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Brain Dead Review

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

Okay this is a weird film right off the bat. There are lot of dream sequences here and the whole time you have to wonder what is real and what isn’t. I definitely haven’t seen many films like this so it will forever be a memorable experience. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll be a good one. Some of the dreams lean a little too hard into the lead’s worries about what his wife is doing when he’s not around and I wanted to see more of him really going crazy. It’s worth the watch as you try to figure out what is going on but I dare say there isn’t a ton of replay value here.

The movie begins with introducing us to Rex who is a top neurosurgeon. He’s one of the best in the business but unfortunately it isn’t a very profitable one and money has been tight. It’s at this point that he is approached by Jim, an old “pal” of sorts. This guy has been doing really well for himself and he has an offer. See, there’s this guy named John who came up with something absolutely brilliant but then went crazy and ran off. They found him but John has total amnesia of what he even invented. So the company wants Rex to go into his mind and fix it. The operation has a large chance of just leaving John braindead though which Rex feel is completely unethical.

Of course, money does talk though and so Rex decides to go through with this after facing more pressure and a homeless guy showing up to wreck one of the last available brains. The operation seems to work…except now Rex’s life is being turned upside down. One day he wakes up as John, the next scene he’s in a plane that is about to crash, etc. It’s like Rex is trapped in a series of unending nightmares with absolutely no way to escape. He needs to find some way to grab onto reality….but can he do it?

How much you enjoy the film will really come down to how much you enjoy the dreams. After a point it becomes clear that most of this isn’t actually happening and so I could picture some people totally checking out. That’s definitely valid, although for me I kind of enjoyed it because I just liked how crazy it got. The situations would be absolutely wild and I also was glad that Rex didn’t let them get to him for quite a while.

He kept on insisting that he was Rex no matter what anyone else was saying. Even with the evidence against him, he wasn’t going to declare defeat. That is the right way to handle such a crazy circumstance. You have to fight for yourself even when nobody else will. No matter how many times the doctor kept trying to say that Rex was just a patient, Rex wouldn’t buy it. I thought that was pretty commendable.

Of course like I said in the intro, he does let himself get a bit too worried about Jim the whole time. Now, sine he is trapped in these dreams I guess to a certain extent he has it extra tough since he doesn’t really know what is real and what is fake but it keeps turning out that his wife is going with Jim or just being super oblivious and not realizing that he is pulling the moves on her. In either case, Rex needed to handle things better instead of getting super drunk and ruining the meeting with a big investor. Those were times when Rex didn’t do so good.

Othe times he tends to be very proactive like when he was in the ocean and had to swim fast or when the crazy guy hid in his closet and Rex had to act normal for the nurse. I should mention that while the film isn’t overly violent, there are a few jump scares/shock value moments. You will see the brain for example and some people have pretty serious injuries. So definitely keep that in mind, this film is certainly not holding back in that respect.

Corporate worked well as the big villains here. I liked how they were in total control the whole time and were constantly waiting for Rex to make a mistake. They can’t lose either way. Either John goes braindead in which case the secret is taken to the grave, or they get his memory back and coerce it out of him. Corporate is always looking at the big picture here and they are certainly ruthless. In the dreamworld it even seems like they might disappear Jim if he fails them. So yeah the stakes are definitely high there. The film also established pretty well that this is a dangerous area too like with the random homeless guy and speeding cars everywhere. Adds a bit to the chaos and that’s when the film is at its best. Just hitting you with endless chaotic moments with no time to breath. The film should really never slow down to try and talk to you, just keep going full speed ahead.

I would have liked the wife to have had more of a role there. Have her poking around and finding clues about what corporate is doing or something like that. with how the film is set up that may have been a little difficult though. Maybe she could be in the dreams aside from the illusion version of her? Would have been a nice way to have given Rex a bit more of a fighting chance at least although he would be in for a tough time either way.

Overall, Brain Dead is a very interesting film. I give it kudos for the unique approach and it is the kind of film that will keep you guessing. At the same time, I do think they really could have done a bit more with it. Either double down on the dreams and make them even more chaotic without a definitive ending to tell you what actually happened or maybe throw in an objective. Like having Rex find out that he has to survive for 3 hours in the dream to return or something. It would essentially be a different movie though. The ending isn’t the most satisfying so that could have made a difference but if you’re looking for a really weird film to check out, this is definitely right up your alley.

Overall 5/10

Bug Ego

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This is definitely a very weird manga so far. For now I can’t really say if that’s in a good or a bad way though. Each chapter is certainly a trick but I can already see the series leaning too hard on the same jokes so we’ll have to see if ONE can step it up. I’ll have a review when the series is over.

Overall 5/10

Shanks Review

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Oof, it’s time to check out a film that was really not very good at all. That’s an understatement as this film is quite terrible and has to be one of the weakest films overall. There are no real good things to say about it by the end and it really drags on. I haven’t seen a film with pacing this bad since 2001: A Space Odyssey. So strap in folks because we’re in for a wild ride!

