Tag Archives: Mystery

The Net Review

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret folks. If you find out that someone is hiding a gun and manage to get your hands on it…don’t give it back to that guy. Get out of there and if you’re trapped then hang onto it! This film will constantly have you shaking your head as the main heroine acts like she is in a horror movie. It all doesn’t make any sense and you just expect better. The movie has its moments but ultimately could and should have been a whole lot better than it was. It just hasn’t aged as well as it could have.

Okay so the movie starts off with a guy destroying himself and then we cut to Angela who is a computer whiz. She knows how to remove viruses from different programs and so when there is a problem she is the first one contacted. She had a remote job before it was cool! Almost nobody even knows what she looks like as a result but hey that’s how it goes. One day one of her colleagues wants to come over to show her something but he dies in a plane crash. There’s not much else she can do about that so she hops on a plane to go on vacation! There she meets a rich guy so they immediately have an affair but it turns out that he is here to murder her! So she escapes but he has basically erased her from the world and put in a fake.

Earlier Angela let some guy steal her wallet and so now she has no form of identification and is on the run. If anyone catches her then it will be game over. Her only hope is a married guy she used to cheat with but they are up against a very experienced hacker whose abilities may even exceed theirs. His resources are also considerable since he is a part of a massive global terrorist organization. One thing’s for sure, Angela will need to watch her back on this one!

Okay so lets talk about Angela here. She makes every possible mistake and only survives this movie through an abundance of plot armor. We’ve established that she works remotely and stays at home to the point where nobody knows what she looks like. Her neighbors and even her land lady have never really seen her. So when the hacker turns to her and changes her contact ID in the federal database….there is no way for her to fight back. Literally this doesn’t work if she has some photos of her life or family who can corroborate this but she doesn’t. The guy stole her ID rather easily beforehand and she has no backups. (More understandable since this was the 90s) This is already a bit of a stretch but for now we can’t blame her all that much right?

Well she’s supposed to be a computer whiz but is extremely slow on the uptake here. So lets go back in time real quick. How did this happen? Well she went to a message board that’s a lot like Reddit and was talking about how she really needs a boyfriend. The very helpful posters asked her what she would like to see in a boyfriend and she wants a high value man. Someone very tall, wealthy, James Bond meets Captain America (in her words) and someone whose job involves helping out the world. Naturally she immediately gets doxed so when she goes on vacation a super great guy is waiting for her there. (The reason the terrorists want her is because she has a disc that can hack the entire U.S. government and every private company within the country. Yeah….don’t think about this one too hard)

Okay so the villains’ entire plan revolves around her falling in love with this guy as if she’s the most shallow person in the planet. What kind of person falls in love at first sight with someone they’ve just met right? Right……uh oh. The guy invites her on his private yacht and she immediately accepts and they have a one night stand. The whole time she explains that she never does this kind of thing but I don’t particularly believe her. Weird thing happens though….the guy runs out of stamina really fast and goes away for a drink but he left his clothes and in it was a loaded gun.

So if you’re Angela what do you do? Do you A. Keep the gun as self defense because this guy could be looney tunes? B. Throw it overboard since this seems dangerous. C. Give him back the gun and ask why he has it…..or D. Go for the immediate headshot, throw him overboard and steal all the money from his wallet? Well D’s a total crime and would make you a villain anyway but I think option A is the best bet right? Well she goes with C. The guy gives a lame excuse about how he uses it for hunting but wouldn’t you know it, Angela’s a part time hunting expert too? Haha! So she calls him out on the lie and then flexes by showing that she removed the bullets.

Unfortunately he just strangles her at this point and she dies 😦 At least that’s what would happen in 99% of instances but through plot armor she fights him off and escapes. I always say that I criticize actions regardless of outcomes though and so I have to take shots here. Giving this guy the gun back is absolute insanity. I don’t care that she took out the bullets. The film establishes that she is a computer nerd through and through. She doesn’t work out, have some kind of super powers or anything like that. He’s stronger than her by all metrics and they are alone on a yacht in the middle of the ocean.

You don’t give the guy his gun back in this circumstance! You can’t, that’s like signing your own death warrant. It’s one of the worst moves I’ve seen the heroine pull in quite a while. That was just brutal and at least things don’t get worse after that but it was just a really bad moment for her. Getting into an affair with a random stranger you just met is also pretty bad but most movie protagonists do that so I won’t dock as many points there. The rest of the film plays out mostly normal. She used to cheat with a married man named Alan and successfully broke his home as the guy got divorced but then the hackers get him next but she manages to break into the villain’s base and turn the tables. All’s well that ends well and all that.

The main villain Jack is also pretty weak here. The guy literally has numerous opportunities to take Angela down and cannot do it. Put it this way, he very clearly did not even need to hire a random pickpocket to take her wallet. She just went along with him to his private yacht for an affair at night so he had a million opportunities to murder her. There’s really nothing she would be able to do at this point and then he can grab the disc he needs to take over the world. The film has plot armor on constantly and this guy looks completely powerless for not being able to do anything. The movie shows that he actually grew to like her….sighhhhhhhhh. So that’s why he couldn’t go all out but it just means that his conviction was nonexistent.

Then we have Alan who completely forgot the role of doctor and patient in having an affair with Angela early on. At least he is single now so it’s not as bad but the damage is done. It makes it hard for you to really like the guy. The movie in general didn’t have a very strong cast even if I do like the idea of your identity being stolen and having to engage in a whole online battle to get it back. I’d have actually liked to have had the message board users get more involved in the whole battle. One of them was a bit handy at least in getting info but Angela is also supremely lucky.

Seriously one of them was already a terrorist and then she decided that they could still be trusted? She looked up the ages and everything to find their “real” identities but could she really be sure that they were accurate? Angela seemed to have no doubts about it so okay….we’ll roll with that. I will say that the icons were fun though and in general the film had good effects for all of the viruses. It’s fun to see how everything looked back then during the original days of the internet.

The movie goes by fast and the pacing is good. It does make for a fairly easy watch, you just have to be prepared to be shaking your head a lot. The movie will absolutely be throwing you for a loop most of the time. The effects are good and I do like the city backdrops the whole time. Visually the movie looks good and while some of the scenarios aren’t super realistic, on the whole the writing is okay. It doesn’t have any super big issues beyond the romance and the questionable decisions. They do keep this from being a movie that I could positively recommend but it’s far from one of the weakest titles that I’ve watched.

Overall, The Net is one of those films I can rant about for quite a while but fortunately for it, most of the issues are around plot armor and convenience. Those are he kinds of issues that don’t hurt a film’s score quite as much. That being said, the romance is just so rushed here and since it is crucial to the villain’s plan that just makes it even more egregious. If the main heroine had a little more restraint then things would have really been a whole lot different. Check it out if you’re interested in the old days of the internet but the novelty is really the main thing that the film has going for it and that doesn’t last the whole picture.

Overall 4/10

Out of Time Review

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Out of Time is a film that I definitely have quite a few issues with. The main character is very unlikable. Trust me I’ve seen worse but my main problem is that in most instances the film recognizes that he’s not a good person while in this case that’s not happening. He basically gets rewarded the whole time so I’m afraid the story got lost in the sauce. That said, lets dive in here and see what happened.

