Tag Archives: Mystery

Finger of Guilt Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right it’s time for a Noir title with pretty good atmosphere and an engaging plot. There is something that holds it back though and that’s the main character. He really didn’t handle things all that well here and really dug his own grave at times. That makes it so that the villain’s plan feels rather convenient as it just should not have worked at any point.

Reggie is a guy who wants to have a good Hollywood career but he has no self control. The guy got into a big fight and ended up losing his job the first time around because he was messing around and had an affair with his boss’s wife. Not a very smart move right? Then after that he finally got married to the daughter of another person he’s working for but at least this time that doesn’t mean he was cheating. The problem? Letters have started coming in from a lady who claims to have been going out with Reggie. He denies it but his wife is taking this very seriously and is worried at this point. Reggie has to set this straight but part of him wonders if maybe this is real and he just forgot.

So this is where the story loses me a little bit. Every time this kind of mystery happens, the main character starts to wonder if maybe he’s crazy. Maybe somehow he did have a secret relationship with someone and forgot about it. You can see how crazy that is right? These characters get gaslit so easily and it doesn’t make any sense. You know if you did or didn’t do something and there’s no way someone should ever be able to convince you otherwise. It’s just really convenient for the villains.

Meanwhile, Reggie looks awful once he goes to confront her. For starters he is immediately flustered and even goes as far as to try and hide the picture of him that was on her desk. This just made it very easy for her to walk in and point out to the wife that he hid it for some reason. Odd behavior if they’ve never met before right? Reggie walked into her traps constantly. Then the worst part was when he decided to make the rumors true by actually cheating on the wife with this lady.

I feel like the film really skims past this when it’s an extremely big moment. Literally he just gets drunk and decides to get together with her. Later on he said it’s because he wanted to test how far she would go if it was an act but that’s just an excuse. Of course she would go far because it just makes her story better and better. This guy really did not think things through and so later on when he’s upset and complaining about how he did nothing wrong….it’s not true because he did. This guy has no self respect or decency about him. It just ends up all being a big mess.

This is a Noir mystery and part of the fun is in seeing how things will play out so I won’t go too far into the twists but what I can say is that the villains are super lucky here. Their plan just shouldn’t work in any sane universe. Usually in a film like this you would have the mysterious lady blackmailing Reggie which is what gets him to respond but that doesn’t happen here. She never asks for money or anything and just sends him letters so that he can’t report this to the police. So all he had to do was tell the wife that the person sending letters is lying and that’s it. It only became suspicious initially because he decided to try and hide the letters instead of immediately telling his wife about them.

Then later on, all he had to do was say that the lady was crazy and move on. Instead he takes her out to a bar without telling the wife and she catches him. It’s crazy misunderstandings like this that happen time and time again in the movie. There’s always someone walking in at the perfect moment to hear something and then the situation gets worse. Once the mystery is unraveled and we get to the actual villain, Reggie has just been compromised too much by that point.

The actual main villain is also super petty and whiny. There’s nothing much to like about that character at all. This may be starting to sound rather negative but basically it’s just that the character cast is really weak. Fortunately a Noir mystery is about much more than the characters. The writing and tension means that this is still a good title, just be prepared to be rolling your eyes a whole lot throughout the movie. You just can’t feel bad for the main character at all.

Overall, Finger of Guilt is a good movie but Reggie really makes things too easy. I would argue that the villains’ plan was about as flimsy as it gets. It revolves around a ton of very convenient things happening and Reggie handling them all in the worst way possible. The writing is still good otherwise but the whole thing doesn’t feel very plausible. At least we do get a little action in the end as they manage to squeeze in a fight. I wasn’t really expecting that at such a late point in the game so it was a pretty interesting way to go. I feel like I spent most of the review talking about Reggie because he’s so awful but it’s also because the plot of the movie is very straight forward particularly when I’m not really talking about the twists. It’s him trying to figure out what’s going on while also going insane the whole time. I would have given him a sadder ending to wrap things up to be honest. Even though she was one of the villains, the mysterious lady was a lot more likable than the protagonist.

Overall 6/10

Knives Out Review

Posted on by
Reply


This was a really big murder mystery film when it first came out. We don’t get a lot of big budget types like this one so it’s always cool when they show up. Murder mysteries are a lot of fun after all and especially when they throw in a lot of suspects so you can really have fun trying to guess who it is. This one certainly had me guessing for a while because this kind of film always has so many twists. I was actually expecting a certain twist to happen at some point but it would have been a really hard sell so it’s for the best that the film didn’t go there.

The movie starts with a big family all converging on a rich mansion. The reason for this is that the head of the family is now dead after seemingly committing suicide. So this should be an open and shut case but the world’s most skilled detective Montblanc is here for some reason. It’s very strange to see him here if there is no murder or criminal action afoot and the cops are assisting him with some kind of investigation. So now the clock is ticking and every member of the family is rather suspicious. They all really have big motives to murder him except for his nurse Maria who got along with him really well and has a good alibi. In fact she has the rare ability where her body forced her to puke whenever she tells a lie. This will be super handy for Montblanc to have on his team so he recruits her as his assistant.

So lets talk about all of the suspects here. First to understand the suspects we have to understand the victim. Harlan is the man who died and he was super rich thanks to his best selling murder mystery novels. The guy’s family really treated him like a bank and they were always trying to get rich off of him which is rough. It is the one part about being rich that i do think would be tough as it’s hard to form normal relationships at that point. Still, Harlan is a fairly intelligent guy and he has decided to cut everyone out. It’s a pretty smart move to be honest and he just has to be careful on the execution because you never know what the other characters may try and do.

Okay so the first suspect is his maid Fran. She’s the first one to find the body after all. She doesn’t have much of a motive for murdering him beyond the money but she had opportunity and time to do so. Of course this is all assuming tat there even is a murder since this appears to have been a suicide but you have to assume that someone is guilty or you wouldn’t have a complete murder here right? Fran’s role isn’t super large next to other characters. She’s okay but really not very intelligent at all and makes one of the worst mistakes that I’ve seen in a while.

The next suspect is Ransom who stormed out of the party really early and so there is a large block of time for which he is completely unaccounted for. Rather suspicious right? He has a big motive here as he was not going to be included in Harlan’s will. So that means he gets nothing out of the inheritance at all but if he bumps Harlan off quickly enough perhaps the new will won’t have taken effect yet and the old one will still be around where he does get some money out of it.

