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The Fantastic Adventures of Unico Review

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It’s time for the return of Unico in another big adventure. This time we have a feature length movie so there is more time for things to happen but unfortunately I dare say that it was weaker than the pilot. The longer runtime means there is more time for everyone to gang up on Unico and the poor lead just ends up looking like a doormat. We desperately needed a scene where Unico fights back and shows them all what kind of power he has. Meanwhile I dare say that the film actually feels rather dragged out at times so it’s not like the pacing was incredible ither. Yeah this one definitely had some issues.

The story begins with the gods being super petty once again. They don’t like how Unico makes people happy since that should be their job. They fear that Unico’s presence will make their own unnecessary. Initially they think about murdering Unico but are persuaded to instead banish him into the dark realms of the world where nobody else exist. One of the wind spirits instead takes Unico to a place that is still empty but not as desolate, underestimating that a devil named Beezle lives there. Unico decides that the two of them will be friends but Beezle is a tough customer. Will they actually get along? Additionally the second half of the film brings in a cat named Chao who gets mixed up with an evil Baron and an old lady so Unico may be needed here.

I would say one of the problems here is how long is takes for Unico to get along with Beezle. You get what the story is going for with how Beezle will initially put up a fight and cause a whole ruckus but eventually sees the light. It’s a rather standard character arc but not a bad one. The problem is in how long it takes. Unico puts in a whole lot of work over and over again in order to reach Beezle and yet the guy is still trying to stab Unico and throwing him to his doom even near the end.

The film overplays its hand here to the point where Beezle isn’t even remotely likable. It also ends up hurting Unico because he puts up with way too much. There is a big difference between trying to be a nice person and just getting taken advantage of. Unico should not have give Beezle his horn even for a day. That should have been a boundary that Beezle should have had to respect. If the film had done that, it would have showed that Unico had a proper backbone instead of just giving in to whatever Beezle wanted.

It’s also obvious that using his abilities too much would alert the gods but Unico never even thinks about that. Pretty big thing to forget about right? I know Unico is essentially just a little kid so he doesn’t fully know what’s going on but that’s no excuse not to have some basic defenses up and try to keep a low profile. Even when Unico is kidnapped by the wind spirit again at the end, he only makes some half hearted attempts to break free.

So I was definitely not a real Unico fan here. He needs to spend a lot of time working on being a tougher character who doesn’t let anyone push him around. If he can pull that off then I will absolutely gain a lot of respect for him. Meanwhile Beezle is a lost cause like I said before. The fact that he initially wasn’t going to save Unico from drowning is really bad. Yes, Beezle is a kid as well who doesn’t really understand things but this falls more into the realm of common sense.

The character arc itself isn’t a problem, but it’s how long this drags out. That was the real offender here and why I was glad to get a new plot later on. When Chao shows up, we see how she is very carefree and happy. She sings to herself while floating down the river and is just having a grand ole time. When she gets to turn into a human girl thanks to Unico, this goes to her head immediately and she becomes snobby. Another classic character arc but it isn’t dragged out nearly as much so I didn’t mind Chao.

She was a bit too gullible in listening to an obviously shady baron who wasn’t even hiding his nefarious intentions but maybe I’ll cut her a bit of slack since she used to be a cat. This also did lead to getting a fight scene later on so I can appreciate that. Either way this plot was far more interesting than what had been going on in the first half with Beezle.

As for the Baron, it was nice to have a central villain who was actually at the forefront and not just hiding in the arena of the gods. His swordplay wasn’t bad and he definitely gave Unico a good match. I would like to see more action of course but this was good enough for now. It’s clear that the series is big on getting in some good morales at the end of the stories and so any action we get is a bonus. The point is more about Unico helping everyone to become better characters and there’s nothing wrong with that. How effective the character development is will be completely dependent on the pacing at the end of the day. Keep that in check and the rest will follow. The movie is definitely aimed at a pretty young audience though so it makes sense that they would want to keep this basic.

The animation is definitely dated but not bad or anything like that. It’s not meant to be a particularly high budget production or anything like that but still gets the heart of it across. You will also see a cameo from another character in the background at one point which was cool. The soundtrack is more on the weaker side though. Definitely no tunes that will really catch your eye or anything like that. Maybe I should say catch your ear. Ah well, Unico might do better next time.

Overall, Unico didn’t really succeed on this adventure. It definitely straddles the line of being boring at times when the pacing is at its slowest. It’s not a bad film by any means but I don’t think the average viewer is going to get a ton of enjoyment out of it. Unico really needed to be a whole lot bolder in its approach. Throw in some more high stakes or if it can’t due to the target audience, maybe it should have been shorter. That’s always a back handed complement but if you don’t have a ton of story lined up for the film, you don’t need the extra time. Shave off 20 minutes and the film would probably flow a lot more organically. As it stands, I would recommend watching the pilot over this one.

Overall 5/10

The Garden of Words Review

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It’s time for a short anime film about romance and dreams. When you’ve got a film that is this short, you are guaranteed to have some fast pacing. So I definitely appreciated that since I like when things move fast instead of being dragged out the whole time. Definitely worked out well although I wouldn’t say this is one of the stronger anime films I’ve seen. It’s a good story but could have used a stronger cast and more development time.