All right so the film starts off by introducing us to Matt who is the chief of police. He recently helped pull off a major drug bust and is really at the top of his game professionally. Personally his life is a mess though. He is in the middle of divorce proceedings with Alex and is cheating on her with another married lady in Ann. Matt’s one of those guys who needs to learn the value of commitment but that’s not happening anytime soon. It turns out that Ann is terminally ill and will be dying soon so she quickly makes Matt the beneficiary of her life insurance since her husband Chris is abusive and doesn’t deserve the money. Matt doesn’t want to give up yet though so he breaks into his own police vault and steals the drug money. He gives it all to Ann who quickly dies in a house fire along with Chris.

Case closed right? Wrong! The FBI is coming over to grab the drug money so Matt needs to stall them now while he gets more money. Additionally it’s looking like Matt is the main suspect for murdering Ann as his wife Alex starts to close in on the case. Matt keeps lying and doing his best to get in the polices’ way but he can only stall for so long. Can he get to the bottom of this conspiracy in time or is he just completely and utterly doomed?

A big problem here is that Matt is really digging his own grave here. The first problem that is completely indefensible is when he gave Ann the drug money. Yes he wants to help her out with the experimental treatment but he needs to dip into his own savings then. Dip into the retirement or take out a loan but you can’t just give her money that isn’t yours. That is a complete no no and is really taboo. No matter what leaps in logic you want to use, that money was just not his to give and is a huge part of the problem that he is in.

Then he also should have just come clean with the cops about how he knew her. Yeah it’s pretty awkward to admit that you were cheating with someone who’s married because that’s just plain despicable but you did it so you gotta own up to it. If Matt wasn’t constantly getting in Alex’s way during the investigation then things would have moved a whole lot sooner. Yeah Matt would be taken into custody too for misusing the funds but that’s what he gets. So every time he is getting in the way it’s just really annoying.

Because of that I would also say that he gets off way too easily. You’re expecting him to die in the end or at least go to jail but none of that happens here. The very ending is actually awful in just how good things go for him. Alex has the most unrealistic response to this situation that I’ve ever seen. Keep in mind that they were literally divorcing due to a lot of petty arguments involving their jobs. So things weren’t on good terms and finding out that he’s been cheating should have really been the last straw. Instead she asks him a soft question about if he actually liked Ann and Matt gives the most textbook, cliché cheater’s response.

Yeah he didn’t really care about her, it was just one of those things, he was caught up in his fields, it was a mistake, blah, blah. You hear those kind of excuses online all the time and I continue to roll my eyes at them each time. There are “mistakes” like perhaps in a moment of weakness smoking a cigarette, saying a swear word, or even stealing something. You realized it was wrong afterwards and stopped. Cheating? That’s a completely different animal. It’s a huge intentional act that you continue to do because you’re enjoying it.

Matt would have absolutely continued to be with Ann if she didn’t die in the house fire. It’s another reason why you don’t buy into his excuse. The guy doesn’t actually regret anything. Yeah I was actively rooting against him in the whole film so that ending was a huge downer. I won’t go as far as to say it was one of the worst endings I’ve seen in a while but it was definitely not a good one. You do not want to see this ending when you are finishing up a movie.

Now in terms of the thriller aspects the film could be solid. I did like the tension of the cops getting closer to the truth little by little. Matt really had to sweat it out for a while there and it was only a matter of time before they would end up catching up. Alex was a good character who was serious about her job and didn’t want any extra drama. She was doing what she had to and even if that meant working with Alex, wasn’t getting distracted. That speaks volumes about her character and work ethic.

I also liked Chae a lot. He’s a really good friend, probably better than what Matt deserves here. The guy put his own career on the line to help the guy out and was consistently helpful. If Matt was in a jam then Chae was always around to try and bounce him out of it. The guy is good at what he does and is very quick on the uptake. Then you have Chris who is a fairly vanilla villain. As a domestic abuser the guy naturally doesn’t rank at all. By the end of the film he looks even worse as more of a pawn who isn’t very smart. This is definitely a film where you aren’t watching for the antagonist.

Then you have Ann and I can’t say that I like her either. I tend to put most of the blame on the guy in events of cheating but she still takes a considerable share. She is also married after all and no matter how things are going, cheating isn’t the answer. There was a safety issue so of course I won’t say that it’s easy to get out but she needed to do better than what she was doing prior. There are some twists by the end and so she gets some strength points but loses some intelligence ones. Lets just say that the more you think about the climax…..the worse it gets. There are easier ways to do things and complicating matters isn’t always the best.

Overall, Out of Time is a movie that is at its best when it is focusing on the mystery/thriller elements. Honestly make Matt a better character and the entire film would get a lot better. As it stands he does hurt things because the whole time you are rooting for him to lose rather than to get out on top. That takes some of the bite out of the film. It also suffers from an incredibly awful romance here and all of the affair scenes are brutal. It makes this a bit of a rough re watch if you were ever going to check it out again and even on the initial viewing it just isn’t going to compete with the higher end titles. You can definitely do better than this one.

Overall 4/10

Side Street Review

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The tagline here is a little misleading since Joe didn’t just happen to wander into some cash. Nah he just went and stole it. The film’s basically about a guy who becomes a small time criminal but is completely in over his head against the more experienced ones. Look you’re not going to beat a career criminal when you’re jumping in as someone new to the game. It’s just not happening and so things don’t go very well for Joe throughout the movie. He’s constantly on the back foot here.

The movie starts off with giving us some context as to why Joe went down the dark path. He’s not doing very well financially and his wife Ellen is having a kid. He wants to get some extra money and fast so he went the easy route of becoming a criminal. He stole some money from a lawyer while making his rounds but what he didn’t realize is that he stole a huge sum because that guy was another crook being blackmailed by a third group of crooks. Ultimately Joe has just gotten himself into a whole conspiracy and he has absolutely no clue on what to do here. The guy is completely and utterly out of his depth.

Now the film has a narrator that does his best to make you feel bad for Joe. He tries to explain how none of this is Joe’s fault and all of that, how anyone could crack in those circumstances so you should just ignore him. Not everyone would just think to start stealing, in fact most wouldn’t. So the guy’s trying to create a bunch of excuses for Joe and it just doesn’t line up. The film can be a bit heavy handed with trying to make you feel bad for Joe. Sure it’s a rotten situation but he really caused all of this trouble for himself without a doubt.

This is a fairly old school noir with a lot going on so you should be engaged the whole time. The pacing is good so even though the film is not super long, it feels like a lot happens regardless. Since Joe is in the dark the whole time as well as the viewer you don’t get all of the details for a while. You have more context than he does though and you get to have a fun time back seat driving as he makes mistake after mistake. I’m sure everyone groaned in the theaters when Joe decided to leave his fortune with a random bartender. Really now?

That was super sloppy. I don’t care if it’s your best friend, you should never leave a fortune with anyone because that’s a lot of temptation. It’s literally life changing money and Nick (The bar tender) probably should have just left town to be honest. Travel to a different country and never look back. Nothing good can come out of sticking around and he sure found that out the hard way. You literally have kids trying to make a buck in this movie and are willing to sell people out. You can’t trust anyone.