The will itself is a bit of a controversial topic but I agree with Harlan here. A widely accepted notion is that you need to take care of your family. So even if they’re awful, you include them in the will in some capacity. I get it but I definitely do disagree 100%. If you weren’t a good person or we weren’t close at all then why would I put you in my will? I’d rather just give 100% to a nice co-worker or friend. If I don’t know anyone at all then I’ll donate to a bunch of charities but I wouldn’t give to family just because they’re family. In general I don’t tend to buy into very many traditions that are obligation based. That’s just not who I am.

Then there is Linda who is fairly successful thanks to Harlan’s checks and influence. Without him though, the money will dry up quickly and so she definitely needs to be a big part of his will. If he was going to cut off his assistance to her, then it would make sense to bump him off right away. She’s a fun enough character but you can definitely feel how selfish she is from the jump. Of course that’s pretty much the case for every character here.

Richard has a massive motive as he was cheating on his wife and Harlan found out about it. So bumping him off would be a way to take the secret to the grave or at least that would be the main idea here. In general Richard is always upset about something and he’s an entertaining character with all of the grumbling but probably not somebody you would really want to be around. One of the guys he grumbles with is Walt, Harlan’s son. Walt’s big motive here is that Harlan was about to fire the guy from his job which meant that Walt would have to actually start earning his own living soon. That’s likely not something that would come very easily to him so it puts him in a pretty tough spot there. He’s also very quick to start making threats so you know that he can’t really be trusted.

Next suspect is Joni who is into the very abstract spiritual stuff. She believes in keeping an open mind and always being peaceful but of course this goes out the window once money is involved. She needs money and so if Harlan won’t send her checks anymore then that’s going to be a big problem. Again she’s a very selfish character who only looks out for herself and is more than willing to bump someone off. Her daughter Meg isn’t in a great position to be bumping anyone off. She’s definitely not loyal at all and at the end of the day is about as trustworthy as all of the others which means that she is not trustworthy but it’s harder to picture her bumping anyone off.

There’s also Jacob who is another kid that’s really here to mess around. He’s definitely annoying but hard to consider as a murder suspect. Of course everyone is a suspect but you figure this was a grownup task. Well, Montblanc will have to work hard to figure it out. He’s definitely a really fun detective and I really enjoyed the accent. Adding that in was a real genius move if you ask me because it does help him stand out among the other characters. I definitely haven’t seen another big detective with that voice before. Montblanc also has a good sense of humor and tends to steal the show in all of his scenes.

Maria is also a good heroine although a bit weak willed I have to admit. She is the kind of character who can definitely be swayed with a little social pressure and I was hoping she would be a bit bolder. She has her big moments here and there and is a nice person to be sure but for example if someone’s asking for a lot of money then you can’t give it away. It was crazy to see her actually considering letting go of all her immense wealth so quickly when confronted by the other characters. That’s just messed up. I’m telling you there’s no way I’d even remotely consider giving away the money for even half a second here. That’s not even counting the fact that they were not subtle in how they didn’t care much for her initially. Then you’ve got the threats, etc. Yeah Maria was way too much of a pushover in this film.

The only real negative I’d have here is more of a minor one. The gimmick of the main heroine puking every time she tells a lie was pretty gross. It happens quite a lot in the movie too so that we can really see the ability. Of course I get what they were going for here and it’s super handy in solving the mysteries but at the same time I would have preferred any other kind of gimmick. Like maybe telling a lie makes her suddenly bark or do a backflip. Something a little less gross you know?

Again, this is pretty minor but ugh those moments could really be hard to watch. The visual effects for the film are really good though. We get the really cool background with the knives that are sticking out of the wall and of course the mansion looks really good. It’s got a very grandiose feel to it. The soundtrack is more on the calm side as it’s just a subtle backdrop while the mystery is being solved. It makes sense but of course I wouldn’t have minded a few rock songs to have been thrown in here and there.

Overall, Knives Out is definitely a great film. It brings back all of the classic mystery elements in a big budget adventure for the modern day. There’s a lot to love for this title from start to finish and it has a lot of replay value. I would definitely recommend checking it out as soon as possible. We’ll see if the sequel can possibly stand up to this one. It would seem that most definitely think it pales in comparison so we’ll have to see if it can make a comeback somehow.

Overall 8/10

Paycheck Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film with a pretty interesting premise, in part because I could see this actually happening in real life at some point. Companies want to keep things confidential after all and right now people sign non-disclosure agreements but at the end of the day those are hardly full proof. What if they could just erase your memories? Oh man that would be a company’s ultimate dream! This movie is pretty fun and will keep you entertained the whole time but I do have to admit that the main character does come across as gullible.

The film starts off by introducing us to Michael who basically contracts with various companies to work on specialized projects. After which his memories are deleted and he goes off to live his life. The positive here of course is that he’s making absolute bank. The guy is basically rich because of the missions but the negative of course is that he’s missing massive parts of his life. He’s completely okay with this and feels that it’s a fair trade off though. Well, one day an old friend shows up and asks him if he is interested in a longer term contract. This one will last 3 years and of course he won’t remember any of it. Michael agrees but when he wakes up, it turns out that he gave away all of his money for some reason and all of the records have been destroyed. Now he is being hunted and it’s all an elaborate frame up. What can he do to get out of this?

I have to give the film more credit here because this is exactly what my worst fear would be. When you’re erasing whole chunks of your memory like that, you seriously have no idea what happened previously and that is opening up the door to all kinds of trouble. You can’t properly defend yourself from someone accusing you of something when you yourself don’t know what occurred right? So long story short, I would never even consider doing this even if the money was really good like this. An added wrinkle is in this film the procedure of removing memories is actually super dangerous as well so one wrong move and you will lose all of your memories or potentially even die in the machine.

Michael is one of those guys who usually takes things in stride. He’s fairly confident in himself and is skilled but as a character I wouldn’t say that he’s great. He’s cool with having one night stands since he figures that he will forget all about them afterwards anyway and that doesn’t make for a particularly solid romance. So once he does fall for someone you have a hard time buying into it. The romance doesn’t seem all that convincing and in large part it’s because the main character doesn’t exactly seem like a great guy.

