Tag Archives: Romance

Lovely★Complex Review

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I wasn’t really sure how I should stylize the title here. Should I keep the star? Go with Love Com instead? Lots of options but in the end this one felt right. It’s definitely a very old school romance title with a ton of banter between the main two characters. It’s a bit of an unorthodox romance where the romance seems extremely one-sided for about 90% of the run. I would ultimately say the romance itself didn’t really work but the series has a lot of solid themes and does remain interesting the whole time. It may stumble into cliche after cliche but the series handles them all well enough.

The series follows Risa and Otani as the main characters. Risa is extremely tall while Otani is extremely short and so when they are standing next to each other then the effects of this are even more obvious. As a result they are always insulting each other but instead of getting everyone to see how much they don’t like each other, people think it’s some kind of a comedy routine. Everyone is always rooting for them to get together and even the teacher teases them about their comedy act. What Otani doesn’t realize is that Risa actually does like him. How can she get him to see her feminine side when she is such a giant and they already have this friendship/rivalry going? Well she will end up trying tons of different tactics and we will see how it goes.

So first off we have to dig into this romance here. It’s a bit of a slow burn as it takes a minute for them to get together. The series is over 15 volumes which is pretty impressive for a story like this. What’s even more impressive is that even with this long run time, the side characters largely remain irrelevant. Yeah they’re around and get some drama of their own but for the most part they are always in the back seat. This isn’t like Fruits Basket or Kaguya where we will have whole arcs for the side characters. Mini chunks and all but this is definitely Risa and Otani’s story the whole way through.

I would say the first strike against their romance is how Otani just doesn’t seem to find her attractive pretty much at all during the series. It’s only near the very end where he starts to feel that way a bit but for the most part it tends to come across more like he just doesn’t want her to be with anyone else. He gets jealous when she hangs out with another guy but otherwise he mainly just wants to hang out with her. Even to the end you get the feeling that he sees her more as a close friend and is pressured into doing the more romantic advances. The guy can’t even tell her that he loves her for basically the whole series. The cast tricks him into saying it via recording in the final volume which is a bit of a cop out.

Otani has another moment or two every now and then but it always takes Risa to be crying or totally depressed for him to make a move. I wouldn’t call that the healthiest relationship in the world. What I will give him credit for is not being too easily distracted. He’s a fairly sturdy guy so once he is in the relationship with Risa, then he’s not going to waver. The characters all tease him when crazy shenanigans occur but the guy never even comes close to cheating or even thinking about it. He’s the kind of guy who could go on a trip for months and Risa can easily trust him to do the right thing.

Otani is a really likable character. While the romance may not feel all that believable, we are shown throughout the series that he is a good guy. He helps out anyone who is in his way and doesn’t have to know someone to help them out of a jam. He is ready to fight someone for bullying his friend, helps to stop a girl from being trampled by a mob, takes care of a lady who is sick, etc. He even gives pep talks to people on the Basketball team who are not doing well. These are all massively good traits for a character.

He can be a bit sensitive about his short stature but has way more restraint than other characters. You also have to factor in that he puts up with a whole lot. He’s definitely one of the better characters in the series. As for Risa, well I’ll start with the romance part like with Otani. It’s hard to see how she ended up falling in love with him. Yeah they fight a lot and I know fighting is supposed to get you closer but he didn’t really give her any indication that he was ever interested. In fact, he does the opposite. In terms of looks, she generally goes for taller guys so it wasn’t his appearance that really got to her at first.

I suppose you could say that it was the personality but even then it feels a bit like a stretch. He’s always calling her an idiot and in their banter she is often on the losing side. The other characters even comment from time to time how it’s a bit weird that she doesn’t mind being insulted constantly. This is also the time to bring up that she starts the fights 90% of the time. She will often set up huge expectations for Otani without telling him anything and she inevitably gets upset at him.