It’s all the most tragic for Ellen though just being thrown into the middle of this when she had no clue what was going on. She clearly would not have signed off on Joe’s plan which is why he had to do all of this in secret. If he had talked things over with her then the whole situation could have been avoided and everything would have been a lot cleaner. Meanwhile we have the main police captain Anderson trying to solve this case but his role is a lot smaller than I would have guessed.

From his scene at the beginning of the film you figure he will be close to one of the main characters but instead he vanishes for large portions of the film. It’s a shame since he’s such a fun character but I suppose not everyone can get to steal the show. As for the villains, they’re fairly standard here. You have the main blackmailer who is confident and knows how to play the long game. His decision to pretend he didn’t know what Joe was talking about when the guy tried to return the money was clever. He wasn’t about to fall for some kind of sting operation.

Then you had the right hand man who was a good enforcer. He was always ready to rough some people up if they started to get annoying, sort of like Joe. Joe also loses more points because he ends up cracking and getting seduced by one of the villains. She broke him real quick and I don’t want to hear any of Joe’s excuses on that. He’s just a pretty bad character all the way around but fortunately in a Noir title like this you don’t necessarily need a great main character.

It all comes down to the writing and story after all. Fortunately that was on point the whole time. I thought the story was interesting all the way through so that makes this one a winner. I would say what keeps it from moving forward though is there isn’t a specific angle that I could say stuck out. It’s a good noir film but if I was recommending a film in the genre to someone then this probably wouldn’t be one of the first 20 names that I would think of. It’s a case of it just being lost in the shuffle.

I suppose we at least do have a big car chase scene in the end. The driver of the taxi was not very smart at all though. Why would you start to run when someone has a gun and really wants to complete the mission? As the driver I think your best bet is to quickly crash into something and then run out while the passengers are stunned. It’s a high risk strategy of course but I do think it should work more often than not and what do you have to lose? You’ll definitely die if you don’t do anything.

Overall, Side Street is a good movie. There is always a lot of things going on so you will want to pay attention to every character. It’s also a cautionary tale about how committing a small crime can suddenly get you mixed up into something big. A crime’s a crime after all no matter how small. I’d like to see the police get a bigger role if we ever get a remake to this so we can see more of what’s going on though. By following Joe it feels like we miss out on a lot of the action.

Overall 6/10

In/Spectre Season 2 Review

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In/Spectre has returned! There aren’t a ton of mystery anime going on right now so it’s always fun to check one of these out. The first season was also fun in part because of how unique the whole premise was. I’ve never seen a detective solve all of their crimes through a bunch of lies before but it really makes sense in part because there should be very few characters who could actually call her bluff on it. Season 2 continues with this and brings in some more fun cases. I’d definitely like to see this show get a season 3 and keep on going because the cases have been consistently interesting.

The first episode is fairly low key to remind you of what the premise is. Kotoko is basically a legendary goddess among the undead spirits and so they come to her with problems to be solved. She will then use her detective skills to get to the bottom of the situation. It always involves some kind of a mystery after all. What separates her from other detectives though is that she will lie in order to put the client at ease. For example she doesn’t always know the answer to the mystery. Other times she does, but figures the truth will not be easy for the client to hear so she changes it up. Often times her boyfriend Kuro will notice that she’s lying but he tends to stay quiet about it.

The first adventure involves creepy sounds in the house. Possibly a vengeful spirit or was there an explanation that’s a little less supernatural? It’s stand alone so Kotoko solves the case pretty easily. It’s probably the least eventful out of all the episodes but as an intro to the season is works well enough. I should also mention that since Kotoko can talk to all these dead spirits it does give her a huge leg up over the other detectives. After all she doesn’t have to question a bunch of people. She can just ask some nearby spirits on the details and then the case is solved. Often times for that reason as the viewer we don’t see her chat with the spirits so she can explain things in the end. We’re kept in the dark until the end so that the whole thing can be a surprise for us too.

After that we get the first big mystery saga. So big in fact that Kotoko basically misses the first part of this arc. There’s a guy named Masayuki who has been having some rather rotten luck. He was thrown out of his own company and then his friend tried to murder him. Then his wife ended up divorcing him so he lost 50% of his assets. Yeah it definitely has not been an easy road for him and he’s been super depressed when he ends up meeting a strange being known as a Yuki-Onna. The legends say that they will slay any human they come across but she doesn’t seem so violent. In fact, Yuki is the one who saved him when his “friend” left him to die on the mountain. Masayuki believes his luck is finally changing but then his ex-wife is murdered and he is the primary suspect.

Because Masayuki has been hanging out with Yuki all day in his house he doesn’t have much of an alibi. He’s also trying to not get her in trouble with the authorities so he’s very cryptic about everything. Now he may have to spend the rest of his life in jail. Yuki needs some help and so she calls in Kotoko to handle this. Surely the goddess of wisdom can handle such a task right? Well, it won’t be as easy as all that because Kotoko also isn’t sure that this guy is right for her in the first place. Relationships between humans and yokai don’t always go very well after all so she tests them quite a lot.

It’s an engaging mystery in part because there was so much setup. Not having Kotoko or Kuro jump in until later was a good idea. This way we really got to experience Masayuki’s life first and see exactly how everything had gone wrong for him. He makes for a decent main character although obviously I can’t say that the romance was very solid. It’s a rebound no matter how you slice it. Also by coincidence Yuki looks a lot like his ex-wife…so that does not help matters.

As a yokai Yuki’s values are a lot different than a human’s so she doesn’t mind having an affair and teases him a lot. To Masayuki’s defense he never crumbles though and does want to take this very seriously. He passes the tests quite well and doesn’t really lose his cool even when Kotoko is slandering him quite a lot. The guy gets threatened and is already in a rough situation but I’d say he mainly takes it in stride. The story really has everything you could want in one of the In/Spectre cases from Kotoko’s constant lying with false scenarios to building up a pretty unique case.

After that we get a smaller adventure where Rikka gets most of the screen time. She decides to crash at a nice couple’s house and they are glad to have her even if they are a bit nervous. She has a ton of money and seems a little shady. Plus her story about running away from some terrible people sounds concerning and then she leaves as soon as she appeared, only for Kotoko and Kuro to show up. There is a tiny mystery squeezed in at the end but this was really just a chance to see the main villain again and how she can keep up with Kotoko in wits. They really parallel each other quite well even though they can’t stand each other.

Of course Rikka is the big villain of the series so you can’t root for her, whether she’s charismatic or not. Also there’s still the very problematic romance with her and Kuro so you couldn’t let her win for that reason as well. I expect she will continue to bring the main characters a lot of problems over the next few seasons but the dynamic is fun. She’s actively trying to murder Kotoko but the heroine takes this in stride and they still seem to have a lot of begrudging respect for each other.

Now we have the biggest mystery in the season. A wealthy old man hires Kotoko to explain to his relatives that he actually murdered his wife. Here’s the thing…he didn’t. However, he hired a yokai to destroy her and so he wants to take full responsibility before he dies and he wants to do this directly. Lying is what Kotoko does best so she’s up for the task but the only other stipulation is she needs to get the relatives to come up with this theory first rather than just telling them. So she has to subtly lead them down that path which isn’t exactly easy. In addition she will have them rank which death story is the best one and then that will decide who gets the largest part of the inheritance.