You still feel bad for him of course since being framed is rough but that’s about it. As the main heroine Rachel isn’t bad. Taking aside the romance plot of it all, she does contribute a lot to the plot and can also be rather tough which I always like to see in the heroine. Michael also has a friend in Shorty who is very helpful here. The guy has a bit of an “I told you so” attitude but it is completely justified he whole time. Like this was a bad idea from the jump and it was pretty clear to see.

Now where the film taps into some interesting themes is with how Michael keeps having items on hand that are useful in very specific circumstances at specific moments. It’s basically as if he is following a destiny that is pre written by his past self who saw into the future. I always like theory crafting with time and looking at all of the different ways it could work. Basically, if you can see into the future then does that imply that your future is written in stone, you are just seeing one possible version?, or was that the future but the instant you saw it, it has now changed since you can effect things?

Personally I always go with the one possible version theory because to me it makes the most sense by far. You should be able to change the future once you have seen it and everything being pre written is just hard to buy for me. That said, this one is mainly going in that direction as Michael saw the future and planned things out extremely carefully in a self fulfilling cycle where he saw what was going to happen and made sure that it did. So what happens when two people see the future? Well that’s another interesting one.

The climax is pretty fun as it deals with all of that. On the whole I wouldn’t say the film is super action packed or anything like that but there are a whole lot of chase scenes. We also get the government involved which is always fun. Of course they do tend to get in the way a lot at first as they take everything at face value and fall for the villain’s traps. The fact that they went straight to torturing the lead and nearly frying his brain was a really bad look for them. Come on now can’t they at least pretend to not act like the villains for a little while?

Overall, Paycheck is a pretty fun. On its surface it’s just a classic action thriller but the time manipulation and sci-fi elements help to make it stand out. It has some interesting themes there and while that’s never the focus, it is still a fun little thing to touch on even if it’s just temporary. I’d recommend checking this film out, it’s a solid cautionary tale about how technology can get really dangerous really quickly if you rely on it too much. At the end of the day I personally recommend not letting anyone mess with your memories, but hey that’s just me. Also important to note that even if you don’t remember something, it still happened. So Michael’s idea here about doing stuff since he won’t remember it later on…yeah not a very good idea.

Overall 7/10

The Accountant Review

Posted on by
Reply

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 saw this film a little while ago and it’s definitely a solid action film all around. I remember the trailers and promotions for this one really well. The idea of an Accountant being the main character who is also a fighter and it was enough to get some eyebrows raised. Now granted, the film plays out a little differently than I expected since I was basically expecting accountant by day and Punisher by night but the route the movie goes is still solid.

The movie starts by introducing us to Christian who as a kid could not really handle any external stimulus. This would result in a lot of different episodes and panic attacks which gradually caused his mother to run off. His father did his best to train Christian and his brother Braxton even if his methods could be rather intense and tow the line of going too far. Well, it ended up working for Christian who is now an expert accountant who has been able to lead an ordinary life. He continues to train himself for stimulus every night using a custom setup at his house. His latest case is to find out if some money has been stolen by a huge company and this mystery goes back many years. An intern named Dana discovered this so she wants to help him out but he’s a solo act.

Is this guy hiding something though? Ray, the leader of the Treasury (Makes it sound like a big gang organization right?) hires a lady named Marybeth to find out the secret behind this accountant. He blackmails her so that if she refuses he will send her off to jail. That’s a pretty strong motivation so she’s all in but Christian appears to just be an alias that he uses and the guy has been the accountant for many powerful gangs and influential people across the globe. He always vanishes once the job is done and contacting him is next to impossible. Will she be able to pull this off?

Now the film is mainly focused on the two different plots, Christian’s and Marybeth’s. The latter is mostly a red herring in my opinion as you keep waiting for the two paths to connect. Of course they do to an extent but not as much as you would think. I feel like this was all leading up to a big sequel where you will have the payoff but even if we don’t get a sequel, I think this works pretty well. It’s a fun subversion as she continues to be one step behind him throughout the film as opposed to finally getting one over on him. Why is this a good thing? Well, it’d be a little cheesy if someone who just joined the force could track down the man that nobody has ever encountered yet. It would just be a little too fast, but give her a few years and that can of course change.

She’s a solid character through and through though. She also makes the right call in the end which I was glad about because for a bit there I was getting nervous. The “call” involves choosing to accept the help of a vigilante or not and yes while that can sound tricky, I think it’s clear that you have to say yes. You’re putting villains behind bars, it doesn’t matter where the intel is coming from. Meanwhile Ray was also a pretty solid character. He should probably tread lightly because he doesn’t want the Accountant for an enemy but I liked his drive. Replaying his backstory over and over was a bit much but I thought he pulled his weight really well in keeping the subplot interesting.

For the main plot, that’s where the meat and potatoes is. Christian makes for a really fun main character. He’s definitely been through a lot so it was nice to see him be in total control in the present. He has his system and knows how to protect himself. He’s also an expert fighter which is nice and balances out his serious side and comedic moments well. It also comes down to the fact that he’s just a nice guy in general. The film throws a whole lot of plot twists at you by the end and the best one involves the identity of the lady who works with him over the phone.

I thought that was a really nice touch and shows how he really helped improve a lot of other lives around him. It’s a twist that I absolutely did not see coming but works perfectly well when you see it there. That’s why it is such a good twist. Not every twist in the film lands though. One involves the identity of the main villain. So here’s the thing, it’s an unexpected twist which is cool but I think it was handled a bit too abruptly. No matter who the identity is, we know that this villain has been murdering a lot of people already. It’s hard to just let bygones be bygones.

While you could say that the villain is a vigilante like the Accountant to an extent, he’s certainly much more willing to cross the line at the drop of a hat. He’s an assassin for hire after all and while the victims we saw were other villains, he does murder them in rather intense ways and based on his reputation you are led to believe that he has quite the body count. All of this is just to say that you’re not really inclined to root for him in the present no matter what happened in the past. I actually liked him a whole lot in his past scenes but for the present it’s going to take some time.

Meanwhile Dana is a decent character although I don’t think she brought much to the movie beyond trying to squeeze some Hollywood romance in there. Christian works well as a solo act all the way through and they didn’t have a whole lot of banter or enough of a dynamic to make the extra character worth it. If she returns in the sequel you could probably do something with her but it did feel like this was probably it for her character. Her arc is concluded after all so the sequel would likely introduce some new characters.