The story follows a kid named Takao who has a tradition of skipping school whenever it starts raining. He heads to his favorite little hiding spot in the park to do some drawing but it turns out that a lady named Yukari likes that spot as well. She goes there to eat chocolate and drink beer. Not the healthiest combo at all, she would have been better off with pepsi and chocolate. Well, the two of them initially just enjoy the peace of sitting there but gradually become friends and each one looks forward to the rain. They don’t really know all that much about each other but gradually talk more and more. Takao needs to continue his dream of making shoes but will he end up catching feelings first?

The main hurdle for Takao is the big age gap here. Of course he doesn’t know quite how old she is as that can be hard to guess but she is certainly older. Takao is only 15 and early on in his school years so there wouldn’t really be time to get into a proper romance. At least he essentially has his own place with his family all heading their own ways in terms of living conditions. Takao just doesn’t want to be dragged down by schoolwork, he needs to become a shoemaker as quickly as possible.

I would say the biggest problem with Takao is that he does feel rather half hearted though. He talks about how passionately he wants to make shoes but he lets himself be distracted by Yukari rather quickly and of course he is mainly working on the rainy days. He needs to put every effort into the shoes until he has actually begun a real business and then he can worry about the rest. You can’t do everything and his divided attention would absolutely come back to haunt him under most circumstances.

His inevitable blowup at Yukari later on also comes across as completely undeserved and exposes him as being a true child when it counts. He could have handled that situation infinitely better and so you’re not exactly rooting for him here. Takao’s not a bad character, at least he tried standing up to the bullies earlier but on the whole he wasn’t one of the better main characters that I’ve seen.

As for Yukari, she’s nice enough. Skipping out on her job isn’t the wisest thing to do but we do get some more context on what was going on there. With Japan being so focused on honor and reputation, you can see how she would be taking some accusations rather seriously even though they weren’t true from the start. Leaving was the right course of action and in the meantime, chatting with some kid isn’t really a problem. She handled everything a lot better than Takao and aside from one outburst, was mature at all times.

As for the romance here, naturally I can’t say that it’s one of the stronger ones. Because of the rain setting and how the two characters know each other for a while, it does avoid my usual complaint of being rushed though. While I do think any romance where there is an age gap of 10 years or more is almost always going to be doomed to fail, it’s probably not something the participants would really be thinking of. The main problem with Takao is not just asking her out if he had the feelings there instead of waiting until the end and then crashing out. You have to be both courageous enough to ask the question and then brave enough to accept the answer. If you can’t do both things then it clearly isn’t the right time.

While Yukari’s feelings are kept more intentionally vague, I would say that she did see him more as a friend the whole time. She was certainly happy to see him each time as a break from all of her troubles but I didn’t feel there were more intentions than that compared to Takao. Definitely some flirting here and there but more in the lines of banter like with the foot measuring. This absolutely would have been perfect as a friendship plot without a doubt but in movie logic it is written that one person will always catch feelings in any dynamic.

The animation was pretty solid here. The rain effects were definitely a lot of fun the whole time. There may not have been any action scenes to test out some energy effects but the main environments and character designs were good. It’s not going to be like your average Shonen Jump film animation but it still works out. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though. I don’t think the main song here is really going to stick in your memory.

The ending isn’t the most satisfying this time around but it is going for a fairly bold play. One character seems to be over the events of the rainy season while the other seems to have not changed goals at all. I can only imagine there will be more heartbreak in the future. Although ironically if this ever got a sequel, I’m guessing things might end up working out but since that’s unlikely, I’m going to assume the worst here. Sometimes things don’t work out and that is the melancholy of life.

Overall, This was a good movie. It really ends fast so you have to be interested from the start. I think the film would have benefited more from keeping this as a true friendship though. Both characters needed someone to talk to and it would have worked really well as a way to develop a bond there without having anything more than that. I suppose it wouldn’t have been as cinematic as movies love the romantic drama, particularly when it is either one sided or doomed from the start. It’s handled well enough in the end though and I can recommend watching this title. I do think what the film was lacking was a true supporting character. Someone either on Takao or Yukari’s side who would show up to either be a super negative character saying how being out in the rain is a bad idea, or a rival character who is really good at making shoes and says he has no time for romance. Either one would have added some more drama into the film but in a good way as Takao really has to decide what his number one priority would be. I suppose you’d need a longer runtime for that though.

Overall 6/10

Fighting Girls Review

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It’s time to look at a recent one shot from Shonen Jump. It’s always fun when these come out to see just what kind of story can be concluded in one shot. I can safely say that this was a pretty good one all the way through with a fun parallel between the two characters. Naturally you could do a whole lot more with this one if it was a full series but the story still wraps up well enough here. The fights are mainly off screen but I guess that would have taken up a lot of pages.

The story starts by introducing us to Koume who wants to be a great fighter. She is really good and the best in her school until a girl named Tiara moves in and goes on an undefeated streak. Koume finally has a rival and does her best to surpass her but this seems like an impossible goal. Can she really accomplish it? Meanwhile the second half retells the story from Tiara’s point of view. She really wants to be a great fighter as well but unlike Koume, she gets 0 support from her parents. If anything they act as an active obstacle in her way by not getting her equipment and constantly discouraging her. Naturally this starts to affect her confidence and Tiara wonders if maybe she should give up on this career.

This makes for a solid contrast as both characters really have the exact opposite circumstances on their side. They’re both likable characters as well, although I’ll give Tiara the slight edge. It’s hard to root against a character who had the deck completely stacked against her and still managed to make it near the top. That takes a lot of grit and hard work. She also goes through a pretty nasty injury and is able to keep on going.