Kotoko immediately makes some alterations to this plan but in a nutshell the story is really about the whole family coming up with ideas on how the old man could have murdered her. The official story is she was stabbed in the middle of the night by a stranger so using that as a baseline they have to figure out how to tie it to him. As the saga unfolds we see that most of these relatives were quite shady and he wasn’t exactly the only one who wanted to bump her off. The lady had made quite a few enemies in and out of her family.

It’s actually pretty tragic the more they get into it because she did have her heart in the right place initially. The problem is that she became a pawn for the CEO and then the rest of the family were not bold enough to actually talk and help her out. They never voiced any of their reservations and issues. The fact that they were ready to jump straight into murder actually speaks quite lowly of them to be honest. When that’s your first option then perhaps you were twisted from the get go. So none of these characters are particularly likable aside from a niece who didn’t actually have anything to do with the murder plot. Just about everyone else had some blood on their hands.

This helps the saga last for so many episodes of course because there is twist after twist in each one. Kotoko is good at getting the truth out there by lying enough times. Ultimately it’s got a pretty solid conclusion and you’ll be engaged the whole time. On paper you may wonder how the story can keep your focus as it keeps replaying over and over with new details but they do pull it off rather well.

Finally we end with another one shot mystery. In this one a guy decides to finally turn himself in to the cops for murdering his wife however first he gets called to a café by his friend. Has the friend figured it out? The guy figures if the friend finds out then that works too but either way he will be turning himself in. Kotoko of course ends up getting involved too and makes for a pretty fun distraction while the two guys are eating. You’re constantly wondering what she is even doing there and that mystery is explained by the end.

The end of the episode is surprisingly mean spirited with how things go for the guy but you have to remind yourself that he is by no means a good person. He’s a literal murderer so if anything it’s good that he didn’t get off too easy. Yeah this guy’s going to be in for a lousy time for a very long while but that actually makes a lot of sense and fits the crime. The Supernatural legal system doesn’t bow to the moral setup so he may not have known what he was getting himself into but then he definitely shouldn’t have gotten mixed up in this in the first place. Another really solid case to end things off with.

I actually skipped one mystery in this summary. Which one did I skip? Well that’s a mystery!! Yeah I got a little mystery of my own in there. In the end the show’s cast is fairly small so you should be able to quickly know all of them. Right now there’s really just 3, Kuro, Kotoko, and Rikka. I thought Kuro’s old girlfriend would have returned in this season but I guess that wasn’t to be. I like Kuro and Rikka a lot but Kotoko is definitely the weak link of the 3. Her gimmick of constantly being desperate for Kuro can be a bit iffy and she’s intentionally vulgar at times which the other characters really grill her about.

I know that’s her character and effectively that’s the humor of the subplot but I wouldn’t say it lands. The show is at its best with the mystery angle and isn’t quite able to balance the humor on top of that. Usually I like the dry humor style too so this is really just one of those exceptions. Still it’s not like she’s a Roshi character or anything. She limits her teasing and flirting to Kuro and doesn’t mess with anyone else so I appreciate the loyalty. I’d just say the romance isn’t going anywhere fast.

The soundtrack is decent but a step down from the first season. The new opening isn’t as catchy and the general ost is a bit on the generic side. There’s really just not a whole lot to it. The visuals are okay. I’d hardly call this one of the more high budget shows though. It looks good enough to pass by and that’s really about it. So the show is standing on its plot completely without the technical backdrops to help it out. Fortunately when the core of your show is good then the rest will follow suit but I do think it’d be nice if the show could have looked a bit more solid.

In/Spectre should continue to operate on a consistent level though because the angle is just a lot of fun. I can’t emphasize enough how interesting it is to have a detective who is constantly lying and pulling the wool over everyones’ eyes. It’s very unique and it also does not take away from the fun part of solving the mystery since we usually do get to know the truth. In the cases where we don’t, Kotoko at least has a very good idea of what it was and we just have to fill in some of the blanks which I’m always happy to do anyway.

Overall, In/Spectre has another solid season here. The mysteries are on point and the writing for them is good. At times Kotoko can still be a little too annoying and I can’t say her crude personality does her any favors. Fortunately there isn’t a ton of time for that when making deductions which is still the main purpose of the show after all. The overall story of the series may not have moved a whole lot here but it’s the kind of show that could probably stay in slice of life style for years and that would be fine. There are plenty of supernatural mystery stories to tell after all. I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for a fun mystery series to check out.

Overall 7/10

Hero Mask Review

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It’s time to check on Hero Mask. I actually finished this show several months ago so this review has been on the backburner for a while. Hey better late than never right? In my defense the show has one of the most boring openings I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s lifeless, dull, and does not energize you at all. I quickly listened to it once more while writing this review to see if it would get better and it did not. At least the ending theme is good though. The beginning of the ending is really good and works with the cliffhanger.

Now describing the plot is also pretty fun because there’s a lot going on here. So the show follows a guy named James Blood who is basically a James Bond kind of character. He’s one of the top operatives of the SSC and the only thing keeping him from going higher is the fact that he’s a bit of a hot shot. He’s the kind of guy who will jump into a crowded highway to grab a suspect instead of waiting for the light. He’s always getting into fights and follows his code of justice. Of course that is what makes him a fun character.

Okay so there is a big court case coming up and a witness randomly drops dead in the streets. She had been perfectly healthy so this is rather odd. An attorney named Sarah decides to look into it but seems to now be in danger. The SSC are also looking into this but tend to drag their heels. James’ old enemy from the past seems to have returned to life but he’s wearing a weird mask that is granting him super abilities. In fac these masks are popping up in different places across the city. There seems to be a whole conspiracy going on with these metahumans and how does it all track back to the lady who randomly died? Well you can start with the person she was going to be testifying against as a start but that gets you into a whole corporation which has ties to the government and a big circle of rich people. The close James gets, the more obstacles that get in his way. If he wants to find the truth then he may even have to go up against the SSC itself.

At its core the show is mainly a mystery and there are a ton of moving pieces here. The character cast is fairly big and every character tends to be important in one way or another. As it’s a mystery it’s important to keep all of the characters straight in your head. I’d say this is really like a police thriller type of film and since I just saw the SWAT movie it sinks in even more now in hindsight. In a way the supernatural/sci-fi elements sort of distract from this. Now, I’m always a fan of sci-fi but when you’ve got superpowers too then it’s hard to balance everything.

Let me give you an example because this scene was just so crazy that I couldn’t believe it. One villain decides to attack the SSC headquarters. All right so here’s the thing, they have dozens of armed officers in the building at all times and a lot of security devices. So if a guy threateningly walks in then you’re gonna shoot him right? Well, they hesitate a whole lot and he slaughters all of them. Now granted he was wearing a mask so that gave him some regen plus extra speed and defense. It’s not invincibility since we see people shoot through the defenses with enough time but fine lets say the cops just couldn’t handle this guy.

What’s worse is a few minutes after this the elevator opens up on the 20th (Some random high number anyway) floor and an old man walks out with a big suitcase. The guards know that everyone below has been murdered so they already have their guns out and tell him to freeze. What does he do? He calmly sits down and opens up the suitcase. He then puts on a gas mask. Gee I wonder what he’s trying to do? The guards keep telling him to stop moving and this and that but at that point you have to shoot right?

