the film. Plot hax like this doesn’t really hurt the film, but it will make you shake your head a little.

As expected of such an old film. The writing is very good and the characters all sound respectable. Even the villain is polite in a passive aggressive way as he threatens Roger. I was surprised to see that the soundtrack was also very quick and ready to go. You don’t expect such a colorful soundtrack in such an old movie, but we had some nice tunes. That helped the film really be complete.

Overall, This is another compelling installment by Hitchcock. The main thing that holds it back is the relationship between Eve and Roger as it doesn’t make sense and is unnecessary. Once Eve sold him out to the villains, that should have been the end of that. We hardly needed more flirting after that. The film is quite long and the film uses this effectively. You’re in for a good ride in this film despite its faults. I recommend this film if you’re really into the James Bond films and you would probably like it even more than I did. However, if you’ve seen some of Hitchcock’s other thrillers like Dial M for Murder, you may find it to be a bit lacking. This film was extremely close to getting a positive rating after all, but I don’t do .5s so it had to be held back.

Overall 5/10

And Then There Were None Review

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It’s time to look at a really retro film. This title came out almost 10 years before the original Godzilla, which shows that it has certainly seen a long film history. You’ll be reminded of Clue almost instantly as the film begins. Little did I realize that this one would even beat Clue (Granted that it’s been a while since I saw that film) and this could be one of the best mystery thrillers that I’ve ever seen! It certainly surpassed my expectations.

The film opens with quite a few different characters entering a mysterious house. They have all been called here under various pretenses, but then they start to figure out that something is a wrong. A voice emanates from the shadows and accuses them all of various crimes involving murder. They were never brought to justice for their past deeds so the host has decided that it is his job to prosecute the characters. Can the 10 criminals trust each other long enough to come up with a plan or are they simply going to die until the title of the film rings true!?

The premise is a good one although it can be difficult to execute it properly. If this film had come out 50 years later, I’m sure that the director would have made this more of a modern slasher film where everyone dies in the diciest ways possible. Luckily, this was the 40’s. Back when everyone had constraint and the film is actually very tame considering the fact that the body count is quite high. All of the violence is off screen and their fates were all rather simple and direct. The film knew that the best way to go about this was to be direct and to the point. It worked like a charm!

As I always say, one of the best things about mystery films is trying to figure out who the culprit is. Likewise, the best thing in a slasher film is trying to figure out who’s going to live if you think that anyone will survive the experience. Needless to say, I tried to do both here. I was right about the character who lived through this, but I was wrong about who the culprit was. Ah well, 1/2 isn’t all that bad when you think about it. No worries, there are no cop outs here although one scene will have you questioning it quite a bit. I find it a little hard to believe personally. The crossed out section quickly mentions the scene and while I tried to make it spoiler free, you should still skip that paragraph until you watch the film. Since this is a mystery film, such potential spoilers are more important to mention than usual.

The scene in question involves a possible injury. It’s hard to elaborate on that without spoiling the film, but do you think you could tell if someone was shot or not if you had a clear view of the supposed bullet hole? It’s safe to say that you would be able to discern such a thing with ease. It’s actually tougher on the viewer than the character because you could just assume that the special effects were not up to snuff so it is hard to tell if the character is injured or not. It is a valid excuse for a movie watcher, but not for the characters inside of the film. There is no way that they would not be able to tell the difference.

That was just a small critique though. The film probably couldn’t think of a better way to go about this so that was still a mostly acceptable way of handling it. Trust me, it could have been much less believable! The atmosphere is very cloudy and mysterious, which suits the film. It is definitely a title that would be much different if it had been in color. I’m hesitant to say that any film is better in black and white, but it certainly worked for me here. For a mystery, black and white just seems to make sense.

Naturally, the most important factor for this film was going to be the cast of characters. You need a likable bunch or else you’re going to start rooting for the villain. After all, two wrongs don’t make a right, but the heroes have gotten away with murder…haven’t they? the ending does a good job of stopping this actually as the ending addresses everything, which makes the film happier than it might have been otherwise. Let’s just say that the crooks don’t necessarily get away with anything, but things are more complicated than they appear on the surface.