Tiara is a great example of how perseverance can really carry you a long way. She also worked really hard in order to have the level of talent needed to rise all the way to the top of the rankings. That certainly wasn’t easy. I also appreciated that she didn’t just randomly become the mean rival type. She was still kind the whole way through and never went out of her way to belittle Koume.

Of course Koume is also a solid character as she remains the hopeful underdog the whole time. She is extremely talented as well and only isn’t satisfied because she never wanted to just be second best. We’ll have to wait a while for her to get a proper rematch with Tiara as pros but the gap between them has certainly been reduced a great deal. It’s anyone’s guess who would win in the fight now.

The art is fairly good. It’s a bit rougher than you’d see for most of the big ongoing series but for a one shot that makes sense since it’s not like the artist has been able to draw the characters for a long time. It’s not like the art is bad either, it’s still clear enough to easily read and that’s the important thing. The oneshot is around 70 pages so you can read through it pretty quickly since it isn’t overly wordy. The page count also does let the series get to do a lot within this one chapter.

Now while I did say I understood why we didn’t get to really see the fights here, I do think the story would have absolutely been elevated by having some. When you have a story about fighting, you would expect some level of action right? Often times we just see the aftermath of a fight or maybe the first blow at most. That’s not exactly what I’m looking for when I’m talking about full fights. Seeing the danger up close like that would also help you better understand why some would be against the girls getting involved in such a tough career.

Of course that wasn’t the logic that Tiara’s parents had, but they were mainly just antagonists the whole time anyway. It would have been nice if they could have been more reasonable but sometimes you’re just going to have people who are very two dimensional like that. Tiara could have spent time complaining about it, but instead she just kept on going to work and improving herself.

Overall, This story achieves its objective of giving you an interesting premise for this self contained adventure. You can sympathize with the plight that the two girls have of deciding if they want to continue being pro fighters or not. It’s not as if this is the most popular career in Japan after all and so it’s certainly a risk. However, any job is a risk when you think about it so you might as well go for one that you’re interested in. Aside from Tiara’s parents, the supporting characters are all pretty supportive as well which is nice. Nobody is judging them too harshly for wanting to live out their lives on this path.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime: Hunters Review

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It’s time for a portable Metroid Prime. This definitely changes things up since the DS is a very different console than the Gamecube or Wii. In some ways the most tragic thing is that this would have been amazing for the home consoles but alas the DS does begin to show the cracks in its armor here. The main drawback is absolutely the fact that the game is extremely painful. You can feel it breaking your wrists as you try to move the screen and fight the enemies. By the end you will have had a true workout but not one that was really intentional from the game design.

The Federation calls on Samus to stop yet another alien infection across the universe but this time there will be competition. A bunch of other hunters have decided to step in for a grand prize that is said to be present on one of these planets. Samus must crush all of these guys but they are professionals as well so it won’t be so easy. She will have to really focus up and may have to use new abilities that she never had before.

At this point it is a running gag that Samus absorbs just about every kind of creature and energy that she can over the course of the series. She has had the powers of darkness, the dread, and other mysterious energies in each game. They just never stop and yet she is still around so Samu is made of sterner stuff. This game decides to leverage that in a different way but letting her have elemental abilities. Yes, in this game you have around 6 different powers like ice, electricity, fire, and other attacks.

It makes for some really fun variety as you keep on blasting away at all the opponents. The vania aspect is naturally still around but the worlds are much smaller and bite sized so you won’t get lost as much. To counteract that, the game doesn’t actually display the map so you have to pause every time you want to look at it. A most regrettable game design choice if you ask me. You want to be able to see where you’re going even in a smaller world.

Still, the main issue here is the gameplay itself. You have to use your stylus in order to move the screen and attack the monsters. This results in a whole lot of moving but it’s clearly geared towards someone who is right handed. As a leftie myself, this was really tough. You have to tilt your hand in an unnatural way in order to get to the enemies. There is a whole lot of combat here like the constant mandatory minibosses so your hand will be sweating it out during that.

Additionally, these minibosses will re spawn every time you enter their room so if you get lost or just have to backtrack because of a mandatory power up, you will have to face them again. This makes for a pretty rough amount of tedious gameplay because you aren’t getting anything from these battles. At least if it was an RPG you would be getting stronger and stronger but that’s not the case here.

The graphics are pretty good. We have actual cutscenes here which is nice and of course the gameplay is sharp. The soundtrack is also good even if it isn’t nearly at the level of the main primes. It’s just hard to make it through without the big Ridley or Dark Samus themes. It still gets the job done and as a whole it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into this one. It’s quite advanced for a portable game and plays like the real home console versions.

As always Prime just needs to tone down some of the weaker gameplay design elements and then this would be a more fun adventure. The stylus controls were naturally a terrible decision right from the start but also the forced mini bosses doesn’t make sense. I’d also argue for more quick travel points in general but it seems like the Prime games just tend to avoid that for all of the titles. This is still a third person shooter though so at the end of the day it will be satisfying to shoot down the opponents. The large variety of weapons is fun after all and some of them are super broken like the electricity. That one is definitely a lot of fun to spam at enemies.

You do have to use the stylus to switch abilities so that can get a bit tedious but on the whole it works out well enough. Just slow down when you need to and that can make a world of difference. Pure difficulty-wise it is definitely tougher than Prime 3 but not quite as hard as Prime 2 so it’s somewhere in the middle there. Not exactly a walk in the park but you’ll get enough power ups through the course of the game to claim victory in the end. If you die, there are restart points so you don’t have to run to the boss. You just restart the fight which is a great quality of life update.