So the movie starts out by introducing us to Malcolm who can’t speak. He performs puppet shows during the day to earn money but unfortunately his family is rather corrupt. His sister an brother in law are both abusive and the guy gets drunk. They take it all out on Malcolm who basically has to take care of the house, earn the money, and do his best not to go crazy. Those two don’t contribute at all but take a lot of his money every time it’s pay day. So his life is just rough and the only person who is nice to him is a girl named Celia who looks forward to his puppet show for her birthday.

Well, one day Malcolm runs into an old man named Mr. Walker who runs crazy reanimation experiments. He lets Malcolm work on them too and the guy is thrilled. Basically you can stab anyone with these needles and then you can control them with a video game controller. Not a bad invention eh? It’s certainly got its uses and then Mr. Walker dies. Malcolm decides to take over the experiments and Malcolm’s family is bumped off so Malcolm reanimates their bodies. He now has the silent family that he always wanted and parades them across the town. It’s all going good for him until a gang of evil bikers show up and decide to terrorize the place. Can he defend Celia or is it all over?

This is one of those movies that is trying to be as dark as possible. It’s also just really mean spirited as the characters make things as hard on Malcolm as possible. Seriously the guy can’t even talk so that he could speak back to the other characters and they break his stuff for no good reason. Malcolm gets beat up and then of course you have the bikers who break into his place and beat him up some more.

One of the villains also has to be a creep who goes after the kid and things don’t go well for her. That was when I knew that this film wasn’t going to go past a 0. When you make a film go that bad there is just no returning from that. The villains get away with way too much here and they’re annoying every second that they’re on screen. They’re written to be as evil as possible with no actual character development or personality beyond that. They’re just figures of evil meant to push the story along.

This movie is also really determined to get you to admire how the actors are able to act really dead and move around like zombies. These scenes are incredibly long and just keep on going without any kind of break. You can spend 5 minutes just watching one of these reanimated guys walking around. Let me tell you, 5 minutes may not sound like a whole lot but when nothing else is happening it certainly feels like a lot of time. Then you have this keep on happening throughout the movie.

Much of the movie has no plot and is just about Malcolm walking around with his dead family as he fools people into thinking that they are alive. It would never work in any real world but this place is so odd that nobody questions it. Nobody even thinks to ask why they are so silent and nobody notices how they look super dead too. It may be trying to be very surreal but it just ends up being boring.

Malcolm also come across as being rather villainous at times like when he plays around with the knife and tries to scare Celia a bit. This guy doesn’t think things through and while he may just be a fan of dark humor, it’s not something that Celia needs to see when she’s just trying to have a good birthday party. The film is unrelenting with this though and the undead battles are also not very good. Everything is super slow and dreary instead of being fun and exciting.

The end of the film even has a big twist about the whole thing but instead of being a twist that makes you gasp at how inspired and out there it was, you’ll just be shaking your head. Yet another thing for you to see how the film is just not trying to have any fun. I don’t think any ending could have saved this film mind you, but this has to be one of the weaker ways to play things out. It actually just makes Malcolm look way worse since we now know a little bit more about how he thinks.

There is no reason to see the film. There is no fun lesson to be learned, no fun fight scene to go back to, no witty dialogue, etc. Every character is just really off here and you have to suspend your disbelief a lot. The movie isn’t funny and the effects are no good. When you boil the film down to the core themes, there just isn’t anything here of substance. I wouldn’t know where to begin on trying to salvage the film since I would say it was already bad from the very premise. Just change everything from the ground up and see how that goes.

Overall, Shanks is a film that you want to avoid at all costs. There are no happy scenes here as any brief moment where things are not going bad will change in an instant. Nobody is safe here and the film’s pacing slows down to a glacial speed as nothing happens for long portions of the movie. You could easily take out 30 minutes from this film and it would flow better while you do not lose any of the plot. Now that is absolutely a bad sign for the movie. It’s been a while since I saw a film that would be a total 0 but this has to take the cake. Stay far away! It’s quite telling that googling “Shanks movie” brings up a different film that has a character named Shanks in it as opposed to bringing up the movie that is literally called “Shanks”. That has to be a sign of how people have tried to forget this one.

Overall 0/10

Moms’ Night Out Review

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It’s time to take a look at another film. This one was pretty interesting in the sense that I couldn’t accurately figure out its true identity. I actually thought that it was a PG-13 film as it was playing. The trailer seemed like one and the movie just generally had that vibe the whole time. I also didn’t realize that it was a Christian aimed film like God Is Not Dead and the others. One of the main characters was a preacher’s wife and their were references to God during the movie, but I just thought the film made the cool move of adding these quick scenes in and not that it was supposed to play a large role. So, I’m still going to review this film formally since I think it definitely could have made more of an effort to throw in more Christian themes than the occasional reference.

