Tag Archives: Romance

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War The First Kiss That Never Ends Review

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All right it’s time for an anime film to show us how to really make a quality romance. Kaguya-sama is an elite franchise for a bunch of reasons and one of those is that it actually has a quality romance without being rushed or making things about rebounds. Kaguya and Shirogane work because they were always each other’s first pick and nothing else was going on there. The movie really expands on that and gives the two characters a lot of closure. All in all this is a great title.

The movie picks up where the show left off with Kaguya and Shirogane finally getting together…or did they? See they may have had their first kiss but they haven’t been able to talk with each other since then so the situation is getting tense. Making matters worse is the fact that Kaguya appears to have fallen back into her icy persona from the old days so Shirogane gets the feeling that she is trying to put some distance between them. He needs to win her over one last time but can he really pull this off? Meanwhile Kaguya is fighting her inner demons and has to decide if she should finally remove all of the masks and risk it all by being with Shirogane. It’s a tough call.

So if you’re a fan of Ino, Chika, or Ishigami then there’s not going to be much here for you. This film is really about Kaguya and Shirogane all the way through. Those 3 characters barely get more than a few lines and while you know they’re off having their own adventures, the movie isn’t worrying about them. It’s nice to see them of course and I think more screen time would have been nice if the film extended its run time but the main duo always have the best plot anyway so it works out.

As always the animation is really solid here. Everything really pops out at you and the show has a lot of fun flexing for random scenes. A great moment with the animation was when Kaguya was trying to run away from Shirogane. She was suddenly leaping across the walls like a cat and zooming around. That was definitely real impressive. We may not have as many visual gags since the film is fairly serious next to the standard episode but they are still around at some points. I would also still consider the film part comedy since a lot of it is super fun. The movie just knows when to slow down and have an emotional scene.

The soundtrack is also excellent as always. The show had a great variety of themes and the movie continues this really well. While the opening song is not quite as strong as any of the openings that appeared prior, it’s still good. I’ve listened to it a good amount of times to prep for the review in case it jumped up but in the end I think it just isn’t quite as high speed and energetic as prior ones. I suppose that may have been the idea.

Now for the movie, it’s interesting in that it’s a decently long movie but it can be a bit hard to go into the plot much because the story itself is quick. It’s ultimately just about the two finally having time to have a candid talk about the situation. Things just keep happening that prevents the two from doing this like Shirogane fainting or Kaguya turning chibi and then having a complete mental breakdown. The movie definitely did a great job of adapting chibi Kaguya too. That was a really fun part in the manga and the show really captured how crazy the whole thing was. The doctor who showed up for Shirogane is a lot of fun as always too.

Now for the romance itself, which character handled it better? Well that would probably be Shirogane since if Kaguya hadn’t panicked you can make the case that the film would have effectively ended during the first scenes. They would have made it official that they were going out and that would have been the end of it. Then once the icy persona was back Shirogane did a good job of trying hard the whole time. I don’t blame him for missing the hint about her hands being cold because that was out of character for Kaguya so he just didn’t pick up on it.

Throughout the movie he is a perfect gentleman. He may not always be able to read her mind but for the most part he does a good job of adapting to the situation and never giving up. In terms of not wanting to let his own mask fall off, that also makes sense. He worked hard to become the best at the school and thrive despite not being from a rich family. To an extent I think that would never go away. There’s a saying about how everyone has around 6 faces, the one they show family, friends, work colleagues, online, with strangers, and the one they have when alone. Some people are better than others at basically keeping them all more or less the same and others do this more as you get older but to an extent I’d say you will always be a little different based on the setting.

In a relationship though, the biggest factor is trust so you do need to be able to trust your partner with your true self. In this case if Shirogane isn’t ultimately able to trust Kaguya that far then their relationship would be doomed eventually. He would never be able to relax and the stress/nerves would ultimately get to him. You could make the case that even by the end of the film he hasn’t truly let go yet so that could be a plot to continue on even if he is in a much better place than where he started.

Then for Kaguya the problem is similar but she comes to terms with it quite a bit quicker than Shirogane. It helps that she has always been a very introspective person so she literally creates alternate hers from each of her age periods to talk about this. Once they come to an understanding she is able to just be herself and be with Shirogane. Perhaps as Shirogane says it is a little easier for her since it’s a side he used to know since that’s how she was at the beginning Of course part of that is just him making excuses but I would also say it is true to an extent. Her true self is still mega rich and had other suiters in the past while Shirogane is worried everything would immediately come crashing down. It’s the dark side of overthinking everything and it’s nice to see the series acknowledging this since that’s the entire premise really. Both characters just overthinking everything all the time.

Seeing Kaguya overcome her fears and finally come into her own was a great plot point. While I would say Shirogane slightly edged her out as the main character of the movie, the series is hers and you could say the whole series was building up to this point. Just losing the mask and being analytical all the time to just have a heartfelt moment and stop playing the chasing game. So yeah this is a winning romance and it worked well for the movie. You could probably even jump in to this film without watching the show since you have enough context and it still ends up being a really solid title.

Overall, This was a lot of fun. The romance is written really well and is one of the few ships I can get behind. If I ever write an editorial on how to write a good romance, this will absolutely be one of the examples I use. The whole thing is satisfying and the ending is solid. I still do want future seasons to adapt the rest of the series though. It may not have had the best final saga in the manga but it’s still important to get to the end of the series. The anime can probably end up buffing it as well since it has done such a great job of adapting the content so far. I’m confident that they can do something really good here.