The film doesn’t actually have a lot of action but the fights that we do get are pretty solid. Again that’s where the film tricked me a little because I was expecting a ton of fight scenes but really we just had the climax and a brief fight in the past. The choreography was on point though and the story is engaging enough where you’re invested all the way through anyway. The film can be sad, funny, serious, etc. It has a whole lot of range here and makes for a very complete film.

What seals the deal on this one being solid is the ending. A film like this could have absolutely destroyed itself with the wrong ending but it leaves a lot of room for a sequel and is satisfying for all of the characters. A whole lot of world building was accomplished here as well which is impressive for a stand alone title. It probably needs to sell me a little more on how Christian managed to stay alive for so long in such a brutal business but you could partially chalk that up to luck or him never really being in a position where someone wants him silenced. We do see some of the specifics on how he stays safe like a moving base and all buttttt I’m just a little skeptical.

Overall, The Accountant is a pretty good movie. The soundtrack may be a little forgettable but the writing is good and I liked the premise a whole lot. It really does throw a unique element into the mix (Being an accountant) and really rides that all the way through to the end. That will also prevent this film from just being forgotten because no matter how many other thrillers come out, it’s unlikely that they would end up copying that part of the plot. Even if they did, it would squarely be known as the copycat which just makes this one get brought up yet again. I’d recommend checking this film out for sure.

Overall 7/10

A Force of One Review

Posted on by
Reply


A Force of One is a pretty good film that really follows all of the right steps. You’ve got some good martial art scenes (Even if it does overuse the slow mo a bit so they don’t keep up with the recent action films I’ve seen like Kickboxer) and the film even avoids throwing in the obligatory romance. All in all it’s a well balanced movie and while it may not end up becoming one of your all time favorites or anything like that, it’s consistently solid all the way through.

The movie starts with a pair of cops trying to crack down on some drug smuggling going on and so they tale one of the guys into a store. Unfortunately they are taken down by a mysterious kung fu fighter before they can even get any shots off. It’s a huge deal because both were murdered and so now the cops really have to try and stop this right away. They even go as far as to try and learn martial arts by asking the champion, Matt for help. Matt is reluctant but ultimately gets involved. He may even suspect who is behind this but will even he be a match for such a deadly fighter?

You can understand why Matt doesn’t really want to get involved here. He is a fighter to be sure but this is really police business and it’s a huge responsibility to jump in like that. He’s got a lot on his plate but this does end up getting personal later on in the film which really ends up forcing his hand. Once Matt is serious he definitely shows why he is one of the top fighters out there. I thought he would do a little better outside of the restaurant in his first main fight with the villain but I suppose he was taken by surprise so you have to consider that.

Once we get to the big fight Matt is dialed in and it’s clear that he is more powerful than his opponent. He really did end up being the strongest and it was nice to see him just be able to win straight up without needing a pep talk or anything like that. Those moments can work sometimes but other times you just want to be able to follow a lead who can just defeat the opponents with no real help.

His son Charlie gets a fairly big role here as well. He wants to be a really great fighter but does tend to get distracted a lot. He’s very young and still has a long way to go but he’s got a lot of heart and means well. He definitely could have handled the final situation a bit better but he still kept on trying all the way to the end so you have to give him some credit there.

Mandy is the main heroine here and she is really invested in stopping the cop killings. Her main task was getting Matt on board and she does a good job there. From there on out she does her best to keep things professional while trying to get more info but the film mainly sabotages any chance for them to get too close which is good. With a serial killer on the loose there really isn’t any time for side adventures right? At least that’s the way that I see it here so this really made a lot of sense. Later on when Mandy tells Matt to stay out of it and focus on the match is the only time I didn’t really agree with her. That just wasn’t possible by that stage.

Then you have the main villain and since the film is part mystery I won’t say who that is. He works well as the final boss since he is powerful and can hold his own for a bit. There just isn’t much time to really develop him as a character though. He barely gets any screen time which will also make it a bit hard to guess that he is the villain so props if you figured it out early on. The film probably could have done more with him but I get their wanting to not spoil the twist early by mistake.

As mentioned the fight scenes are good so you’ll be entertained there. The film is actually pretty good about never making the battles too violent or over the top either. It’s pretty clean martial arts action most of the way through and you can really enjoy the battles. The writing is also good which will keep you engaged and the characters are solid so it’s really a win all the way around.

The weakest aspect of the film is probably the cops trying to piece together what’s going on. Some of their deductions just take too long like not realizing until the end of the film how odd it is that one of the officers had clay in his fingers. That should have stuck out immediately and while it wouldn’t have broken the case wide open, it would have led them on the right track. It felt like that was held back for dramatic effect over the actual logic in universe. So the movie was definitely much stronger when it was just focusing on the battles. I did enjoy the light hearted banter and slice of life moments in the middle though. We had several fun dynamics which you could picture them building a show around. Matt helping out the cops on different cases and such. Yeah I think that would have had potential.

Overall, A Force of One is a pretty good movie. The title is certainly appropriate as well considering how Matt really dominates the characters when it’s a straight fight. I think the worst thing you can say about the film is perhaps that it’s not going to be super memorable by the end. Sure it has the mystery angle going for it but for the most part the film isn’t actually trying to have you solve it. You’re just waiting for the villain to make their move and then the fights can resume. The movie is very by the numbers for the most part but this is another example of why execution is so important. It can all be a little generic as long as it’s still a lot of fun and this movie succeeds in that area.

Overall 7/10

Death on the Nile (2022) Review

Posted on by
Reply


I don’t rewatch mystery films very often so it’s rare to be able to go back and see the whole adventure again while already knowing the ending. This is a rare chance where I was able to do that since I saw the original film a while back. It makes for a fun perspective and all in all this is a pretty good film even if the original is certainly better if you ask me. If you can only pick one version I would say to watch the first one but otherwise this works well enough.