The scientist is obviously calling their bluff and there’s no point in telling someone to freeze when you have no intention of shooting. That defeats the entire point since it’s the threat behind “Freeze!” that is what gives it power. Long story short the guy pulls out a poison grenade and throws it at the cops, then while they’re coughing he takes out a gun and murders them all. It was one of the worst scenes I’ve ever seen in terms of believability with someone breaking into a building. You can’t tell me that at least one of those officers wouldn’t have had the foresight and reaction times to take this guy down? That was just embarrassing.

At times the villains really get lucky because the heroes just don’t know what they’re doing and it’s pretty tragic. Lets give the heroes a bit more credit instead of just having James have to do all the work here the whole time. Now back to the masks, here’s why I wasn’t a big fan of them. The power structure of the masks didn’t make a lot of sense and also didn’t seem very consistent. So each mask does different things like one got super strength, one got regen, one got super senses, etc. It seems to change based on the mask and fine that’s just how it is. They’re all different like devil fruits. Yet sometimes someone with super speed only moves at fast as an ordinary person, some get exhausted immediately while others don’t, some rewind time but then they don’t. The whole masks thing just seemed like a writing shortcut to get the characters where they needed to go when they needed to be there and that is the definition of a lazy writing shortcut.

There’s a lot of interesting things you could do with the masks but that never happened. Another example of this is near the end of the show in one of the most disappointing scenes. So an old man shows up out of nowhere with mysterious abilities. He seems to be able to sense nearby masks and track them plus possibly have some control over the weather. It’s really vague but that’s why the cliffhanger works. He shows up and approaches two of the other big villains and it’s the confrontation we’ve been waiting for. Well the next episode starts and the guy is apparently powerless as the van gets blown up and he’s basically knocked out. It was one of the most wasted cliffhangers I’ve seen in a long time. Whew that was bad.

That episode actually had gotten me super hyped because it was the most intrigued I’d been about the series up until then. Too bad it couldn’t actually go anywhere. The show really could have pushed harder on its themes and the hype moments and made this a lot more exciting. If I’m watching a mystery thriller it’s so that I can get excited after all. Now I’ve been focusing on the negatives but there are still a lot of positives here so I’ll get to those now. This isn’t a bad show, I’d still call it good but without a whole lot of replay value.

All right so the first positive is that the action scenes here do hold up really well. Particularly James’ fights with Harry are really solid. James fights with his hands while Harry uses his legs and so the fight scenes are fairly original with both of them using their strengths and trying to get the other off balance. Harry is the only one who can go blow for blow with James too which is no small feat. I always looked forward to their battles.

In general I would look forward to all of Harry’s scenes. His subplot was easily the most interesting. His girlfriend got a mysterious ailment and so he’s working with the villains since he was promised that she could be healed. It’s a longshot of course and the villains could always betray him but he decided that at least this way he has a shot and so he went for it. I do think he could have communicated this to James at least and talking things out would have helped. Harry did everything the hard way without a doubt but the fact that he was someone who could actually fight already made him a very interesting character. The series didn’t have many great fighters.

I already talked about James a bit but he’s definitely a really good character. He works well as the lead and while he may not stand out a ton, I always like characters who are ready to break the rules to help someone out. When the SSC starts to become obviously corrupt he doesn’t hesitate in getting off the grid to help a girl out. It’s just who he is and you need someone like that when the people who follow the rules without a second thought tend to miss the forest for the trees.

Sarah makes for a good heroine here. She’s very consistent in her attempts to try to get to the truth. Sarah definitely gets into a lot of danger as a result but I was on board the whole time because she tried doing things the “official” way with the SSC and they kept hiding things anyway so she had to go it on her own. Ultimately she’s the one who manages to crack a pivotal part of the case and so she got her closure. Sarah was definitely a fun character all the way.

Lennox is one of the higher ups in the SSC and gets a fairly big role here. Ultimately he is James’ boss so he is able to make sure to go easy on the lead. This does put him in a tough spot with the higher ups above him though. Ultimately I liked that he made sure to go against their orders when they were being unreasonable like when he turned the tracker off and helped James escape. He definitely made his share of mistakes as well but that was a good moment.

Eddie is the tech guy so he’s not much of a fighter. Unfortunately he did tend to get on my nerves at times because of this. The guy just wasn’t helpful in the field and the one time he went in of course someone died. I always feel like when you’re a genius in a setting that is borderline sci-fi, then you have to invent a lot of great weapons/defenses for yourself. That’s the only way to make sure you are useful in combat.

Geffrey is one of the main evil scientists here and at least I will say that he is determined. Setbacks never seem to get him down for long and he does believe in the masks 100% even once they keep running into problems. He even loses a limb to those things and it doesn’t faze him. Although that scene wasn’t smart because why would you get so close to something like that right?

Grimm was a very intense villain. He was the first one to show up and easily overshadowed everyone else so they probably should have saved him for a bit later on. The guy was super impressive in combat and to be honest James wouldn’t be able to beat him in a normal fight. Fortunately for him the mask had a lot of side effects because otherwise he wouldn’t have lasted long. Grimm having what I can only describe as a supervillain codename also helped to make him memorable.

There were a group of special operatives that worked for the villains who appeared for a few episodes but they didn’t last as long. The tense fight in the apartment building at night worked really well though. That was one of the highlights of the show and I wanted to see more quick fight scenes like that. A good police thriller should have a solid mix of investigation and action after all. It’s only when you merge the two that you get the best product imaginable and I think the action was a bit light here.

Theo is one of the first guys to show up with a mask and he does well. Ultimately he just wants to see his family again which is a noble goal and his abilities are solid. He was put in a tricky spot and had to protect people so you feel bad for him. He’s the kind of character where you figure he’s not going to get a good ending right off the bat. It’s just a general vibe you get but he’s solid enough while he’s around.

Other side characters you have here are Anna and Walter. Anna is someone with a lot of connections who knows a whole lot about what is going on but for the most part doesn’t really give that info out. The heroes try to interrogate her several times but it tends to not go anywhere. Walter meanwhile is one of those guys who keeps on making a ton of bad choices over and over again until they inevitably catch up to him.

Richard is a character who has a flashback saga which may seem completely unrelated for the most part but I was cool with it because it was a very tense flashback. Ultimately he makes sure to square things away in the present and then gets written out of the show. He was a fun character to have around though. Ultimately his leaving opened the door for Douglas though who looks really corrupt and shady from the start.

He makes no attempt to hide this at any point which is kind of funny. He’s just always trying to get in the way and actively murder the suspects. It shows how dangerous it would be to have a villain within the upper ranks of the police because he has a whole lot of knowledge like locations and plans that he could leak at any time. Under him is Alan who is a very by the books guy. He seems decent but of course when your boss is a crook then that’s something you still have to watch out for. As the show goes on Alan gets better but he definitely starts off really rough.

The soundtrack isn’t memorable so the show gets no points there but the visuals could be good at times. Like I said earlier the visuals are great during the fight scenes. That’s absolutely when they stand out. The normal day to day scenes tend to be a bit weaker. This isn’t going to be one of the all timers but it works well enough. The show goes by fairly quick even with a little over 20 episodes.