Overall, Metroid Prime: Hunters is a good game. It would have been a very good one but unfortunately the pain is just too much for me to put it any higher. I suppose if you are right handed then you can add an extra star to this game and have a blast. Otherwise I can’t say that I would fully recommend it though. You’re better off skipping ahead and getting Prime 3 or going back and playing Metroid Fusion. In either case you are getting a much stronger experience there. Prime Hunters does add some fun characters to the mix like actually getting other opponent hunters but that just isn’t enough to overcome that gameplay.

Overall 6/10

Madden 26 Review

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Madden is one of those games that I had been waiting for many years to go back to Nintendo. Back on the Gamecube these games were always so exciting and I got to play them many times. Unfortunately Nintendo and EA had a falling out and these vanished for many years. Well, now for the first time in over 10 years, Madden is back on Nintendo and it’s better than ever. It’s a real blast playing through the game and there’s a ton of content here for you to enjoy. Whether this is your first Madden or you are a veteran, you are bound to have a lot of fun.

I decided to jump right into the online head to head mode because that’s the main incentive of why I got it on the Switch 2 in the first place. I always wanted to be able to fight other people online and not have to worry about a free PS+ weekend. Well, I started off pretty strong and got off to a 8-2 record. Not too shabby considering how long it’s been. I only got to actually finish maybe 2 games tops though as opponents tend to quit midway when they are losing. I get it in that if you know you’re gonna lose, then you may as well hop out but it’s all about your own dignity. You need to see this through to the end as quitting midway is an extremely weak move.

You need to show that you are made of sterner stuff! It’s a bit hard to describe the gameplay but just think of it like actually playing football. You get a fairly good birds eye view of the game and you have your team decide to run or pass. You always play as the player with the ball when you’re on offense and when you’re on defense then you can play as whoever you want. For me it can be a little tough playing defense since I haven’t done that much in years.

When I’m playing offline, I generally pick to go offense only since that side is a lot more fun as it is. When against a real opponent, you are doing everything though. I mainly stuck to the d-line and focused on trying to get a lot of sacks. That’s where I’m the most comfortable at least. On offense, I’ve found that it works really well to run the ball a lot compared to the old days when you would only pass. The way the A.I. has improved means that passing the ball is always going to be a risk unless your guy is wide open.

It’s also why I would say this is a game of reaction times because you have to choose who to throw it to very quickly or you will be absolutely squashed by the incoming defenders. Always have some kind of a gameplan at the ready in order to deal with this. Of course the same is true for running as you want to find a hole and go through that way or you will be stuffed at the line.

Kicking has become a little more difficult in recent years as they’ve tried to make it more realistic. Instead of one meter like the old days you now have to worry about two meters. They have different speeds depending on the difficulty as well as the distance of the kick or punt. It also makes this a game of reaction times and for now I miss more kicks than I make so I really need to work on this. It’ll be fun to improve on it though.

Meanwhile there are plenty of other modes here like offline franchise and minigames. I used to like the minigames a lot on Madden 2004 so it’s fun to see them here as well. To an extent I don’t think the minigames are quite as solid when the game is this realistic but they are still pretty good to go through. I tried out about half of them but then I was ready to go back into the full games. Right now I am at Rank Silver so maybe I can shoot my way to gold with enough wins at some point.

Naturally the graphics are really solid. Yeah they may be better on the PS5 but they are definitely good enough for me. Additionally the soundtrack is solid with a pretty large assortment of tunes in there. Most of the time you’re going to be way too focused to notice much of anything though. When you’re inside of a game, it’s just you and the other team. It’s a big reason why Madden never gets boring even though it comes out every year. The core gameplay is just too good to pass up and you are always guaranteed a dynamic experience.

With online that means every game will always be different. The game has unlimited replay value and now they even have level ups and season tracks to earn rewards. I’m confident that this game will stay fully supported at least until we get Madden 27 so you don’t have to worry about them giving up midway. No, this is definitely a game that is worth every dollar for as long as you’ve got it. I aim to keep on playing this one at least a bit each week to keep my skills fresh and if you don’t have the game yet then you should definitely check it out. It’s a real game changer.

Overall, Madden 26 is a super fun game. Football is the best sport in the world so it’s only fitting that the games match that kind of energy. At this point it’s so lifelike that someone taking a glance might even think you are watching highlights. The attention to detail is scary but most importantly, the sport just lends itself well to being a video game. We’ll see if Madden 27 is able to match up to this one but I can tell you that it will definitely be a real uphill battle.

Overall 9/10

Love and Monsters Review

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It’s time for a fun little survival film. It ended up being better than I expected as it dodged some pretty big pitfalls that I had expected it to land in from the jump. It’s a very upbeat film with some solid humor and adventure so I can easily recommend it to the average movie goer. In fact, I nearly gave it a thumbs up for the romance too but the film jumped the shark at the very end. Ah well…that’s how it goes sometimes.

The film starts off pretty quickly with nearly all of humanity being wiped out after a nuclear defense against an asteroid mutates a bunch of animals into giant monsters. These monsters quickly made short work out of humanity and the survivors live in isolated bunkers. Joel is a member of one of these but he’s not too happy. Everyone at his bunker has shacked up while his girlfriend is stuck 85 miles away at another bunker. Joel also has difficulty feeling useful at the base since he tends to freeze up all the time. All he does is cook around the base and while everyone is super supportive, he has had enough. He decides to brave the unknown and go find his girlfriend Aimee. Can he survive out there?