Overall 8/10

Who Was That Lady? Review

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All right so imagine you walk into a room and you see your husband with another lady in the position of the poster. Now…..unless you’re a grade A sucker this is where the film ends because you’re pulling in the papers and axing the whole thing off right? Well this movie’s all about the main guy trying to gaslight his wife into thinking that this isn’t actually happening. Will he succeed or will justice prevail?? Time to find out!

So I have to say whenever the main character gets off too easy I tend to be annoyed and that happens here. I was waiting for things to really turn on him but they never really do. Basically the film starts off with a student staying after class and pulls the moves on him. His reaction times were dead in the water but for the sake of argument we can say he was putting up a struggle but lacked the power. David’s wife Ann walks in and sees this so she dashes off and says they will be getting divorced. David knows his only hope is to get the help of his best friend Michael to lie on his behalf. Lying is like breathing for Michael so you could even say that he was born for this task and boy is he eager to pull it off!

The story they go with is that David is part of the FBI and part of his job is going on dates and having affairs with various women who are actually operatives from enemy establishments. The whole thing sounds so bogus but Ann believes it because a part of her wants to believe in her husband which is actually just tragic when you think about it. Now David’s web of lies continues to grow and grow but he’s having a blast. What can possibly go wrong with this?? Well when the real FBI step in things start to get a little shaky.

Yeah so I have no sympathy for the main character here. David makes all of the usual excuses and one liners here but I don’t buy any of them. It was a mistake…it happened too fast, etc. Nahhh that’s not going to work. What’s even worse is when he goes with Michael on the group date. He absolutely needed to say no and just deal with the consequences. Even if nothing ended up happening, just going on the group date was a really bad idea. Sure he got to experience some danger near the end but for the most part there were no real downsides to the adventure. He just got to mess around a lot and in the end things are actually better off for him than when he started the film. Life and death situations can change a person but there was no real reason for Ann to forgive him.

Meanwhile Ann may be a lot more sympathetic than David but I was still not a fan. She gets fooled way too easily especially considering how weak the story is. She should have stuck to her guns. I actually think a more interesting premise would have been that she was doubting him the whole film so he keeps on making the stories more and more fantastic in a bid to get her to believe him. By the end she finally starts to believe him when something goes wrong and he has to come clean. Boom that’s so many times better than what we got and it would have also made her look a whole lot better.

Then you have his friend Michael who is the king of being a bad influence. You can always count on him to make sure that things don’t go well. He always starts off with fairly clever ideas but ends up doubling down on them so many times that they go all the way around into being bad ideas. He really instigates a lot of the problems. So make no mistake he’s definitely a true antagonist here and someone you can’t root for. At the same time he is easily the most entertaining character. It’s always a lot of fun to see him with the fast talk and trying to outsmart everyone.

In the climax when the two are attacked by villains he’s the only one who actually tries to put up a fight. He still gets folded real fast but I appreciated the attempt. I feel like the really confident fast talkers like this guy can usually at least know the basics of combat so that made sense. Ultimately that’s no substitute for having actual abilities though. His confidence at least makes other characters think twice and he was really able to dominate for most of the film because of this.

There’s also the main FBI agent who gets a decent role here. He ultimately pays a bit of a price for being too passive in the film though. If he had jumped in from the jump then he could have really changed a ton of events in the film. Instead he wanted to be nice and in the end actually dragged things out a lot more. Poor guy just wanted to relax and wasn’t ready for all of this.

The film definitely has a lot of funny moments and has a decent script so it’s not a really bad movie or anything like that. You should grin now and again but the basic premise does hold it back quite a lot. You definitely can’t get behind the romance and the main character ends up crossing a little too far into unlikable territory. You can deal with a main character who’s not super likable or anything like that but when he’s this bad it does end up taking a toll on the film. Ultimately it also feels a bit more stretched out than it needs to be as well.

Overall, This is one film where the main character should have lost at the end. At least maybe have Ann get some kind of quick revenge on him for a little while to try and even the score. It was all just a little too easy considering that she actually saw him cheating. It’s not like it was word of mouth or a rumor where you could debate it. I get the feeling a modern remake would have things play out a little differently for David and for once I think that would actually make sense here. That kind of moment is typically game over after all even if the film tries to brush it aside a bit. I enjoy a fun/light tone as much as the next guy of course and the events are cool but the premise just puts a bit of a damper on it.

Overall 4/10

Human Voice Review

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This is definitely a really short film so there’s not much time for a full plot. It’s more about having a scenario and then the special takes it to a conclusion. The main problem is as a result we do not care at all about any of the characters here. Seriously the main character isn’t even likable based on the brief context we have here and the only one who seems decent would be the maid who is just trying her best.

The story here is that there’s an older lady who looks forward to talking to a young man that she is seeing. This relationship doesn’t appear as if it will ultimately go anywhere but she needed a rebound after her husband passed away a long time ago. This guy was cool with it and so they meet up a lot. On this day though, he calls and explains that it’s all over. They will not be seeing each other anymore and in fact he’s hanging out with a younger woman now. Uh ohhhhhhh.