Of course, it’s also the kind of film where you don’t tend to remember any of the names after watching it. You will be able to recall how the characters looked and acted, but the names simply weren’t unique enough to recall. That’s all right though since the characters are the important part. The team is made up of 10 fugitives and then we’ve got the butler and his assistant. I’ll try to quickly give you a rundown of them so you can decide who is shady and who isn’t.

The butler is…the butler. What else can you say about this guy and why you should suspect him? He serves the food and knows the mansion better than the rest of the characters. The assistant doesn’t seem to like any of the other characters and she wants to get away from the mansion as soon as possible. Maybe she has a strong motive eh? We have the main character who seems like a really nice lady who is oblivious to the danger at first. Surely such a nice soul could not be the mastermind…right? An older lady is also present who loves knitting. She loves to voice aloud her agreement with Mr. Owens (The boss behind the shadows) in the fact that the fugitives (Minus herself) need to be punished with death. Maybe she is simply giving them a hint! There’s a crazy guy who loves singing and making the atmosphere morbid. He definitely seems suspect! There’s a judge of sorts who seems to be brilliant. He’s constantly making deductions and he is always able to make an airtight case against whoever is allegedly guilty at the moment. Maybe he’s turning the team against each other? A doctor is also in the house and he likes beer although he doesn’t admit to it. Is he trying to forget his wicked deeds before destroying the rest of the cast? You certainly can’t trust anyone who’s not being honest with the cast. We also can’t forget the guy who is always agreeing with the Judge. He is easily swayed by opinions and he’ll follow whoever seems to have the best idea. Perhaps he is saving his cunning mind for when he will truly need it! Finally, we’ve got the generic American, action hero. This guy’s cool, calm, and collected. He’s also armed with an illegal handgun that he is pretending to not possess. Hmmm….nothing shady about that eh? I believe that I named all of the main characters or at least I hope I did. If I left anyone out, it was just accidental misdirection…..

As I mentioned earlier, the ending is fairly satisfying with a little humor involved as well. For some context, my favorite character was the driver of the ship who was taking the 10 convicts to the private island. He was having fun with his sandwich and he certainly knew the score. Unlike the main characters who were fighting for their lives, the captain was just sleeping at home! He makes it back to the island for the ending and it is safe to say that he handled the situation quite well. The film ends there, but I have no doubt that he will be ready to take the win.

There are two elements to the plot that I did not mention earlier so I should quickly elaborate on them. For starters, the heroes cannot leave the island because the boat only comes on Mondays. Or, the next boat is on Monday. Either way, they have to survive 3 nights if they want to stay alive. Moreover, every character is dying according to a creepy poem that is in the house. The villain wants to stick to the script so that should at least give the heroes a heads up on what’s about to happen to them…if they heed the poem of course!

Overall, The film’s title allows you to quickly get yourself interested in what’s about to happen and the film executes the plot to perfection. There is little room for improvement here as the film really does a good job on all areas. The characters are interesting and the pacing is nice and quick. The ending is solid and the film was a slasher while still staying true to the mystery element. There are few films that I would recommend sooner from the 40’s than this one…if any. I highly recommend checking this film out and if you love a good mystery, it is safe to say that you will greatly enjoy this one!

Overall 8/10

Witness for the Prosecution Review

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Looks like it’s time for a court room drama! I always liked that genre in a film as it is a lot of fun to see what goes on in the court room! There aren’t a whole lot of films that deal with this when you really think about it. This film came out a long time ago, which certainly raised the bar for it as I began to watch the film. Would it succeed or would I need to go make a sandwich for myself? Only time would tell!

The plot is that Leonard has been accused of murder. There is a lot of evidence against him so this seems like a done deal. He became acquainted with an older lady and then she mysteriously died. Leonard is now the first in line to inherit her vast fortune so this looks very suspicious. He goes to Wilfrid for help since Wilfrid is known as the best in the biz in this kind of work. Unfortunately, Wilfrid’s heart is weakening fast and his health is not what it used to be. He decides to take a gamble and accepts the case…even though it may be his last! Time is ticking and Wilfrid must find some way to prove his client’s innocence. This will likely be his most difficult challenge yet!