A few solid notes right out of the gate. I liked how everyone as really supportive and they genuinely tried helping Joel out. There were no random bullies or petty characters here. This is the end of the world so you would expect everyone to band together and not let a single person feel isolated. A minor scene about this is how they all even rehearsed how they would gently let Joel down in the event that he asked to go on a mission. Then when he decides to leave, they even make him a detailed map and everything. (Which he ungratefully only looks at for a second before putting it away)

Another thing I was glad about is that humanity didn’t just roll over. The intro states that before getting crushed, our armies did take out all of the giant kaiju. So at least they didn’t die immediately without doing anything. Additionally we were also given a good reason for why they couldn’t make a comeback because eventually we ran out of bullets and people who knew how to create more. They went more in detail on how humanity lost in 15 minutes compared to multiple movies for a Quiet Place.

Now I was going to give the film credit for the romance but like I said earlier, that didn’t work out. I think any film veteran can likely see how this journey will play out but I’m still not going to spoil it. What I will say is that for most of the movie, Joel and Aimee were fairly mature about everything. Aimee was perhaps a little tricky at times even if it was a situation where she figured it would never matter. Where it falls apart is their final scene together. Lets just say it is completely undeserved and completely destroys the whole message of the romance. Talk about one scene destroying over 90 minutes of goodwill.

It’s one of those “Hollywood” type moments where you roll your eyes. If we ever get a sequel, hopefully this has no bearing on it. As a character Joel isn’t bad. He tries a little too hard to be funny and is often cringy but to an extent that’s the point of the character. Joel isn’t your average adventure lead and is completely out of his depth. He is still earnest and tries his best though. I wouldn’t say that he’s great or anything like that but he is a good character. He gets points for how he handled the final boss as well.

Then Aimee was a bit of a roller coaster for me. She was good in the intro, took some steps back near the middle with how quickly she got drunk and let her guard down, then buttoned up during the climax. So on the whole I would say she is a good character but as the essential leader of her group, she needs to keep her guard up. Leaders have an extra burden on themselves compared to other characters and while it may feel harsh or unfair, that’s just how the job goes.

Throughout the film Joel is accompanied by his pet dog, Boy. I’d say travelling together during the apocalypse makes him a pet by the end at least, but not to be misleading, they first meet on the journey. Boy is very helpful at numerous points in the film and Joel wouldn’t have survived without him. The film avoids going for the low hanging fruit of tragedy and drama here which was really appreciated. He makes for a really fun sidekick.

In general the film was really good with the supporting characters like Clyde and Minnow who show up later on. Minnow is a little kid who is really confident and doesn’t mind letting Joel know how weak he is. Then Clyde is an expert survivor who has been surviving very well all this time. The two of them make for a great team and are also very kind to Joel. They help him learn a lot in a short period of time and get him ready for the real world. They had a very strong team dynamic between the three of them.

As for the villains we get at the end of the film, they’re a bit sudden but it made sense in terms of having a true climax. Just having some monsters show up probably wouldn’t have been as intense in this case. You definitely wanted to see the villains go down after they spent a lot of time launching electric shocks and everything. So it made for a satisfying ending there, you always like to see the monsters getting some revenge of their own as well.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It had a good sense of humor. Honestly without destroying the romance message at the end this could have even gone up one more point. With monster films my worry can be on the animal violence and how badly the monsters get damaged. This time that ended up not being a big problem. Some monsters were blown up but generally it wasn’t really done in a big animal violence kind of way. There weren’t a lot of gross moments here and it also wasn’t one of those dystopias with a really jaded view on how evil everyone would be. Sure we did get our villains but by and large the cast was solid.

Overall 7/10

Next of Kin 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

It’s time for a classic revenge thriller. You can bet that this’ll make for a pretty intense film but the whole time you are hoping that the main character will make a move. He spends way too long just being absolutely persistent in wanting proof before making a move. The problem is that when you’re dealing with really experienced villains, getting proof is not always going to be possible.

The movie starts with introducing us to Truman who is a cop but isn’t always respected by the rest of the unit. They consider him to be a guy from the mountains who doesn’t really fit in but he does his best to overlook this and just do his job. He has a pregnant wife to think about after all. Unfortunately the town is on the corrupt side with a very active mob presence and they end up murdering one of Truman’s brothers. Truman goes to the funeral where the rest of the family swear vengeance. Truman pleads with them to let the law solve this but his other brother Briar decides to tackle this himself. Now Truman has to try and arrest the mobster responsible before vigilante justice comes through.

Now of course it is best to go through the law here but we’re talking about a big member of the mafia. You’re not going to see him just show up and bring him to jail. The mafia will fight you to the death on that and odds are that they’ve got someone on the payroll within the cops. Truman basically tries the entire film to do this by the book and it feels futile at every turn. He would have really been better off helping Briar get this over with right away.

Now Briar also wasn’t very smart about this. At one point he gets all of the villains alone in a room and has the drop on them. He decides to threaten them all a bit instead of finishing them off and that was a mistake. While his main beef was with the killer and he didn’t know which of them it was, they’re all gangsters. Why not just destroy them? He could have ended the film right there. Of course they would still have other people try to get revenge and the feud would continue but I wasn’t convinced at the reasoning for sparing them. Briar is outnumbered and in enemy territory so letting them go was not a good idea.