You guys probably already know how I feel about age gap romances from other titles and basically I think they almost never work. There are no “Never” or “Always” conditions in a romance but I would say it rarely ever works out because the two people will just be too different. In general I say 10 years is around the cutoff so someone who’s 38 and someone who’s 31 can probably work things out even if it’s a little tricky but if we’re talking 41 and 29 then you’re not likely to have a great time. This movie seems to really be a straight depiction of this because the younger guy inevitably went for a younger woman.

The way he broke the news to her was pretty bad. I mean he just waited to call later in the day? Of course she already knew about the younger lady as we find out later and was just trying to block that from her mind. These characters are being delusional and so the conversation isn’t very interesting at all. In fact it’s really just the heroine talking the whole time as she thinks about the past and feels lonely about her future prospects.

In general I’m not big on rebounds either so the way I see it, her husband died but they had a good time for a while and now that’s really it. There’s no picking a next guy, you just have to live the rest of the life on solo player mode. To each their own of course but she should have reasonably expected this to happen at some point and start looking at her options. Picking the younger guy was probably the downfall here because it meant that she could not try to find someone around her age in the meantime.

The party line phones were nostalgic though. I remember when the lines were set up in a way where it was all connected so if you picked up the phone then someone else could be listening on the other end. That must have been a nightmare, I don’t know how people could have really used their phones much. I suppose some might not mind others eavesdropping and it can be nice for parties but I think in most cases it would just end up not being worth it.

You only feel bad for the maid here who is trying to avoid all of the drama but it seems like this kind of thing happens a lot. She very smoothly prepares the dinner and then gets out of there before any big blow up Absolutely a good move and she’s very quick on her feet. She also tried warning the main heroine in a way by how she kept asking if the guy was really coming. Nobody wants to waste food right?

It was also cool to see that it was an Eggplant Parmesan here since I go tot make that recently. Eggplant isn’t my favorite to say the least but when you throw enough sauce and cheese at the problem then you’re good. There are few things that these two elements cannot cure in a food dish. I did find out recently that pineapple pizza is one of those exceptions. The food looked really presentable here though and that’s a silver lining for the short.

This isn’t an awful short or anything but it is pretty bad because it’s hard to find any real positives here. Sure, I have small praises like the food but that doesn’t count for a whole lot. There’s not enough terrible content for me to push it lower but I just don’t see why you would make a short with such a flimsy plot. It’s just a little too light with not enough story or characters. As a result it just comes across as trying way too hard the whole time. Like it’s searching for some kind of award to pat it on the back about how the film managed a whole story with only a few characters appearing and this was at the extent of a real story.

Overall, Yeah this wasn’t very good. The short gives you no reason to identify with the characters and is trying so hard to be emotional that it doesn’t work. If you want to watch a really emotional moment then check out the Arlong climax in One Piece or any episode of RWBY volume 3. This one…..nahhhhhh. It needed more characters, a deeper plot, or some kind of plot twist. For example a massive twist at the end would at least have kept you guessing and honestly I would have been on board with that. I did not expect a twist at any point in the story so that’s what really could have thrown me for a massive loop. Cmon guys lets make it happen next time! In the meantime you should skip this one.

Overall 3/10

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

Starman Review

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Starman is one of those films that seemed a little iffy right out of the gate. The whole plot involves an alien impersonating Jenny’s husband and calling it a day. And this film is going to be part romance? Uh ohhhhhhhh. Yeah this is why the film was never going to get particularly far. Throw in that the pacing can be slow and the main character is super annoying and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

The film starts off with an alien crash landing to Earth after the government shot down his space ship. He has 7 orgs/magic spells at the ready and uses one to tell his people that Earth is dangerous. He then sees a widow named Jenny and decides to shapeshift into her dead husband. The alien is now “Scott” but he knows nothing about human customs, their ways, or even about talking. So he gets to work on learning all of this and until he does, he figures Jenny will be his prisoner. Jenny has to try and escape quickly before she falls victim to Stockholm syndrome. Will she be up to the task?

Yeah the romance here is just bad. Since her husband is dead, you would think that the last thing Jenny would tolerate is an alien shapeshifter. I would argue that a normal rebound is even better than this because at least it’s a different person. Choosing to get together with someone who looks like your husband but isn’t is just really eery and not something you should be doing. I would also argue that there is no reason for her to fall for him at all. He basically kidnapped her and then held her against her will for a long while. At what point would that really turn into some kind of admiration? I’m not buying it, no sirrrrrrrr. He basically got her pregnant through alien magic too and she was cool with it.

Jenny started out by being a tough character but started breaking down as the film went on. I would have preferred that she knocked “Scott” out early on and then escaped. She doesn’t have to help the government since those guys were real shady the whole time but not falling in love with this guy is the baseline requirement to being a really solid character here. The romance should have been cut out entirely.

It’s not even to say that “Scott” is a bad guy but I would still put him as more antagonistic than anything. While it takes him a while to learn the human customs so he isn’t intending to be a bad person, you can’t forget that he was completely threatening Jenny. This guy also seemed serious about it and while you know that he is changing, it’s not like you can just quickly see that and get together with him at the drop of a hat. It just doesn’t work like that by any stretch.