The film starts with Poirot enjoying a nice party and then he gets to witness a big shot enter the room. The super wealthy Linnet. Jackie introduces Linnet to her fiancé Simon and begs Linnet to give him a job. Linnet agrees but also ends up taking Simon himself to be her bride and the two get married very shortly afterwards. Poirot finds this out the hard way after bumping into an old friend Bouc and joining the group on a big honey moon adventure. They’ll be visiting pyramids and going on boat trips. The usual rich people stuff. An obstacle appears though as Jackie shows up and decides to cause a lot of trouble. She has not forgiven Linnet for stealing her man and even has a gun at the ready. Linnet asks Poirot to take care of Jackie but he doesn’t want to be a vigilante. Well, Linnet is shot to death shortly afterwards and now Poirot has to solve the case no matter what. His honor is on the line!

So this movie does add some fluff which does drag it out a bit compared to the original. As a whole the film is still engaging the whole time but the new stuff does happen to be the weakest. For example we see Poirot’s backstory which really doesn’t elevate the film in the slightest. He’s a character we don’t need to know about, just the fact that he is an ace detective. It’s a fairly sloppy origin that does borderline on boring but it’s fairly quick. It does lead to a final scene that will have you shaking your head.

The actual mystery is on point though. Linnet is introduced as a true antagonist all the way through with how she callously stole her best friend’s man like that. Now as they say, anyone who is taken so easily is not someone you want to have as a partner anyway but it’s still a huge betrayal. It also shows once again why you shouldn’t have your partner just dancing around with someone like that. Seriously there is no upside to asking your super wealthy best friend to dance with your fiancé. Particularly when he isn’t super well off which is why he needs a job right away. In the worst case Linnet could have ended up blackmailing Simon or something.

It’s also a very involved dance that is inherently romantic. Now I don’t care if they’re singing Jingle Bells or Bring me to Life, the end result is the same. You just can’t let the dance happen at the start. But obviously that means you are rooting for Jackie to take them out the whole time but she is such an obvious suspect that this should set off a lot of alarm bells in your head. Granted, even Poirot gets emotional really quickly here which shows that he isn’t quite ready for a case of this level but he starts to get his bearings. It is a little embarrassing that he slept through the whole thing but hey it happens to everyone I suppose.

Poirot is still a good main character as always and fun to watch. He definitely likes trying to anger the suspects all the time to really put them in a vulnerable headspace where they could say the wrong thing. It’s actually a really effective tactic when you think about it. Now lets talk about the suspects, there are a ton of them. Everyone should be considered one except for Linnet of course as she was taken out of the picture right away.

First up we have Jackie who is a fun character. I do think the fact that she still wants Simon makes her look really desperate of course because why would you want a cheater back. Taking him 6 feet under makes sense or getting revenge on Linnet but actually getting together with him doesn’t. He’s already been tainted and you would be the rebound at that point. Plus how could you ever trust him again? Ultimately she is a high quality character and one of the most entertaining ones in the film but that’s not the proper motivation that you want.

Another obvious suspect is Simon as well since of course he needed a lot of money and we already saw that he is quick to betray anyone to get to his own ambitions. The guy’s only honor code is that he will do whatever it takes to win. So yeah that’s a good reason as any to suspect him and of course if he is the villain it will make Linnet look pretty bad for letting him in so easily. You always have to consider that maybe your seduction techniques weren’t as great as you thought they were and the other party just let himself be ensnared. Particularly when you’re rich you need to be extra careful.

You have Bouc who is Poirot’s friend so he would have many opportunities to slip past the detective by using this knowledge. The guy wants a romance that is being blocked by his mother so perhaps he is taking his jealousy out on the newly weds. His mother is also a suspect as she believes all romance is a scam and tries to prevent it as much as possible. Someone like that might try to end everybody! Then you have Louise who is always treated terribly by Linnet and who had her own romance brutally crushed. Perhaps this is payback once and for all!

We can’t forget the singer Salome who has a gun of her own at the ready and takes no disrespect. Linnet may have said the wrong thing and that was the end of her. Sometimes all it takes is the wrong word. Then we have Rosalie who likes Bouc but their relationship isn’t approved just yet. Perhaps knocking off Linnet will be enough of a distraction for them to escape together. We can’t forget Linus who was in love with Linnet but was kept to the friend zone the whole time. She basically flaunts the relationship in his face and he has to stand there and take it. The poor guy seems down bad so maybe he finally decided to bump her off.

We also have Andrew who keeps Linnet’s finances and may have finally stolen too much this time. Perhaps he thought she would notice and had to take her out of the picture. There’s also the two older ladies on the trip who could easily launch a sneak attack when nobody was looking. There are all kinds of ways they could have gotten their hands on the gun and then that would be case closed.

So yeah a lot of motives here and there are a number of characters who could have been willing to commit the act. Part of the focus here is that just about nobody liked Linnet at all so they weren’t even sad to see her go. It’s definitely tragic if you’re in her position but she really did dig her own grave on this one. The mystery is solid and so you’ll have a good time here. It’s also long enough where you can really develop all of the characters and get to know them before the end.

As with quite a few murder mysteries I didn’t actually buy into the explanation at the end. The window of time was way too short for this all to work out as it did in the flashback. There would have been witnesses and the whole plan ends up failing at the gate. You just have to shake your head and accept the explanation but I would not say that it was a very satisfactory one. I think the film could have done better there even fi it meant diverging from the book a little. Just rearrange some things.

The film has really nice visuals and good music so the technical elements are on point. Personally this kind of honey moon would not be up my alley though as it seems like a ton of work travelling and everything when you should just be having a good time. I also would not be going anywhere near the hot areas like the desert when I’m trying to have a good time. No shot, I’d be somewhere cold at least.

Overall, Death on the Nile is a solid film. It does end up getting overtaken by the shadow of the original but as long as you’re looking for a solid thriller then you should have a good time here. There’s always something happening so you have to pay attention to every detail. Even if I didn’t buy the whole murder reveal this time or last time, it’s a fun setup which is the important thing. You can always stretch your disbelief a little bit to just have fun with the story. I look forward to seeing how the next installment goes now that we’re dabbling into a bit of horror with that one.

Overall 7/10

Someone to Watch Over Me Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

It’s time for a film about betrayal and ultimately not focusing up in time to save the day. This film definitely gets real dramatic and while it had some potential as a solid thriller, it’s ultimately not able to live up to it. The character cast is not very solid and that will ultimately always hold a film back from its full potential.