Ultimately what the show really needed was for the mystery to be a little more engaging. I liked it well enough but it wasn’t exactly keeping me up at night. I still blame the masks for this because while it’s a cool concept, it really disrupts the flow of the whole world that was built. They seem way too overpowered and the heroes are just lucky that they weren’t used more or it would have been all over for them. That’s what really doesn’t work about this whole setup. The fights are good but it’s not like they happen super often either.

Overall, Hero Mask is a good show but not the most interesting or engaging one. There’s a good reason why it took so long to write about this one because I had a big backlog because it’s just not super thrilling. That in no way means its bad but you will forget about it fairly quick. I’d say to check it out if you really enjoy the cop thrillers like this but otherwise you can find better ones. The show does have a super sudden ending though which was something. Not the kind of ending that gives you a lot of closure but I would say there is room to make a sequel here if they ever want too.

Overall 6/10

The Cheap Detective Review

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It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a parody but I’m always up for this kind of a film. A well written parody will absolutely go a long way because when you understand the gags and see how the film pulls them off it can really be a blast. I would say that by and large this film really succeeds at it too. It probably ends up front loading most of the best gags into the first half but ultimately it’s a film I would recommend all the way through. There is also a good amount of replay value to be found here.

The main character here is a detective named Lou who is always in over his head. The guy’s not very good at his job and just barely manages to hang in there. This time he is in a particularly tough spot though as he is framed for the murder of his partner. He’s the main suspect as it was common knowledge that he had been cheating with the partner’s girl and she isn’t doing a whole lot to try and prove his innocence. She even shows up with the cops to his door on multiple occasions. Lou needs to put some distance between all of them and quick. He has some leads including old flames and very sketchy underworld figures. Will they be enough to help him crack this case once and for all?

Naturally as a parody this film never really takes it self seriously and you shouldn’t either. You’re here more for the laughs and smiles than the actual mystery. Right from the opening scene they set the tone on this as everyone has just been murdered yet they were all in odd poses and never broke formation even after the bullet hit them. That is impressive to be sure but also really crazy. All of the conversations tend to start getting nonsensical after a while which is part of the point.

One of the better scenes is when the heroine calls Lou up but openly allows the cops to listen in on the conversation. The film even pokes fun at how the hero always has a bunch of heroines after him as he gets involved with 3 during the course of this film and they all end up at his place at the same time. It takes a lot of agility and quick thinking to keep them all from meeting up with each other. Lou is ironically quick witted when it comes to situations like this as opposed to the actual case.

Although the case would be difficult for anyone to solve. There are always more and more twists here as more and more players jump into the action. Also you have to consider that even the best of detectives would start to run into trouble when every character is lying through their teeth and half of them make absolutely no sense. Honestly after the film is over you’ll have a hard time keeping track of everything as well. It almost feels like the characters’ stories are changing as the film goes on although that might just be my imagination. It would be a nice extra detail if that was the case though.

The main thing to keep in mind is just that the characters are trying to get some kind of special object the whole time and you’ve also got a war going on in the background. As long as you have all that context then the rest is easy. You’re bound to be laughing at quite a few of the scenes here and the pacing is good so the jokes don’t tend to overstay their welcome. Not every gag will land for you of course but in a film like this there are always a bunch of other jokes to pick up the slack for the ones that did not do so well.

This film just never runs out of jokes and that’s a good thing because it’s important for a comedy film to just keep plunging ahead without missing a beat. The writing is good which is also important and the story is engaging. As I said earlier my only issue to an extent is that they used all the best material in the first half. The second half had a tendency to just not have as many all star jokes the whole time. It was still funny but the first half is absolutely what put it on the map. That’s regrettable to an extent because the ending is always what people remember so you want to end really well.

If there’s anything the film is lacking it’s that we could have had a good rival to Lou. Someone who is super competent perhaps but somehow always gets foiled. That could have been a nice contrast to Lou because in the end none of the supporting characters were particularly memorable. They all just sort of fade off into the distance by the end and while that’s fine since the focus is on the lead, having one more really distinctive character would be good. In the end I’d say that the main police officer was the second best character as is. I liked how calm he was while munching on his snacks the whole time.

Overall, The Cheap Detective is definitely a very good film. I was super close to even giving it one more star but ultimately I would say a 7 is fair. It’s got a lot of replay value and a whole lot of great moments all throughout but in the end I would say it loses just enough steam not to make the jump to the next level. Either way I definitely recommend checking this film out. The more detective films you’ve seen over the years, the more you will get out of this one since it really does a thorough job of destroying the normal tropes.

Overall 7/10

All the President’s Men

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This was a really fun movie. It’s kinda fun that I got to see the parody movie based on the Watergate scandal before watching this one but that’s just how it goes sometimes. It actually makes the parody seem more and more impressive as I watched this one because they got so many of the scenes done just right to mirror this one. This movie obviously goes a lot more in depth on the actual going ons behind the controversy though. It feels like a good amount of research went into this one and it’s still really thrilling which goes to show that real life can be just as exciting as the movies sometimes.

The movie starts off with some suspicious people walking through an office looking for something. Fortunately the cops show up in time to stop them but when these guys are taken to court they get a big lawyer out of nowhere. the whole thing seems suspicious so Woodward decides to look into it. Initially the Washington Post isn’t sure that this is a big story which is why they put such a new reporter on the case but he’s confident that he is on to something. Eventually the more experienced reporter Bernstein gets involved as well although they don’t get off on the right foot with the other guy sort of shoehorning himself into the picture. They will have to try and get along though because with a case this big they seriously can’t afford to make any big mistakes.

As with just about any movie based on a true story I’d be willing to bet that some parts of the film are exaggerated and played up but it does feel like most of it would be pretty accurate here. One scene I liked in particular was when Woodward was walking down a street as he normally would. Except it was late at night and everything seemed extra ominous. There was no music or anything, just the sound of his shoes hitting the concrete with each step and he kept looking around in case he was being followed. Nobody was there as far as he could see and the film never implies that anyone actually was there but you have to imagine the reporters probably were getting rather paranoid after a while. I personally wouldn’t like walking down the streets at around 2AM in the best neighborhood and when you’re picking fights with the most dangerous people around. Well..it makes sense that you would be a little nervous.

You also have to imagine that the reporters were probably close to being murdered many times because this was such a big case. When you anger the people up top then your lease on life certainly becomes a bit more tenuous. Still they kept on the case and I was glad when the Post did back them as the boss wouldn’t drop the case either. It’s really important for someone to have your back on a case like this because if you’re completely alone then you’re really not going to be able to do a whole lot.

The best character here definitely had to be the shadowy informant. I liked how that guy had all the answers and was always stringing the heroes along. To his defense it’s not like he can take too many risks or he would be in the targeting range but I was glad when he was called out for being so vague. I suppose the movie couldn’t just show who this guy was since presumably the reporters didn’t know there. This guy was almost like Batman with how quickly he would vanish out of view and then return later on. Nobody could tail him and so this guy was definitely a master of espionage.

For a film like this the dialogue definitely has to grab you and fortunately it did. The movie is quite long but at no point is it ever boring or tedious. You’re just as invested as the characters are in trying to figure out what is going on here. There are a whole lot of players involved after all so you want to try and memorize all of the names as best as you can. Typically each clue leads to a whole bunch of new characters as well so you have to try and keep following the names and the money for as long as possible.