The film also suffers in large part due to “Scott” and how long it takes him to get used to Earth. It’s one of those tropes I’ve never been a big fan of where it takes him forever to understand what’s going on. So you see him make a lot of goofy faces, not know how to respond, etc. These scenes take forever and I just really prefer to have a character who is on the ball the whole time. Someone who knows what is going on and is ready to act. With his magic powers surely he could have used one of them to immediately understand human customs or something right? He comes far by the end but at first all of his scenes are absolutely brutal. You’ll be cringing a whole lot and that hurts the pacing.

Meanwhile the government makes for a decent villain but there isn’t a lot to them. They hire a freelancer to help out but that was the government’s mistake as he clearly had disdain for them from the start and instead of helping out he basically makes sure to get in their way the whole time. Seriously they would have been better off without him. In general while the government does get close at times, they rarely feel like much of a threat.

That’s why to add tension we see a deer die which was pretty regrettable. It’s a way for “Scott” to see how cruel the world is and how people hunt other animals. Fortunately he does use his abilities to revive it but it’s a scene that we didn’t really need. Still I wouldn’t say the film was ever aimless or anything. I wasn’t big on that scene of course but the film did have a plan the whole time and went ahead with it. You could easily transform this into a really fun film if you switch up the genre a bit. Have it be a thriller where “Scott” needs to evade the government until his backup arrives. Then we get a classic alien invasion film or something like that. You have to admit that would definitely be a lot of fun!

Of course if you really want to make this plot work, just don’t have Starman turn into her husband. Have him be an ordinary joe and gradually she falls for him. I think you’d still need to bypass all of the threats and such though for this to even be a conversation. Additionally it’s best for her to not even have a dead husband so that it’s not a big rebound like that. That would be an immediate upgrade to the plot and it’s not even that hard to pull off.

Overall, Starman isn’t a particularly good film. I would say that it starts off on the wrong foot with the romance right out of the gate. It’s just hard to get past that because it’s such a bad romance plot that only serves to actively harm the film. It’s hard to survive when one of your main genres is holding you back after all. There’s just no escape from that. Then mix in how Starman’s initial scenes really drag on and that doesn’t help either. To an extent it’s probably trying to be funny but give me the witty fast talking kind of humor over the slow on the uptake version any time. I’d say to avoid this film. The title sounds cool for sure but the actual film isn’t quite up to par.

Overall 3/10

Harriet Craig Review

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Now it’s time to look at another movie where the plot only works if the main guy looks really bad. He definitely takes the cake for being oblivious and weak willed here. Now to an extent if he knew what was going on and chose to ignore it then that wouldn’t be as bad. It would be like going down the simp route and then that’s that. It’s a dicey decision but it would have been his to make, but being oblivious is far worse. That’s something that is really hard to get around and makes his character unsalvageable.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Harriet and Walter who appear to be a perfectly happy couple. They get along great and all but as the film goes on we see that this isn’t what it appears to be. Harriet rules the house with an iron fist as she completely controls Walter’s movements, who he hangs out with, etc. She disrespects everyone around her and so Walter’s maids and friends dislike her but none of them have the guts to tell Walter directly. Meanwhile poor Walter is in the palm of her hands.

Whenever Walter is about to go out with his friends Harriet quickly lets him get some action so he has to cancel his appointment while she manages to drive a further wedge between all of them. Walter ultimately doesn’t even realize that it has been years since he has seen his friends. Slowly he is starting to get to experience life again and when his job offers Walter a promotion Harriet realizes that she needs to hurry and chain Walter up again before it’s too late. Can she end up securing the trophy?

So lets go back to Walter for a moment. Here’s the deal, there are some guys who don’t mind sacrificing everything to be with their girl. She can be as toxic as possible but he’s cool with it as long as he still has her. That’s problematic in its own way but as least he’s in control. What makes this worse for Walter is that he doesn’t realize the situation that he’s in and just thinks things are normal.

How did he not realize that he hadn’t seen his friends in multiple years? How did he not realize that they all couldn’t stand his wife? Then we have Harriet telling him to be careful where he sits, use a coaster, etc. Seriously he’s basically a guest in his own house which is messed up. Then she is always mean to the hired help and this guy doesn’t notice a thing. Now they definitely should have approached him but there are limits to how oblivious you can be. In the end he only really figures this out thanks to someone helping him out. Even then he nearly made the wrong move and let her back in until another twist.

The film is tragic in the sense that I’m sure a lot of people get fooled like this. Especially in real life there can always be a ton of small deceptions all around you that are much harder to detect. Such is the tricky battle of love and hoping that you know someone’s true nature before it’s too late. You have to try and notice if things don’t make sense and if others feel like you’ve changed. If everyone says you’re a bit different now then that’s worth looking into.

It would just have been nice if Walter could have been a little more aware. Instead things get awful tricky for him and it’s nearly too late in the end. Meanwhile Harriet makes for an intense villain although she certainly does get sloppy in the end. If Harriet hadn’t been quite as bold then she probably could have still stopped Walter but ultimately her mad quest for power is what got her. She just couldn’t hold back her controlling ways any further.

The writing is solid here and it’s an engaging story. Ultimately it is just held back by how annoying Walter is and how everyone just takes it from Harriet. It would be nice if they fought back a little bit and made it hard for her. There are a ton of ways you can counter attack. Frame her, make up some stuff, or the obvious and easy thing to do…tell Walter. He won’t just disregard the words of the maid he’s known for even longer than his wife. It just doesn’t make sense that everyone was so quiet here. They made it all way too easy for Harriet which is why the plot doesn’t work if everyone was being reasonable.