Meanwhile Truman’s wife Jessie was unfortunately a bit on the annoying side here. She knows all about how dangerous his job is and yet she starts complaining almost immediately when the going gets tough. I thought she would be on his side and try to stay calm but she panics so much. Additionally when she is attacked, she decides the thing to do is hide in the shower with the faucet on so she can’t even hear when Truman gets into the house and is yelling for her. That means if the attackers had gotten in, she would have been completely defenseless. Not a smart move.

Like I said in the intro though, Truman is just way too passive here. Sure, he threatens the villains from time to time but they know he isn’t going to do anything. It takes several murders for him to finally take action and by then we’re in the climax of the film. It’s a better late than never kind of story here when Truman should have been taking bigger strides to avenge his brother’s murder. That is what would have really helped him to have been better here.

As for the villains, they’re fairly generic. You’ve got Joey who is quick to violence and fits right in as the gang’s number two. He gets upset when John’s son threatens to replace him on the totem pole but that guy isn’t very smart. He is completely oblivious to how much Joey dislikes him and walks into every trap. You’re basically counting the minutes until he’s doomed. John is the actual leader of the mafia and is a much more reasonable guy but also takes too long to act.

If he was more in touch with what was going on then perhaps he could have prevented any of this from happening. Instead he talks about bonds and trust but didn’t do anything to solidify them Truman certainly gave him a lot of advance warning to try and stop this and John did not make use of any of it. At that point there just isn’t much more you can do about the situation.

While Briar didn’t handle the situation too smartly at times, he was still the most enjoyable character in the film. At least he was trying to serve up justice. This is definitely the kind of film where you end up rooting for the vigilante since nobody else is really able to get results. In general though you just don’t want to be in any city where the mafia have a lot of power.

The film can be fairly violent so just a heads up on that. The kills can be rather intense, particularly the first brother who died near the beginning of the film. The overall tone is more like a classic thriller so it’s not overly dark. Especially since all of the characters know what side the others are on. There is even a comic relief character who owns the apartment that Briar rents. He gets quite a bit of screentime here to also help prevent things from getting too crazy.

Overall, Next of Kin is a good thriller but a film that can also be a bit annoying for most of its run. The main character is too passive and then the aggressive brother decides not to finish off the villains at the last second. Definitely a rough combination there. Meanwhile the villains aren’t exactly subtle here because they don’t need to be. They just run in and shoot people whenever they want to with complete immunity. When the law fails so completely like this, it’s no wonder that some characters will jump in to complete the job themselves. It’s simply inevitable.

Overall 6/10

KPop Demon Hunters Review

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It’s time for a film that came out pretty recently and has really been making waves. The songs have certainly been going around a lot. In particular “Your Idol” gets spammed a whole lot so I was ready to see how it would work in context. The movie is pretty fun and moves at a really rapid pace. I’d definitely like to see a sequel come into the picture at some point because this one really had a lot of momentum. A whole lot more you can do with the story here.

The movie introduces us to a world where humans and demons are kept apart thanks to a magic barrier that is put into place by a trio of demon hunters. Every generation the mantle is passed on and they do this again and again. Now it is time for the main trio to pull this off and it should be easy as per normal. That is, until Jinu tells the demon king to let him try and make an evil boy band. They will compete with the demon hunters at their own game. As for the trio of heroines, their bond threatens to break when Rumi begins to keep secrets from the other two. Teamwork is absolutely what is needed here.

In a way I suppose the biggest make or break point for the film would be the music. Fortunately I can say that the music was really good. I liked all of the songs quite a bit although I dare say that the villains may have had the best song this time. The one they sung at the end of the movie was just tough to beat. I’ll have to listen to the other songs some more to see exactly how I would rank them though. This also does reinforce to me the idea that a movie with a lot of songs in a concert setting will always beat a standard musical. The songs just have way more power to them and the beat cannot be defeated.

The animation is also pretty solid. I liked the energy effects during the battle and we even got some basic choreography. Now the action is really just there as the cherry on top to the singing but I still appreciated having those action scenes there. It helps to make the film feel that much more intense than the average animated adventure would be. You do get the feeling that the heroines are lucky that the villains went for songs though. Based on how strong Jinu and the other top fighters were, they probably would lose a straight fight. The movie also had a lot of fun in particular with making the characters show off a lot of crazy faces. You can definitely say they had a whole lot of range here so you can get ready to see a lot of that.

Rumi is the main heroine so she gets the biggest role but all 3 get a lot to do. I get why she was keeping secrets from her friends since it was a touchy subject and you never know how they would react. That said, it was probably time to come clean once her voice started going crazy. At that point her issues are putting the entire world at stake after all so you really have to open things up. Meanwhile she did a good job of standing up for herself and defying tradition by the end. So I didn’t really have any big issues with her.

The best member of the trio is probably Zoey though. She just seems like she’d make for the best friend and she was always looking out for the other two. Zoey is someone who is quietly reliable and always trying to look on the bright side. Her weapon does seem like the worst one among the 3 though and it’s fair to say that she’s probably the weakest of the trio. Ah well, you can’t win them all.

Then Mira is the tough one who is ready to confront her friends when need be. I always like when a group has someone with a bit of toughness since you need that contrast. At the same time it’s not like she’s over the top aggressive or anything either so that’s what kept her from being the best member. I could see her getting a bigger role in a sequel which could definitely help her rise up the charts.