Then the actual witnesses all give safe/double answers so as not to get in trouble and you see just how much work it is to try and get a single story out of all these guys. It’s definitely not easy that’s for sure. Still it feels like being a reporter was probably pretty fun in those days. It’s probably a bit glamorized of course but it’s more exciting seeing them go door to door than just hopping on the internet or the phone and asking questions that way. This way has more of a personal touch and we also get to see them discussing what kinds of traps they will lay out for the suspects. Like pretending they have extra knowledge and seeing if the bait is taken.

Overall, All the President’s Men is a really good film. It reminds you to always be on the lookout for corruption because it can certainly be everywhere. Then if you do find it you have to be very careful on how you handle it or you could end up vanishing really quick and you don’t want that. Personally I’m always a bit of two minds about the big conspiracies like this because on one hand you figure in real life nobody’s ever actually clever enough to pull off something too large scale without leaving behind massive amounts of evidence particularly in the post internet era but then you also see how a lot of government people are confused by basic technology and you can see how this kind of trick worked. If it can happen once then it can happen again so films like this are also good for reminding you to always double check your sources. keep your guard up and always leave some room for doubt for yourself. In the meantime definitely watch this film though, you won’t be disappointed.

Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note: Waver, Reunion, and the Magic Lantern Review

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This review’s been a long time coming in part because I was toying with different ways of listing the title. The normal TV show was already a mouthful and then the TV special had an episode title of sorts. I wanted to go with “New Year’s Special” or something but nobody seems to really refer to it that way as a title and most barely even use this episode. I could have called it special episode but that seemed too general. So after a ton of back and forth…you’ve got this mammoth title!

The basic plot here is that Waver ends up meeting two of his old classmates from back in the day. Amleth who is good at illusion type magic (This is Fate so that’s a super simplified version of his abilities which are a lot more technical than that) and his partner Camus who used to be good friends with Waver. They’re really looking forward to the big class reunion coming up but when Waver wakes up the next day he has reverted back to his days of being a child. What could have caused this? He needs to figure out a way to reverse this and quickly or he will be the laughing stock of the reunion! Additionally there may be something a little more sinister at play.

It’s definitely always fun to have a special that takes place across Christmas and New Year’s. This is a fairly low stakes adventure that is more about showing you all of the characters and having fun with the cast than an end of the world event and that’s what you would expect for a fun TV special like this. Just about all of the supporting characters from the show appear to help out or just to tease Waver at times.

We do get one brief action scene for Gray to use her mystical Saber type abilities but beyond that this is a chance for fans to see the old Waver interact with the new cast. While this spell did not affect his mind much at first, the longer he’s in his younger body the more he starts to act like his old self as well. He just can’t drudge up the same level of confidence when he looks this young after all. It doesn’t help that he was never much of a fighter either so take away his confidence and then things really get dicey.

The special is part mystery. Now obviously you know something is up with either Amleth or Camus (Or both) since they’re the new characters here acting really shady. Illusions are also one way to make someone appear younger right? As the special goes on we have to find out the motive behind this because surely you wouldn’t go through all of this work just for some kind of personal prank right? Nah that wouldn’t track and of course we do get a sob story by the end so watch out for that.

Ultimately the motivation isn’t great. It’s a very personal one to be sure but it just makes one character look a bit whiny/petty. One character was certainly a bit oblivious back in the day so someone’s feelings got hurt but in that case I’d say what I always say. If you’re the one who likes someone else then the initiative is on you to make the move. If you prefer to just drop hints then that’s fine but they should be rather direct hints since vague ones can absolutely be misinterpreted. By the end Waver feels rather guilty about how he used to be but at the same time I think it’s a bit harsh. You can’t expect to recognize everything as the situation is unfolding. Looking back with hindsight is also not effective since that’s completely different.

The writing in the special is on point and so it all goes by very quickly. The animation is also very solid. While we don’t get a whole lot of action here, Gray’s attack animation is as stunning as ever. Additionally the soundtrack is still really good as you’d expect since Fate always has grand music. The grand feel of the soundtrack works just as well for the mystery here since the characters are always in such elaborate mansions. The character/location designers for Fate always do a great job.

Overall, This was a fun special. There isn’t a whole lot to talk about since it’s under an hour and the plot is part mystery so you don’t want to spoil things. That said, it’s solid on all sides and so you could recommend it to anyone. Someone who is not familiar with Fate will probably get less out of it but you can appreciate the fun vibes of the special and the mystery either way. It has a good blend of humor and suspense to keep you engaged all the way through. Hopefully we get more content in the El Melloi part of the franchise soon because mysteries within the Fate verse definitely work really well. With all of the complex magical spells all around it makes for a lot of possibilities in any case. It definitely increases the variables compared to a normal detective kind of adventure even if you always have to assume Waver will need to be lucky in order to not just get blown up by the culprit since most could just take him out in a single blow. It’s tough being a scholar in a world of warriors but I suppose until the next Grail War he should be mostly safe.

Overall 7/10

Identity Review

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

Identity is a movie with a pretty interesting premise. I’d actually say there was a whole lot of potential here and I do tend to like the premise of getting a bunch of people together and as they all start getting bumped off you have to wonder who the big villain is. There’s a whole lot that you can do with this but unfortunately the film didn’t really take advantage of this. Mainly because it was going really well but there was one twist which really didn’t work out and ended up weakening the experience.

The movie starts out with the viewer seeing a lot of violent crime photos as there was some kind of serial killer but he’s now being put to death. The Judge and some other people have to quickly talk things over though but then we cut away to the actual plot of a bunch of people getting stranded at a motel. You have the owner who is really shady and being super aggressive the whole time. A former cop who works as a chauffer for a famous movie actress. The actress in question is here as well. A family of 3 where the wife got his by the chauffer’s car so she’s in critical condition and the young boy is definitely traumatized. The father is also cracking the whole time as well. There was a girl who tried leaving the area but the road got blocked so she is stuck with them as well. Finally you have a cop who was transporting a murderer over to jail so he stops in as well along with the handcuffed prisoner. All of these people have to try and survive the night at the motel while they wait for the flood to end but slowly they start getting picked off. Who could possibly be doing this!?

So that’s the story premise that I really do enjoy. It’s very much a Clue kind of mystery and most of the characters don’t seem to have much of a motive at first but then all of their stories start falling apart the more the movie goes on. So after that then everyone starts feeling really suspicious which makes it just as hard to find the guilty party, just for different reasons than earlier. As the film goes on you get to really start coming to your own conclusions as well so it’s just a really good match. It’s just hard to get into this without spoilers but the final twist just defeats the entire purpose of everything. I don’t think it was a good idea and I would have played this one straight. It would immediately be way better. Now in part the final twist helps to establish how some of these events could have possibly happened.

It helps in a power scaling sense but I don’t want power scaling right now. I just wanted a really satisfying story with a lot of tension all around. You still get that for most of the film but this takes away that replay value once you know what’s going on from the start here. It changes the whole dynamic of the film retroactively and the payoff for this isn’t great as well. The film does have a horror film type ending as well which can be fun. I mean you do always want to see that but there’s a whole lot of plot convenience going on here. There’s a car scene near the end that makes no sense because nobody in their fight mind is taking such a chance with a dangerous person. The closest analogy I can use is you hear someone knocking on the door so you open it and get one shotted. That’s basically what happens here.