At the end of the day being married is supposed to be a fun thing so if your quality of life takes a nosedive then you need to figure it out. At the end of the day that’s why playing life on solo mode can always feel real appealing. At least the film gives us a glimpse of a relationship that should go well in Clare’s subplot. In theory that should work out at least so the film’s showing that things don’t have to be like this. Props to the film for not trying to make Harriet sympathetic at any point though. She gets a backstory but it’s clear from the jump that she is heavily overreacting and still went down the wrong path.

Overall, This is a movie that doesn’t have a lot of replay value because it’ll be hard to go through the whole thing. It’s not like it has a lot of issues but the contrived story is something that does take quite a few points away. Honestly just make Walter aware of everything and it makes the film a whole lot better. He would still stink as a character but at least it would make a lot more sense. Would have been an intense moment if at the end he admitted that he noticed everything but thought that being with Harriet was still worth it. In the end though he just wasn’t quick enough to keep up with her and that was his downfall.

Overall 5/10

The Hand that Rocks The Cradle Review

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

There are some films where you wonder how the plot can work without the main characters looking awful and then you realize that they just do look awful and that’s how the film happens. This should be over in a few minutes if the main characters played it smart tbh but that’s how it goes I guess. I’d say this film’s more of a skip, you don’t really need to check it out.

The movie starts off with Claire and her husband Michael getting ready for her next baby to be born. Unfortunately the doctor at the clinic turns out to be a full criminal and takes advantage of Claire so they sue him and the guy quickly deletes himself. His wife tries to stay strong but fails and when she faints her baby is lost. The wife swears revenge on the main characters and changes her alias to Peyton. Peyton quickly heads to the house and is immediately hired by Claire to be the nanny to help out around the house. Now Peyton can begin work on splitting the family apart and ultimately murdering Claire. How will she pull this off though?

So it turns out that letting a random stranger into your house without any real background checks can be a real danger eh? Peyton starts misplacing items, destroying reports, and basically making Claire look really bad since it’s like she’s losing her mind. Peyton makes sure to threaten the gardener, manipulate Claire’s older daughter against her, and even directly handle the baby far more often than Claire so he stops liking her. Yes it’s all very easy…because the characters make it easy. Seriously none of this should be working out at all.

First off we have Peyton hanging out with the baby more than Claire. Claire should be with the baby as often as possible. Sure, she’s busy but why is Peyton basically left all day to give the baby walks, put her to bed, etc? That should still all be Claire’s duty and not because it’s a job but because you want to be with your baby right? Claire does have asthma and can get sickly at times but not all the time so this always felt a little forced. When you’ve just had a kid you’re usually going to be staying around the house a lot. I know they hired a nanny for a reason but yeah this was not a good idea.

Put it this way, even if Peyton wasn’t evil, it’s still possible that the kid and baby would end up bonding with the nanny over the parents if they spent so much more time with her. It just makes sense. It also would help if the parents actually listened a bit more. When Peyton frames the gardener, they don’t even try to listen to their daughter about how it was all fixed. Yeah the evidence was pretty bad so I wouldn’t expect them to be too reasonable but at least listen to her side for a bit right?

For the most part I would say that Peyton’s not even that subtle about all of this. Wearing her necklace as if to boast about how she’s the mother now, her seduction attempt on the husband, etc. At least to the guy’s credit he never cracks or comes close to cracking on that front but these are all massive red flags. Peyton’s initial appearance was a huge red flag since she wasn’t from any agency and happened to be in the neighborhood? Cmon now it may be a beautiful day in the neighborhood but you don’t just happen to be wandering around one.

Then even once they find out Peyton is the villain and have to take her down they handle is horribly. The husband lets himself get thrown down a flight of stairs and the main heroine’s stab attempt didn’t go very well. This is why you need to at least know some basic self defense. Or if you’re going to run, then run right away. Waiting at the house to pack everything up is always going to take way too long when you have a villain on the loose. You feel bad for Claire’s best friend quite a lot since she was at least making some headway but got way too sloppy towards the end. The classic reverse psychology trick worked on her.

The whole deception to make Claire jealous by revealing that her husband was hanging out with the friend was also really contrived. Look, surprise parties can be fun but never if it means lying to your wife about it. What matters more, keeping the secret or keeping her trust? It should be a really obvious decision or at least I would hope that it is. That’s where you just tell her that there is a surprise party coming up and to keep it on the downlow or something like that.

He has to know how it would look since the friend was an old ex of his. In general you don’t want your husband or wife to hang out with an ex in general, let alone in secret. Now it all comes down to trust so if you’re comfortable with your partner still seeing an ex then hey, power to you. Me personally? Nahhhhhhh, the ex needs to leave the picture completely. It’s way too dangerous to keep an ex around so there’s no hanging out as friends after that. It’s tough terms but that’s just how it has to be in order to keep the relationship strong.

Then you have Solomon who has a rather tragic role for most of this. He’s disabled so he already has a tough time explaining himself or talking so when he’s framed there isn’t a whole lot that he can do about it. He’s just trying to help but he’s in a really tough position the whole time. Especially since you see this coming right from the start of the movie, you can only watch and wait for the inevitable.