One of the worst instances of this is when she tries to confess her feelings but isn’t able to. So as a result he has no idea what she is talking about and she calls him a dummy for a long while. He’s pretty defensive and has a good point. From his point of view during this scene, he bought her tickets to her favorite musician at a local concert and he took her to a private fireworks show since she loves that kind of thing. Her response? She gives him the silent treatment for days because he couldn’t figure out that she liked him.

She pulls this kind of thing so many times. Risa is also dangerously oblivious at times and has terrible instincts. The fact that she wasn’t even bothered by her coworker stealing a kiss while she was asleep is crazy. Then she went with him to a concert as a date afterwards? No matter how you frame it, you shouldn’t be going 1 on 1 with another guy to any kind of event when you already have a boyfriend. The fact that she acted shocked about this was crazy and it really couldn’t be defended.

While she gets annoyed at Otani for being nice to other girls, Risa is the one who drools over other guys from time to time. She even became the leader of the Mighty fanclub for a while there. Yeah she did it to make Otani jealous and mad but she really runs off with her emotions. Even in the literal last volume, she gets jealous of a random classmate that Otani has and throws a whole pity party for herself. Her emotions are just way too fragile the whole time.

I am all for a lot of good banter between characters. I would even argue that the best romances out there generally have a lot of good banter. Look at Nisekoi, Sword Art Online, Disgaea 2, etc. The best ones keep the banter up even after they are together which is pretty rare but possible. So the banter itself is no problem here and it’s even pretty fun. I like that Risa and Otani can joke about being stolen by other people, insult each other, and generally still act like friends the whole time. The thing is, the series spends so much time on this before and after that I would say there are very few genuine romance scenes between them.

I was not convinced at all that Otani was actually in love with Risa by the end. I would also like to see Risa develop a little more trust in him by the end. A great way to do this would have been for her to not have gotten jealous of the classmate by the end. Maybe we could have dove into Otani’s mindset a bit more too. Early on he brings up my exact criticism which is that he just sees Risa as a friend. He really likes hanging out with her and would enjoy doing that for the rest of his life but that he had no romantic feelings for her. That’s pretty definitive, it’s hard for your mindset to suddenly change after that. Sure, it can but the series didn’t develop that well.

Which is ironic since this was a pretty long running romance title. That’s enough about the main duo though. We have the side characters to go through as well, who don’t have as much to do as I mentioned but they should be discussed. First up we have Suzuki who falls for Chiharu early on. He’s a rather timid guy and has a hard time talking about his feelings but he gets his courage up and the two of them really hit it off. Their romance is super peaceful and wholesome in comparison. They never insult each other to the point where he couldn’t even pretend to do this at Chiharu’s request. Chiharu is a super nice and quiet person as well who always does the right thing.

So…they’re both very nice but have virtually 0 personality. I couldn’t really tell you anything about their hobbies or anything like that. They never run into any obstacles or have any troubles. The next couple at least has some drama in Nobuko and Nakao’s pairing. Nobuko serves as Risa’s best friend and is usually sticking up for her when Otani goes too far or gives her advice when she feels Risa isn’t doing anything. Nakao basically just agrees with whatever she says and is always there to defend her. I like his loyalty and the guy is a fun character to have around. Most of his scenes are quick little moments in the background but they’re fun. I would say their plotline had a rather sad end to it.

Nobuko has to be gone for a while to take care of her grandmother and you’d think there would have been a way for Nakao to go with her. Sure he is loyal and can be trusted but that’s gotta just be annoying that they can barely see each other for the foreseeable future. He also had a really hard time talking to her about it which was definitely too timid. That’s when he needed to step up. Still, they were side characters who got to really contribute to the story.

Then we have Haruka who is Risa’s childhood friend. The guy is super tall and has lived all these years to get together with her. Thing is, she doesn’t even see him as a man so there is no chance of that. This character is super annoying because he refuses to accept reality and constantly tries to get together with her. He needs to take a hint and I didn’t like how Risa would always be humoring him. Yeah it’s a comedy but even so she should have shut him down instead of letting the guy continue to insult Otani to the end and try to steal her away one last time. This guy was super desperate.