In this film all of the characters get distracted by the boy band at different times so you can tell that they aren’t quite as experienced as other heroes would be. They haven’t yet mastered how to remove all distractions from their presence. Of course that can be easier said than done. These moments are mainly just for gags of course. They’re probably a bit on the forced side but it’s not like there are a ton of these moments and the film isn’t trying to be a comedy anyway.

The best scenes in terms of humor are usually when Jinu and his squad are trolling the heroines. Now that can get pretty fun. For a minute there I was wondering if all of Jinu’s friends were going to get development but that would have been hard to do in what was a fairly short film. Ultimately Jinu is the only one to get a big role and that’s probably for the best. It helps to make him stand out even more as an exception to the rest of the demons.

Jinu is a fun villain. The guy has a lot of different faces to his personality like being a troll, a mastermind, or even just trying to be sympathetic. He’s a fairly complex fella and in the end the film handles him well. It ultimately doesn’t have this become the big romance plot you might have been thinking about. The stakes are too high for that to remain as a focus for very long. He seems like the kind of character who could have almost been the hero in another story.

After all we see that the demons are ruled by the king through force. Not all of them are necessarily evil but they are forced to hear his voice at all times and he continues to break their wills. It opens the door for a possible plot about saving some of the demons in the sequel. The rank and file do seem mindless but then you do have a lot of sentient ones around as well. This might be tougher for Rumi to convince her two teammates of than with trusting her as a demon exception. We’ll see if this leads to another schism and if the sequel decides to pursue more of a story with Jinu or not.

Overall, KPop Demon Hunters is a pretty good film. I enjoyed each area of the title like the action and songs. Granted I would have loved more of a final fight to really seal the deal. The film really flies by and ends before you know it though. As a result it can’t spend too much time on some things like the ramifications of what will happen to the demon world or how the mentor will handle Rumi’s decision. So there’s a lot that could be unpacked for the sequel but even if this ends up being a one shot film, it would have done its job of being a fun title. At the end of the day that’s all any film needs to do. If you haven’t checked this one out yet then I would definitely recommend it.

Overall 7/10

Child’s Play (1972) Review

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It’s time for a film with a lot of suspense as you know something strange is going on but you don’t know exactly what it is. Well, it definitely succeeds in being a rather eery film with the kind of atmosphere that is hard to match nowadays. That said, the resolution isn’t particularly satisfying and just about all of the characters have to consistently drop the ball in order for the film’s events to play out in this way. It makes you wish that some real adults would show up already.

The film starts off by showing us that the children in a local Catholic School have all gone absolutely crazy. They are terrorizing each other and the events are only escalating. In particular they all seem to dislike one teacher, Malley who is infamously known as Lash. The guy is a really harsh teacher, someone who demands absolute respect and holds the kids to a high standard. Another teacher named Dobbs is always saying that he wants Malley to go easier on the boys but the guy refuses. Meanwhile Malley mentions that e is being harassed a whole lot as well as his sickly mother. He blames it all on Dobbs while Dobbs says that he is crazy. Meanwhile an alumni named Paul shows up to be the new gym teacher but really doesn’t know what he is getting into.

There’s a mix of supernatural elements here as well as a more practical enemy. It’s an odd balance as you can’t totally tell where one part ends and the other begins. I assume that is intentionally left up to your interpretation. The supernatural part was also necessary because otherwise it’s just hard to believe that things would have gone this bad this quickly. There are hundreds of boys in the Catholic school and yet a huge amount of them have turned rogue. It’s all very calculated and then the victims don’t even fight back and if anything just make it easier to become the next victims. Nothing at this school really makes sense.

So that’s really a big part of the mystery that Paul needs to figure out. The guy is really out of his depth from the start though and just being away from the kids for a few minutes is enough for the next person to be turned into a victim. With speed like that, you really have to be perfect in order to prevent anything from going on. It’s an unrealistic burden that nobody can possibly live up to. And yet, that is the burden that he ultimately has to bear as long as he’s here. Honestly he should have ducked out right away but I give him bravery points for sticking it out.

He’s just not too smart about it all. Remember that at least 20 kids are going around causing these issues and attacking other students. Paul is an adult but he’s only around 20, barely older than the other students. If it becomes a 20 on 1 fight, realistically Paul won’t be able to do much of anything. Yet, he easily allows himself to be alone in an environment where there is nobody to back him up. Just no common sense there at all.

I’m also unclear why the police haven’t gotten involved. Sure, the school isn’t contacting folks, but the hospital has records and then you also have the parents who should be getting more and more vocal with how often this has been going on. By the end the situation is finally being handled but it sure took a very long while. Everyone within the school takes some blame among the faculty because they were way too lenient and slow to react.

Dobbs does his best to look like the kind teacher the whole time but does tend to lay things on a bit thick. He does a good job of always looking very concerned and only blows up on occasion. He does come off as more reasonable than Malley although that guy isn’t actually that bad. He’s strict, but never abusive or anything like that. He doesn’t lay a hand on the students and while he blasts them about their mistakes, all of the students do make a lot of mistakes. Ultimately when everyone fails like this, it does reflect most on the teacher though. So I would say he probably needs to improve on his own curriculum here.