Aside from the story being rather weak and forced, the movie just isn’t generally high quality. Using the doctor for shock value at the start of the move is a whole scene that could have been completely skipped. Make up some other reason for revenge, but starting off the movie with Claire being attacked like that was pretty bad. The film also had some obvious fanservice in feeding the baby and while that shows how insane Peyton is in her role, you definitely don’t need to linger on those moments. Mix in the sub par writing and you don’t have a winning movie here.

Overall, This is a movie that only works when all of the characters make the worst decisions as if this was a horror movie. The story only starts at all because they happened to pick Peyton out of all the available candidates without bothering to look into her records at all. Who wouldn’t do their due diligence when you have a baby and a kid in the house right? Then you have the husband randomly keeping a secret when he shouldn’t have, a “accident” murdering the friend and not immediately grabbing a shotgun, the important report completely vanishing, etc. At least Claire picks up on the list of odd coincidences later on but sure took her time in doing so. Yeah this is one you should definitely skip.

Overall 2/10

Nothing in Common Review

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It’s time for one of those films that will have you knocked out in no time. There just isn’t much good to say about this film while there are certainly a lot of negatives to give it. The romance is everything you don’t want in a film, the drama makes all of the characters look bad by the end and so the ending isn’t particularly satisfying either. Yeah this is definitely one that you’re going to want to skip and fast!

The movie starts off with introducing us to David who has been moving through relationships like butter. He can just never stick with just one person for long and keeps on moving. Well now his parents are having issues as well and ended up splitting up. His mom wants to go back into the dating scene again while his father’s been fired and is trying to work again. Both of their issues are causing issues for David whose job had been going great but now he’s also being distracted. Can he continue to churn out powerful ads while dealing with all of this or is it all over for him? Only time will tell.

First off the film isn’t really able to make you like David as a character because he’s not the committed type. He ends up falling for the daughter of an executive and they have some flings but then he’s still ready to go back to another girl later when Cheryl leaves. David is someone who just never stays in one place and that’s a trait that’s hard to really change even if he does learn more about family later on. If anything seeing what happened to his parents would probably make it even harder for him to ever sustain a normal relationship.

Then the movie goes so far in making his father Max look bad that there isn’t really any way to recover his character later on. He cheated on his wife pretty much right after they got married and it ended up traumatizing her for life. It’s a really big weight to try and get rid of. Then Max is also irresponsible, doesn’t own up to his mistakes, etc. A character like that never ends up being sympathetic and since the film wastes a lot of screen time trying to do so, it’s just no good.

Meanwhile Lorraine comes across as way too desperate when she’s trying to get back into dating. Lets be realistic here, she’s older now since she was married for many years and it’s also not something you should be jumping right into like that. It’s all just too fast. I was glad that she still ended up leaving to try and reclaim her life on her own but the whole dating plot could have been taken out.

In general I think the saddest part about all of this is that the movie would have been so much more fun if it just focused on David. Just be about him and working on the advertisement business and we skip all of the family drama. I would have enjoyed it a lot more for sure and I think it’s fair to say that around the board it would have been a much better film. I still don’t think it would have been great mind you but at least things were happening in David’s plot that were interesting.

For example, seeing how the commercials was made was fun. We got to see the script phase where you write down what’s going to happen, the initial filming, etc. I rather enjoyed that and think you could easily make a whole film around the concept. I’d watch it at least and while it wouldn’t salvage the lackluster romance, the film would have something more to stand on. Ultimately David’s not a good character and he isn’t portrayed as one but you don’t have to worry about that while you’re watching the film.

The best character is definitely his boss Charley. The guy always had David’s back and was ready to defend him from all who would attack. Even to the end he was able to get David his job back and you know there was probably a lot of backlash for that. The guy’s a true friend who looks out for his people even when corporate tries to get in his way. I don’t think there are a lot of people who would have done that.

In the end I also think the movie is really just lacking a true hook as well. Even aside from the unlikable characters you have to ask yourself what the point of the movie was. David learns a lesson in finding a true romance instead of just playing the field and manages to achieve a proper work life balance but you could have done all of that in a much shorter timeframe. I think the film was trying for a fairly happy tone by the end where the redemption arc really worked and it was all good but to me that didn’t quite succeed either. Eh not every film can be a winner but this one just didn’t really have anything to enjoy about it.

Overall, I really didn’t enjoy this film. The whole backstory of what happened with the parents was a bit too tragic. In any plot like that you at least need to leave enough room for things to go well or to part on amiable terms but this wasn’t it. It would have been a more satisfying film if David just ran off to be honest. The whole thing happened a long time ago of course but since he just found out it would have still been rather fresh. In the end it just feels like a mean spirited title so stay far away!

Overall 1/10

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Review

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It’s time for a movie about the dangers of time travel. See time travel is something that can be super beneficial and help you out of a jam but it can also become something that you rely on too much and then you’re really out of luck. You want to hit the middle ground but with that much power it’s just not so easy. This is definitely a solid film all around and one that I would recommend checking out.

The movie starts by introducing us to Makoto who is living a fairly ordinary life. She is best friends with two guys, Chiaki and Kosuke. If you’ve studied up on your film cues then you’ll know that this is already a red flag. According to film rules guys and girls can never stay as just friends! 😦 One day Makoto falls down while in the supply room and crushes a time travel device. She can now go back in time by building up energy and running like the Flash before literally leaping through time. It’s a power that she will have to master quickly or she will end up going too far back. It’s a lot of fun but is she somehow causing trouble by messing with the timeline?