We also have Mimi who is Otani’s childhood friend and it’s pretty much the same situation with her. She really wants to be with him but knows that she is really tall and not his type. She initially starts by being really tough with Risa and making the threats. Unfortunately Risa doesn’t really do anything about this. Eventually Mimi gets over the situation and stops being a villain but it was another subplot that didn’t make Risa look so good. I do tend to like the strategic characters like Mimi so she did a good job of keeping Otani in the dark all those years. It’s a shame that most of these best friends always turn out to have secret feelings but that’s how it goes I suppose.

Kohori is Risa’s coworker and does his best to get her to return his feelings. The guy comes across as desperate too though because he knows that she already has a boyfriend. Obviously once someone is taken, then that’s that. Instead he continues to try getting her into situations where she will go out with him. As a result you don’t really feel bad for the guy when he gets a lot of bad luck and is always losing out. It’s all played for laughs but yeah not much sympathy for a character like this.

Another character that you can’t really root for is Seiko. He’s one of those characters who moves on rather fast emotionally and crosses boundaries easily. He makes a move on both Otani and Kohori immediately without asking them anything. Stealing a kiss unprompted is always a terrible idea and something that can’t be encouraged or allowed at all. Mix in the fact that he dresses up as a girl and doesn’t tell anyone the truth until later and that creates even more problems. His scenes were definitely problematic from the jump. Anytime he was on screen you knew that someone was about to be in trouble.

You’ve also got Risa’s grandfather who shows up later on to cause some trouble. He really shows up out of nowhere to cause a ton of chaos. The fact that he was willing to work with dangerous people to break up Risa and Otani was crossing a huge line. At that point there was no going back for him. You just can’t retain any dignity after that. His reason for doing this was also super petty. The series tried to show that he did it because of what happened in his past and all but it doesn’t net any extra sympathy from me.

Finally we do have one really solid supporting character to end things off with, Mighty. Mighty is a substitute teacher that is stronger than all the guys and as a result all of the girls follow him. This guy knows how to wield power though and doesn’t succumb to temptations. He has a girlfriend after all and instead he uses his influence to help Risa and Otani out of some tough spots. This guy can always be depended on which is impressive since there is no real reason that he would actually have to help the other characters out. He’s just a good guy no matter how many times they call him shady and everything.

The art isn’t bad. It’s got a very old school vibe to it so in a way you feel the age of the series but the quality is on point. The characters are all easy to distinguish from each other and the series is easy to read which is the important thing. The visual gags like when the characters are smacking each other are also handled well. I wouldn’t say the series is ever laugh out loud funny but you’ll usually have a smile on your face. It is really upbeat despite all of the drama and I appreciate that.

Overall, Lovely Complex is an interesting series. I thought it did really well on the comedy front and the romance was the main part that was lacking. As you get deeper into the series you really start to get engaged by what’s happening but I wouldn’t say that it ever really gets past the negatives. It’s a perfectly reasonable title to check out and you will easily read through each volume but it could have used one or two more to make the characters a little better. You mainly end up feeling bad for Otani a whole lot throughout as it seems like Risa will always be causing a whole lot of drama. If you’re up for a light hearted rom-com that will last you for a while though, this one definitely won’t hurt. Like I said, it will definitely keep your interest the whole time.

Overall 5/10

Curse of the Black Widow Review

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This has to be one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen. The tone is absolutely all over the place, the soundtrack has 0 consistency, the plot is super convoluted with a ton of twists, the main character looks like Vince from WWE, there are tons of crazy facial expressions, we have a surprising amount of world building for no reason, and there is even some sequel bait. This film just could not calm down and while it starts to get a bit tiring by the second half, I just have to appreciate the ambition. I actually think there was a ton of creativity here and a whole lot of possibilities to make this into a great film. It couldn’t quite get there and I have my share of issues but it was better than I was expecting.