The movie starts with Claire attending a fancy party with her boyfriend. She decides to quickly ditch him for an old flame though and heads off to have an affair but before she can, he is murdered by the gangster known as Joey. She quickly screams so that Joey knows she witnessed this event and heads to the cops. They assign family man Mike to watch over her until she can testify that Joey is the crook. So there’s a strict house arrest and in theory Claire should be completely safe since this movie is realistic and it’s not like the villains are everywhere. Unfortunately Claire runs off to a party anyway and while Mike is busy having some drinks she is attacked by Joey who confirms that he will murder her if she testifies. Now she has to decide once and for all if she will be the witness here or run off. In the meantime she can betray her boyfriend Neil once again by seducing Mike who has about as much willpower as a folded napkin.

So there’s a lot going on here and definitely a lot to unpack. For starters all of the relationships here are pretty weak. Neil really has no respect for himself with the way he lets Claire run off and show him up all the time. In general I actually think parties are a really bad environment for a relationship, particularly the kind of party where everyone is getting super drunk. I would even go as far as to say you should never do any kind of dancing with other people once you’re in a relationship. Hey I know it’s a bit of a hot take but me personally? I think that’s a good boundary to have.

The sad part for Neil is it’s clear that Claire really doesn’t like him throughout the entire movie. She’s basically just with him because he has money and is a stable guy. So she intends to go crazy and have her fun now but this way she has somewhere to come back to and this guy is completely oblivious. The problem is this makes it a little harder to root for Claire because she’s such a bad character. Couldn’t they have made her a little more heroic or something? I think that would have really gone a long way personally. She just keeps on making mistake after mistake.

Of course I’m not going to shield Mike at all though. The guy is married and so any fooling around is completely taboo. Mike still allows himself to fall for Claire and that’s game over. It makes him such a bad character. Once you have gone and taken the oath you really can’t be doing things like that. He needs to stay strong and just be a quality character rather than just sabotaging his life like that. The worst part is of course he’s messing things up for his wife Ellie and their kid as well. It’s the kind of thing you can’t take back. There are no second chances when you cheat like that.

SO then you can’t root for Mike either and you’re hoping he gets bumped off in the end. The final ending of the film isn’t really satisfying for anyone. All of the characters were just so bad and it goes without saying that the romance here is abysmal as well since you’re dreading every moment with Claire and Mike. You just knew from the start that they would get together no matter how much of a bad idea that was. The film should have focused more on the actual protection angle and the main plot with Joey. I guarantee that would have been many times better than what we got.

As a villain Joey is fairly generic. He’s got a whole gang at the ready and doesn’t want to leave town since he owns the place. If the heroes actually played things smart then he wouldn’t have had a chance which is why of course they had to go to parties and such. The hostage situation was likely inevitable after a certain point which is why having Mike’s family stay in a seedy area was a bit of a risky move. I suppose you can’t move every time there is a dangerous situation but it certainly didn’t help matters.

In general the writing isn’t bad at least. You actually are invested in what’s going on which is good. It just would have been sooooo much better if the characters were more likable. I guarantee it would have helped the film turn the corner and gain a few stars. When more of the film is about the cheating plot than the actual witness protection then you know that something went wrong. Focus more on Mike lying to Claire about the danger she’s in and have the drama be about that. Get rid of them hooking up at all and instead have more moments of Joey trying to break in or some minions lurking around. Play up the paranoid angle, etc. Lots of ways you could have pushed this to make it a really dramatic film with a lot of action rather than one about bad choices all the way.

Overall, This was not a good film. The main characters absolutely sabotaged it and the ending was very weak. It just wasn’t deserved so I would have handled that wayyyy differently. Past a certain point the film was doomed anyway but at least the ending could have tried to deal with the severity of it a little better instead of brushing it all to the side. I would recommend skipping this film. There are way better thrillers out there that focus on the main plot all the way through as opposed to all of the drama.

Overall 4/10

Suspect Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

It’s time for a big mystery about who the true culprit is. Prepare for a lot of red herrings and a ton of people all trying to make this as crazy as possible. I always like a good court case so that made this film pretty fun and we also have some jury tampering going on which spiced things up. There is a completely unnecessary romance plot trying to get in the way though.

The movie starts off with a guy shooting himself and a lady gets murdered by the river. A suspect named Carl is picked up. He’s homeless and can’t hear or speak which makes it difficult for him to explain what’s going on. Kathleen is assigned to defend Carl which she is not thrilled about but she doesn’t really have a say in the matter. Carl isn’t being very helpful either and has an attitude issue where he keeps on attacking people. She needs to try and get past that to find out the truth but all signs point to Carl being the villain. He was seen going through the victim’s belongings and was conveniently around at the time of the murder. Fortunately Kathleen does have help from one guy, a juror named Eddie who is a lobbyist and used to getting things done. Will he be able to solve the case or will her sense of ethics get in the way?

A big focus in the movie is that of course this is completely not allowed. Jurors can’t try to investigate a case that they are in and vigilante justice is frowned upon. Jurors cannot interact with the defense or prosecutor at all or it would be a mis trial. Eddie doesn’t care about all of that though because he wants to see to it that justice is done and after some convincing, Kathleen gets on board with this as well. Now the question is, do you as the viewer go along with it?

Well for me it’s a definite yes. There’s a lot of things I don’t agree with in the justice system. The fact that I could hold the literal smoking gun of the murderer in my hand and it wouldn’t count if it wasn’t turned in as evidence in time or came out after the trial is a shame. The fact that you can have the crime on tape, but it would be inadmissible in court depending on how I got it is crazy too. So of course you need rules around the jurors so that they wouldn’t all be vigilantes but if they are able to find something out then I say that’s fair game.

So the fact that we actually have a film where a character is able to jump into the court process and get stuff done is great. This is exactly what I’ve been hoping for the whole time here and that part’s really solid. Now the characters aren’t always smart about this like heading into the main research library together to look at old files since that’s where the judge or other jurors would be if they needed intel but for the most part they’re discreet about things. If anything it’s probably easy to conspire together in most circumstances because people ultimately aren’t paying that much attention to the jurors.