First off the animation is solid here. It’s not quite at the mainstream anime level like Naruto or Pokemon but still above your average western title. There aren’t a lot of bright colors and the like for it to be able to show off with the animation but it’s all clear and you can follow along which is the important part. The writing is on point and the characters are likable so you have a good foundation here. The soundtrack’s more on the subdued side though so don’t expect to get a lot of big lyrical songs this time around.

This film’s more of a romantic slice of life so don’t expect too much end of the world stakes or anything like that. There definitely is danger here and things happen but for the most part it’s really about Makoto learning to stay and face her problems instead of running away from them. Always a good moral if you ask me. I do have some issues with the romance here but we’ll get into that in a minute. I did appreciate how Makoto’s aunt took the whole time travel aspect in stride though and offered her two cents about how to use it responsibly. A much better reaction than being shocked and having Makoto explain it all again.

As the main character Makoto is pretty solid. She wants to keep the status quo and is pretty good about rearranging events to make this happen. She wants to help people out and just seems like a good kid in general. Perhaps not very brave with how much running she does but at the end of the day she really tries her best. It’s probably not the most satisfying ending for her but that’s the risk of time travel. You never really know what timeline would end up being the best one and ultimately I’d say she left her ideal one.

Then there is Chiaki who is one of her best friends and he keeps trying to confess his feelings to her which causes Makoto to have to use more of her time travel. He just isn’t ready to stay as just friends and she’s not ready to let him out of the friend zone so it’s a tough dynamic. In that sense her plan was always doomed to fail though because from how he confessed it was clear that he had been thinking about this for a while. So even if she found ways to avoid him for a little bit, it was going to happen eventually or he’d move on. She needed to be able to stay in the pocket and throw out the rejection in the flat. Just let him off easy and you’re good.

He gets some points for his tenacity but also loses some for the fact that he went on the rebound rather quickly. After she avoided him enough times he goes after her best friend and it makes you think he couldn’t have been that head over heels for her. It’s always a tough call of when it’s time to move on. I would argue that this is way too soon though because even though he couldn’t get an answer out of her, he was still ready to move on.

Likewise the same thing happens with Kosuke. It’s more ambiguous but I would say it’s heavily implied that he likes her as well and ultimately goes with someone else. You could also just say that he was looking out for her as a friend so to the film’s defense it is up to you to decide. He’s a nice guy and did his best to not let anyone down while pursuing his own dreams. He really took school seriously which differentiates him from the others by quite a lot.

So with the romance, ignoring the whole why couldn’t they all just be friends angle (Because sometimes people just are friends and none of them are in a secret crush but that’s never to be in these things) I would say Makoto seeing the various timelines and how the guy would end up with someone else just showed why perhaps the romance wouldn’t have been best. If you were truly soulmates then the guy wouldn’t be going with another girl so easily right? To the guy he doesn’t remember confessing so it’s not a rebound per say but it does show that she was easily replaced and that’s not the basis for a good romance. That’s why I’m not really sure that it would have worked out.

Also while you can “learn to love” someone, I also don’t think that’s a great starting point. She clearly didn’t see him as that kind of guy and I would say the first impression is huge. She mainly just got jealous when he was with someone else and that’s another red flag. Wanting a guy because otherwise he will be taken seems like a very petty reason to me. At least the film does take place over the full summer and they’ve all known each other for a while so I won’t say that the romance is super rushed or anything. It may not be the best one but it still made an attempt.

Of course the film is at its best when we’re just seeing Makoto having fun using time travel. Before she realizes how serious it all is, it’s nice to see someone just enjoying the ability. Particularly since she uses it for everyday things like having her favorite dinner multiple times or getting to sleep in. Being able to rewind time means being able to ignore the consequences of your actions for a while. You can go to a restaurant and order all the most expensive things. Then after leaving you can rewind time and you stay full since you still experienced the event like how she was so tired after doing Karaoke on a bunch of loops. The applications of time travel are endless and I’d love to see a long running comedy about it some day. Just a character having fun with the power and living a perfect life. You’d probably need some kind of threat or danger eventually to hook people but I’d have fun just watching that series as in. Also kudos to the film on the unique method of landing out of time travel with the forward roll into the wall. It’s a little element but one that really helps the film stand out since that is very memorable.

Overall, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a pretty good movie. In some ways you’re just as interested in the movie that we didn’t see though. The apocalyptic future sounded real interesting and you sort of look forward to seeing how things went. It also adds an extra layer to the ending because it’s really hard to interpret exactly what’s going on. Personally given all the evidence I can’t see how things will ever work out for Makoto so that part’s tragic but as long as she has fun in the present then I suppose that’s all that matters. At the very least she definitely wouldn’t want to use time travel again even if she got the ability again.

Overall 7/10

Kilala Princess Review

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Kilala Princess is a fairly basic manga that is all about having fun and doesn’t really try for a deeper plot. That said, it succeeds in this by earnestly making that the priority. The series knows exactly what it is and isn’t trying to be anything else. I can definitely respect that. It’s a super safe approach so I don’t have any significant issues with the series. It does mean that there’s a lower ceiling here since the title won’t be all that exciting or epic but it avoids most pitfalls as well. In essence what this means is that it’s a safe recommendation to anyone but it’s not going to be high enough where I would usually end up recommending it to anyone either way.