Allyson is the main character and she needs a day to herself. Watching after her kids day in and day out is tough because they rebel quite a lot and are always making a mess of things. She has no time to herself anymore. Luckily, she has friends who are dealing with similar issues and invites them to have a Moms’ night out. The husbands will deal with the kids as best they can, but unfortunately the guys seem to have messed up yet again. Can the heroines have a fun day out, find a missing kid, and then save their husbands from imminent embarrassment? It’ll be tough, but they’ve got this!

Surprisingly, (Or maybe not since a side character usually beats the lead) the best character is not one of the Moms, but is actually the main husband. Sean steals the show right from the get go as he gets a lot of good one liners and metaphors. He takes everything in stride while the other characters are busy panicking about everything. Nothing phases Sean and he’s the only guy who has a lot of confidence. “We got this” is basically his catchphrase and even though he breaks his arm, loses a bird, and goes through many more tricky situations, he never loses his wits.

Allyson isn’t bad, but she can panic quite a lot. Pretty much every setback results in a panic attack from her. She ultimately learns not to set such high expectations on herself though and that she is doing a good job as a Mom. She just has the unfortunate luck of having kids who continually sabotage the house and make the whole situation a lot more difficult than it needs to be. She is definitely the toughest of the heroines though. To contrast her personality, Sondra is the nicest heroine and that makes sense since she is the pastor’s wife. Her difficulty is that her daughter wants to live like the average teenager, but Sondra knows that this will lead to a life of ruin. There’s a plot twist about this since Sondra has some experience and ultimately she helps her daughter realize that having a nice life without being one of the “cool” kids works out quite well.

There’s a third heroine, but she’s really bland and doesn’t actually do anything so we can skip her. Bones is the hardcore biker gang dude who helps the heroes find the missing kid. It turns out that he used to be a Christian, but defected to the gang life. Surprisingly, he doesn’t change his mind at the end, but he gives Allyson words of encouragement and helps the team out a lot. Naturally he had to get out of there when the cops showed up though since the police weren’t playing around. The police also panicked a lot, but that’s a running theme in the film. All of the characters panic a whole lot aside from Sean. There was a cool cab driver who stepped in to help as well. His accent may have been fake, but at least he admitted to this. He talked a really good game and even though he couldn’t back it up, the guy had spirit. If he hadn’t been knocked out so easily, he would have been even cooler.

There was one big aspect that stopped the film from getting a positive score. (Well, among others) Stop me if I’m wrong folks, but I’m about 90% sure that the parakeet died. We see him fly off then they sent two of the guys after him and I believe one of the gags is that they stepped on him. I’m pretty sure we never saw him again so if so…..that’s definitely not cool. There was also a quick scene of one of the characters burning an insect alive which was unnecessary. So, even if the bird scene didn’t happen, the film would break even at most, but I’m pretty sure that he died and this is a fatal mistake for the film.

The film mostly stays classy with the humor. There is only one crude humor joke that I can think of and while it was pretty gross, at least it was the only moment where this happened. Since the film is PG, we don’t get any iffy Pixels level of humor so that’s definitely another good thing. The film goes by pretty quick since the pacing is good and it’s just not all that long. The characters are good enough to pass the time by and the story isn’t bad. At the very least, you shouldn’t be bored.

Since this film is supposed to be a Christian based film, I should mention how their attempt just didn’t work too well. We had the motivational speech, which was nice, but it was given by a gang member who used to be a Christian and doesn’t intend to go back. The pastor’s wife apparently doesn’t know how to have fun so she is unable to dance when the spotlight is on her, but after the film’s adventure she is able to dance with the best of em. She also doesn’t know how to use a cell phone since she’s really old school, but bu the end Sondra ends up being the tough character who gets the characters into the back alley. It’s a little cheesy, but most of the film is like that. It’s not bad per say, but I stick to my stance that this is really just a normal comedy film that just so happens to have a Christian character in it and that speech at the end. Perhaps if I watched it again while knowing beforehand its intentions, then it would be more obvious, but that kind of defeat the purpose.

Overall, Moms’ Night Out is a decent film for the most part, but a scene or two doom it into being a film of missed opportunities. It’s just a little too silly and extreme with the character portrayals at times. Now, this can work is handled well like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or a whole host of other films that I’ve seen. I’m not actually against super comic relief characters and just random hi jinx, but it really needs great writing to work well. Groundhog Day is another good example of a comedy like that. It’s probably a combo of things that would have helped this film to have been better. The subplot with the husbands could have definitely been less predictable. Just about any scene with the kids was a little tough to watch so I was always glad when they didn’t show up. The film is good for a few laughs and at the very least, it’s lighthearted. You won’t feel down or tired after watching it, but the parakeet scene will have you shaking your head. I’d recommend checking out Groundhog Day instead.

Overall 4/10