Kathleen is a decent main character even if at first you can be annoyed waiting for her to accept Eddie’s help. As he says, “I thought the whole point was to find the truth right?” It’s a really good argument as well because if your client is going to get life in jail or something then you really have to do your best to win. Once she’s on board then they make for a good team. Ultimately Kathleen knows her stuff and is fairly quick to adapt when the situation isn’t going well.

Eddie is really the standout character here though. Initially he didn’t even want to be a juror but once he was the guy got interested in the case and did some digging right away. Deep down he still believes in justice and maybe working in such a corrupt field helped him out with that. So that was good to see but of course the romance does hold him back somewhat. Eddie is the kind of guy who does whatever it takes to get his objective including affairs and while this romance is supposed to be real, it just feels like it’s out of left field.

There is no reason for the characters to like each other except if they just need a desperate fling or something. Additionally there just isn’t time for this because they’re busy trying to solve a huge case right? The romance doesn’t enhance the film and should have certainly been cut out. Meanwhile the film didn’t do a great job with Carl if you ask me. Regardless of if he’s innocent or not, the guy was caught red handed stealing, he actually attacked several police officers including stabbing one of them, tried to murder Kathleen when he first saw her, etc. It gets to the point where it doesn’t matter if he’s innocent because he just committed a bunch of other crimes.

Imagine if the film ended with him being innocent of the murder charge but then still going to jail for all of the other stuff? Because that’s basically what happened. Yes, Carl’s been through a lot but it doesn’t ultimately excuse him from all the bad stuff that he’s actually done. If we were to give him a pass for all of that then it would actually undermine the legal system far more than all the juror stuff going on.

I’d argue it also makes the situation even more unlikely for Kathleen to be quite as helpful as she was. You’d think after nearly getting murdered that would be it. Also the film does need to throw in some danger so we have a psycho running around with a knife too. I would have switched out that plot with more of the political stuff since Eddie’s subplot never gets much of a resolution. The closest we get to that is when his side wins on one of the issues and he is visibly upset rather than being happy about it. I’d say that’s in line with how he’s become a lot more ethical now but it’s still not really closure per say.

Still the mystery should keep you engaged which is the important thing here. There’s a lot going on at all times and of course there are a ton of twists all throughout the movie. You won’t want to miss a beat here and the ending is pretty fun. We even do get a chase scene near the end where someone has to run from someone holding a knife and it’s an interesting scenario to try and put yourself and imagine how you would play things out. Imo one thing you have to do is find a way to make the elevator get stuck so you can’t be followed. Jam a coat and other clothes in the middle to prevent the doors from closing or something.

Overall, Suspect is a pretty good movie but it definitely does have a lot of unnecessary material in it as well. You only need so many red herrings in one movie after all. Cutting out the romance would have been good so we could focus completely on this being a mystery thriller as the heroes get closer to cracking the case. Maybe more screen time into the actual court proceedings as well. I felt like the prosecutor was completely destroying the main heroine purely from an arguments perspective so as the juror I’d be leaning on a guilty verdict but maybe seeing some of the deliberations could have helped with that or more of the counter arguments since we didn’t get to see it all. I also wouldn’t have minded some more scenes on the political end with Eddie really making waves and manipulating everyone. He definitely does seem good at his job and ultimately that works out well for everyone here. If you enjoy a good court drama and don’t mind some vigilante material then this one is all set for you.

Overall 7/10

Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! Review

Posted on by
2


I always forget just how short these films can be but man do you feel it with this one. It just ends so fast and I think that does take away from what they could have done here. Ultimately it’s a fun enough movie even if I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the strongest ones. Just having the DC heroes/villains here is pretty fun. At the end of the day I also tend to enjoy crossovers quite a bit so that adds a bit of an extra punch to the experience right out of the gate.

The film starts with the Justice League vanishing and the culprit appears to be some kind of fire ghost. Clearly he is a threat to be able to take out someone like the mighty Superman. Lois tries to investigate but the monster is too tricky so for once she gives up on the biggest story of her life and instead brings in the Mystery Gang to solve this. They look scared right out of the jump with their credibility diminishing the longer they are in the room but they vow to solve this case and help save the world. Can this terrified group of youngsters surpass their limits to save the day?

Now you may be thinking, what about Krypto? No worries he randomly shows up in the Hall of Justice and helps out. Aside from Shaggy and Scooby the rest of the gang aren’t impressed since they think that Krypto is just some normal dog. I think this is supposed to be funny because they’re used to Scooby Doo doing all kinds of crazy things but now they’re skeptical. Perhaps they are right to be though because Krypto looks very underwhelming for most of the film. When the heroes are attacked by a group of villains Krypto is the first to run for the door and spends a while trying to open it instead of helping out.

He then gets absolutely crushed in his only one on one fight against another dog. This may be a Krypto crossover film but he looks so bad that you may wonder why he was in the title. His role just isn’t as critical as you would expect it to be for a 50/50 crossover like this. I would say Courage got a lot more to do in his adventure. It’s still nice to see Krypto of course and they show off his powers but when he scratches on a door instead of busting it open you wonder how much of his super strength he actually kept. Not enough if you ask me.

From the DC side the main characters here as Lex Luthor, Mercy, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy looks pretty bad the whole time too as he’s so desperate to be with Daphne that he made up this whole rationale in his head. He looks desperate the whole time but no worries he does vanish for most of the film. Lois looks tough as you’d expect and isn’t afraid to take shots at the cast. That said I do find it a bit out of character that she wouldn’t pursue the story herself. Yeah we get a half hearted excuse about covering other stories since the city is being overrun but that’s not quite good enough.

Mercy looks solid here as she tries to balance everything out for Lex. Her role is really satisfying all the way through and the film is able to handle the dynamic with her and Lex better than a lot of other titles to be honest. Lex is hamming up the villain angle quite a bit in this film but you would expect that with the Scooby gang in tow. This is where the film shined a bit more than I expected because I was ready for him to just be the comic relief for a while there but his role is actually rather solid. Yeah he has some anti feats in terms of intelligence but based on the ending you could make the case that it was all an act and I would take that case.

The Scooby gang are mainly as you would expect. Scooby and Shaggy are still running from every threat and generally getting taken down with minimal effort. I still think by now they should have improved a little more so I tend to be a little critical of them. Velma does good in getting hints and cracking the case so I have no issues with her. In some ways you could say it’s one of her better appearances because she’s really not getting distracted and just works to solve the case. You can’t say that most of the other characters in this one.