The series starts off by introducing us to Kilala who is a very cheerful girl. Life comes at you fast but it never overwhelms her and she just looks forward to the adventure. One day she meets a boy named Rei who is the prince of a far away kingdom. He’s guarding a tiara but there are a bunch of villains after it. Basically he needs to find the 7th princess of legend in order to save his country. Kilala knows there’s no way it can be her but she offers to help. In fact, the princess could possibly be her best friend Erika. Unfortunately Erika gets brainwashed and the villains are relentless. Kilala is now in for a big adventure spanning various worlds and dimensions as she aids Rei but what if this search is for naught and there is no princess?

It’s a fairly basic plot and that’s basically a vehicle for the adventures so don’t worry about that much. There’s a fairly straight forward formula here which is that the heroes will go to a world like Little Mermaid or Snow White and meet with the heroes. The villains will attack, the heroes realize that the 7th princess is not there and then they go to the next world. It sort of reminds me of Kingdom Hearts but of course without all of the Heartless attacking and laying siege to the planet. There are the human villains running around of course but they aren’t quite as threatening.

As I said before though, it’s a fairly calm adventure and without that big sense of danger you are able to just relax and have a good time. The main characters are nice enough and this is the kind of title you can definitely recommend to all ages to have a good time. There’s a little adventure, a little romance, and a little danger. There’s also some positive themes here like Kilala learning to stand up for herself and realize that even if she’s not a princess, there’s nothing stopping her from being a great person.

The series does seem to accelerate near the end to the finish line though so don’t expect each of the worlds to have equal length. Towards the end they have to wrap things up so the last world or two are rather short. Still, the series had a decent run and is still long enough to be memorable. The smaller stakes is what helps this to end up being very manageable in the long run. Now lets talk about the characters.

Kilala is a nice lead who is always trying to do the right thing and help the prince out. At times she can be a little timid though and isn’t the most outspoken lead. To an extent I would say this is because she’s younger than most leads. Kilala hasn’t had to deal with a whole lot of issues or crisis situations over the years so this whole journey is a brand new experience for her. She does take it in stride and has fun while she can of course. Part of her character development is how she eventually learns how to stick up for herself and be a core member.

It’s just not easy at first but I’ll give her points for doing this. She’s just not my favorite lead as a result. What I’d like is for her to talk a little tougher to the rival Sylphy. See, Sylphy is basically Rei’s fiancé but there’s a lot of disclaimers to that. The problem is that he never really rejects her which gives her an in to be super confident and mess with Kilala a lot. On one hand I love Sylphy’s confidence so if she did nothing underhanded then she would be the best character. Unfortunately she ends up making a shady deal at one point in the series which tanked her character.

If she stuck to fighting for Rei then that would be one thing but she crossed the line there. Ultimately that’s why the best character is Kilala’s friend Erika but she ends up vanishing after the opening arc. It’s too bad but often times that is the fate of the friend in world hopping adventure like this one. Erika isn’t the main character so she’s not really invited but she handled herself with great poise the whole time. She’s just a good person and that goes for a lot in the end.

The reason why Rei doesn’t rise as highly is because he doesn’t really pick a girl as I mentioned earlier. The guy is super passive the whole time. Sure he gets his romance moments but he’s not very decisive and leaves a lot of the work to Kilala. In some ways I don’t fully disagree with this so long as he isn’t interested since the party more in love should make the first move. The problem is then after that he absolutely needs to make a decision but he’s often content to just be on the sidelines. Mix that in with his getting knocked out, captured, and defeated constantly and he’s not the most impressive prince. He means well but you can’t say much else for him.

As for the main villain I suppose it’s a bit of a twist on who he is so I won’t say his name. He’s okay at best but there’s really not a whole lot to say about him. I think you could have gone into depth on his motivations and given him a real sob story but he doesn’t get a whole lot of attention. Yes, he does get the bare essentials in terms of origin and motives but nothing that really makes him stick out. At the end of the day he’s just some guy trying to take over and that’s why it rarely feels like this is really the main plot.

The story is more about Kilala learning about what it means to be a true princess as opposed to fighting and leading the army against the impending threat. This is still a Shoujo and not an action title after all. It’s not trying to be the next Yona of the Dawn. At times you definitely wish there would be more action but the talks with the princesses and mini adventures are fun enough. It’s basically like watching a Saturday morning cartoon.

The art is also pretty good, it’s clear and the character designs are on point. You shouldn’t have any problem understanding what is happening at all times. The different worlds all look distinct and I would say the artist captured the style and appearance of each world pretty well. It’s why in a way basic art can sometimes take on the more detailed ones. Sure this won’t look like One Punch Man or Megaman NT Warrior but because it’s rather basic it is easily understood and you can appreciate the big splash pages.

Overall, Kilala Princess is good fun. There’s not really a whole lot to it but there aren’t really any big issues either. The characters are fun enough and you’ll be breezing through the volumes. I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to see the classic Disney characters. Unfortunately the different worlds don’t get to meet up but you still get to see them advise the heroine and help her along the journey.

Overall 6/10