As for all of Malley’s concerns like the terrorizing phone calls, weird magazines, etc. The main message here is to not let yourself get gaslit. When things are happening, you always have to trust yourself above all to know that it’s real no matter how many people say you’re lying. I’m a little surprised he couldn’t take a more active approach to all of this though. There is no guarantee of success for anything of course but if he had brought in physical evidence or started recording the calls or contacting the police, something could have happened. You have to disrupt the status quo at the very least. If he’s sure that Dobbs is the one doing it, then he has to do something about this or it’ll only get worse.

I would say the main thing holding the film back here is how mean spirited it could get and of course how nobody was doing anything about this. There is quite a lot of bullying going on here and since the victims can’t fight back either due to the supernatural element or full on fear, the adults had to step up. Every time they have a meeting with 0 results you have to shake your head. It felt like a film where the ending had no real hope from the beginning. So it’s like you’re on a slow ride to dark end with no hope of getting out in sight. Doesn’t quite make for the most enjoyable kind of experience right?

Overall, Not every film has a happy ending and a horror film makes that even more likely. How good these films will be can usually e boiled down to how solid the characters are and if you felt like there was at least some hope along the way. Some point where you could be having fun during the movie. That’s never really the case here and while there are several teachers, they all tend to be rather useless when it counts. The movie is very much a slow burner but when the characters are helpless to stop the impending evil, it’s not the most effective approach. If you like really sinister kinds of films with this atmosphere then you may enjoy this one but ultimately while it is a step above the average slasher kind of film, I still wouldn’t call it a good horror title.

Overall 3/10

Disaster on the Coastline Review

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It’s time for a film about the dangers of technology. A bit ahead of its time perhaps but the message still works really well today. Technology is something that will always present a whole lot of issues to everyone around and this one is no exception. When you throw in the rogue human element, then things get even worse. This makes for a pretty solid thriller film with quite a lot of players involved although ultimately a lot of the plot does revolve around some characters being really gullible/naive.

The film starts off by explaining that the vice president’s wife will be taking a train since the planes are currently on strike. As a result the government wants to be extra sure that the ride goes smoothly and they send one of their operatives to wait by the central computer base where all trains and their connections are monitored. The team is annoyed to have him there but they will have to make do. What they don’t realize is that the driver of the train has been knocked out and replaced with a terrorist. Meanwhile a big time con man has escaped onto the train as well and is using an annoyed lady as his cover. All of the characters will soon be colliding.

Now I have to say that for most of the film I figured the thief was in cahoots with the terrorist. I figured he was the inside man who would be ready with distractions as necessary but in the end it was all separate. Stuart really is just trying to avoid the people he swindled and that’s why he is being so shady. Now the romance probably still should not have worked even with the relationship dramas that Paula was having but anytime someone is quickly ready to have a beer, that is a red flag. Now to be clear, the guy was cheating on her first and while she didn’t know this for a fact, the signs were there.

So you can see her wanting to find something new but this still ends up being a rebound. She also knows from the jump that Stuart isn’t an honest man. So that’s a bit of a snag in a relationship because how does she know he will be honest about that? Trust is the biggest part of any relationship and so if you don’t have that, then it seems to me that everything else will be moot right? A train ride just isn’t long enough for this to be ready for a serious relationship even with the dramatic ending. So this part didn’t feel earned.

Meanwhile the actual terrorist has things be a little too easy. For example he has to convince the other driver on the second car not to listen to everyone telling him to stop which is what will ensure that the two trains collide into each other. To a degree his excuses make sense which is that everyone else is a terrorist trying to trip him or a civilian held at gunpoint. However, the terrorist says that the helicopters outside are here to support him and you have people waving and telling the guy to slam on the brakes. I don’t know how they could have been more clear about the instructions and he still kept on going straight. That was real lucky for the villain.

It should have been curtains right there. Additionally the thief should have been out of luck right away when Paula found the briefcase with the stolen money in it. There would be no reason to aid a villain at this point in time. So both villains were really lucky all the way. Well, luck aside it does make for a pretty tense scenario. The film did a good job with the mounting danger and ho the various characters were all starting to panic.

The writing is solid with a lot of good dialogue the whole time. Even when the computer guys are arguing with the FBI agent, they manage to stay rather civil and aren’t immediately resorting to personal attacks or anything like that. It does eventually come up of course but they are mainly focused on the threat at hand which is the important thing. The blame game and everything else can happen later on.

Then you also have a subplot where corporate actually looks pretty good for once. A CEO is put into a tricky spot when the terrorist gets his company involved and the guy is quick to take charge of the situation. He could have just ignored the situation or given a generic public statement but he prioritized the lives on the train the whole way through. Even once the cameras were off, he prepared the next steps on the investigation because he actually cares about justice. You don’t always see that so it was a pretty nice moment.

In the end I would say the movie as a whole did a good job of trying to show the brighter side of humanity. When the chips were down, everyone stood up to do their best. From the Con-Man risking his life (Not like he had a ton of options though) to the snobbish FBI agent forcing himself to play nice with the technicians, everyone was trying to do their best to resolve the situation. Some films take a jaded view of humanity while others lean on the positive and the latter can certainly be refreshing at times.

Overall, This was a pretty good movie. For the most part it’s what I would consider to be a fairly low key thriller. Yes, the stakes are as high as ever and people could die but everyone involved is a professional. You’re not seeing the same level of panic as what you would see in a modern version of this story. That would be in a completely different level without a doubt. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a good story. It’s a well balanced movie with a solid beginning, middle, and ending. It’s the complete package.

Overall 7/10