I did enjoy the meanwhile scenes with the judge and other people talking though. It was so random that it was just a bit funny and that actually leads into a very satisfying twist. The first twist in this plot was actually good and that’s why they always say to quit while you’re ahead. If there was ever a time to follow that advice, this was it. For another positive on the film I thought they did a good job with the atmosphere and effects. Everything did look really ominous and dreary the whole time. You felt that motel vibe all the way. Also the film didn’t overdo it with the violence. It could be violent at times to be sure but some of the visuals would be more creepy than over the top. I’d say the photos at the beginning were mainly more violent than the actual murders at times.

So if we ignore the final twist then I still did enjoy all the cat and mouse games. Aside from the motel owner and the prisoner who were both awful characters from the jump, at least the rest seemed decent. The father was going a bit crazy but considering what just happened to his wife I feel like that’s fair. The kid doesn’t do much but he’s a kid so that’s just how it goes. The Chauffer is one of the more mysterious characters but he’s very proactive and always trying to find some clues so you have to give him props there. He’s definitely taking some extra risks there assuming he isn’t the culprit.

Then you have the actress but she’s a bit on the spoiled side and doesn’t really help out a whole lot. Right from the start you figure things won’t go well for her. The lady who was trying to leave earlier is nice enough. She probably tries the hardest to keep everyone together but with the manager always being rather aggressive it can be hard on her. She keeps it together pretty well though so she was one of the stronger characters. Then you have the cop who adds a lot of the excitement to the film. After all he has a gun and isn’t afraid to use it. The guy’s a bit of a loose cannon and so you feel like he could dish out a lot of damage if he finds out who the culprit is.

With so many characters here there are a lot of dynamics to play into. The film is at its best when the characters are all trying to act normal but you can see how they’re starting to get suspicious. Now in defense of the final twist, you do see exactly what they’re going for here. I think it is possible to execute the twist and have a good movie but ironically it works better if you were not enjoying the movie. Or in fact if we knew about the twist from the start. It manages expectations and you can still have a lot of fun there. It just felt really out of place here and seriously hurt the movie’s momentum.

Overall, Identity is a really solid movie for over 80% of its run. It’s not perfect but it was doing well and then things really came to a halt. Ultimately once you know the twist you can try and recover from it, but it just completely changes the dynamic of the title so it’s never quite the same. I’d like to see a remake/reboot of this film but ignoring the last twist and just playing things straight. As the film gradually got weirder and weirder with so many things happening you just get really excited to see how the writers will tie it all together. That’s what I still need and is what would really make the ending a lot more satisfying.

Overall 4/10

The Sting Review

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The Sting is a very ambitious film with a ton of moving parts so it really ends up being quite a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing jut how intense it was with a lot of twists and a huge cast of characters. Everyone stands out too which is a good thing and the suspense will keep you at the edge of your seat. I was definitely impressed with this one. Not to say I thought it would be bd or anything like that but is was still better than I expected. If you like planning movies like this then you will definitely have a great time here.

The movie starts with Johnny and Luther suckering a guy out of a lot of money and we see that they are grifters. Basically they part people with their money and it’s actually a rather profitable business. It has its share of risks to be sure but they have really done well for themselves. Unfortunately they messed with the wrong person this time and Luther is murdered by the mafia led by Doyle. Johnny escapes and meets up with a man named Henry who is supposed to be the best in the business. Johnny asks Henry to help him take revenge and so they set up the most ambitious trap yet to take down Doyle. Can they really defeat the leader of the mafia like this?

A film like this will only be as good as its writing and characters. Fortunately both of those are quite great so there is really nothing to worry about here. The movie is long which allows it to introduce all of the characters and make them all matter. The pacing never gets slow and so you never feel like things are dragging along. All of the scenes are necessary and the film gives you enough context to always keep up but you’re also supposed to think things out and try to stay ahead of the score too. The best part is that the plan actually feels feasible. Incredibly difficult to be sure but you aren’t suspending a whole lot of disbelief here.

Now the characters can’t be perfect or you might have some questions but for the most part they always make a lot of reasonable decisions and that goes a long way. My only issue here are the mistakes that Johnny makes. Sure the guy is a rookie compared to Henry but at the same time he’s still been in the game for a long while. When he wasted $10,000 on a roll of the dice that was just not a smart move. Even if the casino didn’t cheat, odds are great that he would have lost. There is no upside to spending a bunch of cash like that since the house will always clean up.

Then just as bad is when he decides to have a one night stand with a waitress. The stakes are too high for him to be messing around right now. Keep in mind that just about everyone in the city is after him at this point so he really doesn’t have a whole lot of time. He should be hiding out and laying low right now, not making moves. He seems rather desperate for someone from the start like when he was carrying the flowers at the beginning but he should just wait a little longer until after the plan is done. Things really came close to going sideways for him there. In a way it actually helped his defense since by looking like a sucker the villains really wouldn’t suspect him but he can’t take any credit there since that was accidental.

I like that Johnny was very determined to take revenge and he did put a lot into the planning. So I’m not going to sell him totally short. The guy contributed a ton and was a really solid character who had good acting to the end. His role was absolutely crucial in getting Doyle to take the bait. Ultimately he’s also just a likable main character. I would say Henry is the one who stole the show here though. He took huge risks himself and while the situation was a lot more personal to him than he let on, he still wasn’t as personally invested as Johnny was. Still he got the gang back together and pulled off a really grand exhibition. This film was truly a team effort with everyone putting in their part.

Meanwhile Doyle made for a solid main villain. The guy has a lot of personal pride which is why he couldn’t let the heroes get away with messing with him. Additionally he was pretty smart and was not easy to fool. It’s quite telling that the characters had to go so far in order to try and stay ahead of him. Half hearted methods definitely wouldn’t have done the trick here. This guy has a lot of muscle and you can see why he was the head of the mafia. Even to the end he was always a thorn in their side and switched things up enough times where you could say he did take every precaution. Ultimately the heroes were just too prepared for him.

I also liked Snyder and Polk as more supporting characters to mix things up. Snyder being more of a two bit criminal who was one of the more corrupt cops helped to be a wild card here. Same for Polk from the FBI side. The more sides you have in any movie the better and it was always great when Johnny would just be minding his own business and suddenly one of these guys shows up to complicate matters. He was really never allowed to have any peace while on the job. No matter what he did or where he went, there was always someone around to complicate maters further and cause a lot of trouble.

Overall, The Sting is a very satisfying movie. Not only does it remain very interesting throughout the entirety of the run but the ending is very satisfying. If you stumble at the ending that ends up hurting a lot so managing not to do that was a really big bonus for the title. The characters are likable and even the villain faction are solid. There weren’t any characters here that I really disliked. Everyone had their own objectives and you have to remember that this all started because Johnny and Luther were scamming people so it’s not even like they were upstanding citizens. When you become a crook you understand the risks and so it just happened to them earlier than they were expecting. It still remains personal but at the end of the day it was also business. Both of these villain groups were just doing what they wanted to do and so it turned into this big fight.

Overall 8/10