Wilfrid is a bit of a dicey character. He has his pros and his cons, but the cons ultimately win out. He’s the kind of guy who likes to insult and belittle people as often as he can. He is constantly rude to his nurse to the point of exaggeration that makes him rather hard to like. He simply goes too far in his threats. As sad as that may be, it also makes him a powerful force in the court room since nobody..not even the judge can intimidate him. Wilfrid sets the tone whenever he is in a room and he makes his presence clear. I didn’t like the character, but you can’t deny that Wilfrid is good at what he does. It’s no wonder why he never loses. Although, the circumstances here were a little deeper than they appeared to be on the surface.

The only area where I do feel bad for Wilfrid is in the health department. Because of his deteriorating health, he has to take constant shots, which would likely put anyone in a foul mood. The needles also look rather painful and this was before we got the pain relievers so you can imagine how sad this is. Luckily, Wilfrid still has some mild positives to keep his mind off of this. Like the chair that is installed into the wall. It’s cool that this concept still exists as I still see commercials of it all the time online. It would be pretty awesome to have around the apartment…even if I don’t have any stairs!

The court scenes are naturally the highlight of the film. The judge was legitamite and not a fake one so everything was played seriously. The opposing side did a good job of trying to prove that Leonard was guilty as well, which made the battle more interesting. The proceedings take up most of the film as they should, which helps the court case really feel intense. Wilfrid’s job would have been a lot easier if he had a better client, but at least he got to speak his peace.

Leonard certainly didn’t make things easy for Wilfrid though. He constantly panicked, yelled, and spoke out of turn. I was almost surprised that the judge didn’t kick him out at one point or just throw on some extra charged. “Contempt of court” or something like that right? Leonard isn’t a likable character naturally so you have to decide if you think he is guilty or innocent. After you make your decision, you are free to enjoy the case!

The writing is naturally very good here. There is a good amount of humor, but none of it is very obvious or annoying. It’s subtle things here and there that will make you smile. When one of the possible villains managed to defeat Wilfrid’s secret eye exam, you knew that things were definitely going to be tricky. Wilfrid’s whole personality can also be funny when he isn’t being too over the top. I still don’t like the lead, but he managed to have his moments.

The cast is very small here. Apart from Wilfrid and the client, we also have the client’s wife, a nurse, and Wilfrid’s partners. That’s just about it and it’s safe to say that Wilfrid’s partners appear to be out of their league right from the start. You could say that it’s all up to Wilfrid and without him Leonard probably wouldn’t have a chance. Trust me…Leonard is not used to talking to a judge in court! The small cast works though since that gives all of them a little more time for development. The partners may not be that useful, but they are still likable. The nurse also gives the whole situation her best and is a good character. The client’s wife appears to be rather devious and Wilfrid certainly doesn’t trust her.

I was fairly close to giving this film the ole 7, but something stopped me. The film went into flashback mode on more than one occasion and one of those times did take a star away. It was the origin of how Leonard met his wife. The flashback simply didn’t do the film any justice. We got a ton of romance scenes that didn’t do wonders for either of the characters and it also made the army joes look rather bad as well. This plot dragged on quite a bit and was the only part of the film where I can say that. It just goes to show that flashbacks aren’t always necessary..they rarely are.

The fate of the old lady is also sad. Luckily, it’s completely off screen, which is always preferable in these situations. Still, she seemed like such a nice person so it’s too bad that she got a bad roll of the dice. She was way too attracted to Leonard, but it’s possible that she just wanted someone to talk too. Either way, that’s why you need to have some hobbies so that you will have things to do when you’re older. After all, what’s the point of having unlimited free time if you don’t have any way to use it right?

As this is essentially a mystery film, get ready for some fakeouts and an ending that you may not see coming. I always like it when a film ends on such a note and the ending here is rather intense. It’s one of those, “Nothing matters anymore so I can do what I want” moments for one of the characters so things take a sudden spin. Where would we be without more endings like this right? That’s why they always say…it’s not over until it’s over!

Overall, This was a solid film. I definitely recommend it if you are interested in the law of like a good mystery. The writing is very good and the characters have strong personalities, which helps to keep you entertained throughout the film. You’ll want to really stay alert as you watch the movie to pick up as many tidbits as possible so that you can decide whether Leonard is innocent or guilty as the trial starts. I always find these films to be much more enjoyable if you try to guess the outcome first. At least, I’d say that this applies to all mysteries. You’ll also want to root for the nurse as she tries to keep Wilfrid away from the form of incoming death that is…the cigar!

Overall 6/10