Fred looks pretty bad here as he keeps grilling Daphne about her and Jimmy despite being in the room when she explained that they were never together. He looks really insecure the whole time and then he gets cared easily and everything. His confidence issues are definitely not fitting for his character since he should always be the calm and collected leader who gets the job done. At his core that’s who Fred Jones is after all. A man on a mission but at least he gets some stuff to do during the climax.

Meanwhile Daphne’s not bad. She gets to fight quite a bit as the films have established her as the best fighter for a while now. She’s able to use Batman’s skills with ease and dishes out a lot of damage the whole time. Honestly it might be time for her to leave the mystery gang and become a crimefighter full time to make the best use of her talents. She could be making a real difference in the city by now.

Despite the film’s short overall length it does still manage to deliver a fairly long climax which I found to be impressive. There is a whole lot of action as we get to see all of the heroes and villains mixing it up in the city. We even get a brief battle between Mercy and Daphne which I would have liked to have seen more of since it would have had a lot of good choreography. So the action at the end was really appreciated particularly since it helped to give the DC side of this crossover a little more shine.

The humor can be a little more on the hit or miss side. I think one issue with the series is that sometimes they do tend to do the same gag over and over until it’s run into the ground. Fred trying to find out about Jimmy from Daphne, Scooby and Shaggy never being able to eat their meal in peace, etc. Still at the end of the day it’s nothing so bad that it would hurt the score big time or anything like that. The writing just isn’t nearly as clever as it’s trying to be.

Overall, Scooby Doo delivers with another fun film here. At the end of the day it may not be one of the more intense Scooby Doo titles but the novelty of having the DC characters in here makes up the difference. If you like Krypto then you’ll probably be disappointed but otherwise just enjoy the DC universe and you’ll have a good time here. I look forward to seeing Scooby Doo churn out more titles and hopefully another big crossover soon.

Overall 7/10

The Night Strangler Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the next film in the Night series. The titles are so similar I imagine it’s probably easy to mix this up with the last one and the film itself is fairly similar so I guess that tracks. It beats the first film but I still wouldn’t call it anything super solid. It’s really going through the motions here.

The film starts with Kolchak getting a job once more as a reporter and his boss is even the same. They may be in a different state but the job is the same. It’s time to crack the case on a mass murder mystery of some mysterious assailant strangling multiple women. This guy is only going after dancers which is rather odd and what’s also strange is the way he is doing it. Some of their blood is being drained. Kolchak has vampire experience but this seems like something else. Unfortunately the only way to solve this case will be to get past his boss and the cops. Can Kolchak pull this off?

I don’t know why Tony rehired Kolchak just to go through all of the usual yelling again though. I know they are kind of sort of friends but they basically spend the whole film yelling at each other. Kolchak will find some kind of evidence to which Tony will just shrug and say they can’t use it. They’ll yell and Kolchak will find more evidence but now it’s getting them too deep so Tony will say no. You just can’t win here and part of the problem here is that of course the whole thing is being covered up and Tony is basically just a lackey at this point so naturally he’s not going to do anything to try and fix that. That’s just not how he handles his business.

So naturally I don’t really care for Tony. All he does is obstruct justice the whole time so he can keep his job and by doing so he is indirectly helping the Strangler. The same has to be said for corporate and the cops here since none of them want to allow Kolchak to help. They are content to keep spinning their wheels without any progress. There was only one cop who was really solid because he actually read the reports and even caught some stuff that Kolchak missed. He was still wrong in the end but at least the guy did his research which is a big thing. So when he disagreed I couldn’t fault him for it because he made a rational argument for his side.

I’ll give the researcher Berry some props because he’s actually helpful here. It’s rare that anyone really helps Kolchak out so that was definitely appreciated. Louise also helps out in the end by acting as the bait although the plan was super risky. It could have easily gone downhill since Kolchak got delayed himself and lost her for a few minutes. The cops ironically helped by trying to sabotage him once again as it could have gotten ugly afterwards.

Kolchak may not be perfect but he’s still the best character here. He gets a new job and immediately he’s bribing people and finding out a lot of info that the others didn’t know. He does take his job very seriously and no matter how many times he is suppressed or threatened, he just keeps on going. Kolchak actually does want to save people after all and deliver the news. He also does really well in the yelling matches even if he never actually wins.

I’ll give the film credit for aggressively referencing the first film quite a number of times as well. When you’ve encountered a real life vampire I would expect that to be mentioned quite a bit. Of course the rest of the world doesn’t know this and would likely never believe it but for Kolchak that was a pretty big deal after all. He just can’t escape the supernatural as this villain is basically a real life zombie. That are some technicalities you could mention but that’s basically what is going on here.

The villain strikes every 21 years and only for 18 days. So that’s a silver lining since the victims will be reduced compared to the average serial killer but it also means there is a fine time limit to catching him. You sort of wonder what the villain does during those 21 years. I figure with his vitality restored he’s just wandering the city somewhere but it’s hard to say. Also it’s nice to see Kolchak doing some more actual fighting in this one even if he does get destroyed. He basically resorts to hiding in the second half.

Like in the first film I appreciated how we got an actual fight here with the cops all trying to take down the villain. It doesn’t go any better for them here than in the first film but it’s a nice change of pace compared to always arriving too late to do anything. If you lose a fight that at least means you made it in time for one. Even then I’m always skeptical at how they all get overpowered. Can’t any of them fight at least a little bit? Even if the guy is stronger enough people should be able to hold him down through sheer weight but they don’t use enough teamwork.

The film does have some issues of including random dancing scenes that don’t add anything to the movie though. It’s established that the villain is going after dancers so we get it, you don’t have to play the whole choreography. Also you’d think security would be up after the first murders yet this guy is still able to walk right into the dressing room and murder another one. I’d definitely be suing the shop and the state if I was the family.

Overall, The Night Strangler is reasonably entertaining. It’s not really anything more than that but that’s still enough considering the fairly short runtime. There’s a lot of murders going on but they’re not dragged out too much. I don’t really see myself rewatching this film at any point but I had a decent time. If you really like mystery titles then you should check it out but if not then you’re really not missing much. There are enough great mystery titles where you wouldn’t really need to go and check this one out unless you really need too.

Overall 5/10