So the movie starts off with Mark at the bar having a bunch of drinks when a beautiful lady shows up and asks for one of the men to escort her to the car. Specifically she only wants one of the guys so Mark goes back to his drink wishing that he was selected. He would quickly change his tune though as they hear yelling and when he heads outside, the guy has been murdered and the lady is nowhere to be seen. It turns out that her name is Valerie and now she is a suspect in the murder. Mark is hired by a lady named Leigh who explains that she was the guy’s girlfriend. The police suspect that she is behind this because her excuse of not showing up to meet her boyfriend as planned was one of the flimsiest that we’ve heard. Basically the rain was too hard. Mark decides to take up the case and he’s about to fall into a whole conspiracy of craziness.

Okay so the first thing that will stand out here is the strong soundtrack. You have a lot of really fast paced jingles and the movie is generally going for a very energetic vibe. Things are just popping and it really doesn’t match the scary vibe the movie is going for. Yeah sometimes the film will get a little quiet and it will try to get ominous but by then it’s just way too late. I liked the music though, it may not be all that fitting most of the time but it does liven things up which is always cool.

Then Mark also has a ton of facial expressions all the time with a bunch of zoom ins here and there. He is visibly shocked by just about everything and doesn’t even know the basics about spiders. This guy doesn’t seem like he would be a particularly good detective and I can imagine him getting emotionally involved with all of his clients. He seemed a little too eager to take up Leigh’s offer after all and then later on he starts to get a bit jealous at the dance. He doesn’t strike me as a very upstanding guy and is someone you’d probably be better off avoiding the whole time.

Still, he does have that obnoxious kind of personality that lets him strong arm anyone who gets in his way. He has a lot of connections and even members of the cops are ready to help him. We learn about the women who are able to turn into spiders and have super abilities among other such legends. He is really hard pressed to believe any of it for a good while but finally comes around after the proof is truly undeniable.

I liked the chief of police, Gully. Yeah he doesn’t always make the best decisions and probably keeps the situation a little too tight lipped but what I can respect about him is that he doesn’t back down. Mark can bully most of the side characters along to his whims but not this guy. No sirrrrr, Gully is here for the long haul and gets the final say. That’s the kind of guy you want in charge of the investigation.

Now, another area I have to give the film props in is with the subplot at the house where you have Laura and a kid. This plot randomly showed up near the beginning of the movie and had nothing to do with anything. Then wayyyyy later on it returns and still seems to be out of place. They’re talking about secrets, Leigh is involved, etc. It’s only by the end where we get a machine gun styled swarm of twist after twist. The plots end up converging but it took so long that I actually started to think that the film forgot about it. Yeah that would be crazy but I did start to really consider it.

Honestly, the film would be better off without any of that anyway. It’s the weakest part of the film by far. I preferred to have this mysterious lady going around bumping men off for rejecting her. That’s a much scarier premise than having all the family drama and learning everything about the past. I don’t want to know more about the character, I want to just focus on how to stop her. We have this one guy who easily seduces the lady and every scene with him is absolutely painful. You’re just rooting for someone to transform into a spider and eat him already.

Also the film gets some kudos for having the first guys to actually have some class. It feels like in almost every film, the guy will buckle immediately if a pretty woman so much as talks to him. Doesn’t matter if he’s married or engaged, he just starts blubbering like a fool and cheats immediately. Not the case this time! The first two girls actually turn Valerie down which is why they are absolutely crushed. I appreciated the resolve there. Would have been nice if they could fight too but let me not get greedy. It was just a nice change of pace to see.

Also this is a better vampire film than most vampire titles and that’s even without having any kind of vampire in it. We still had the blood sucking but it was generally not on screen and the way it was handled with the tendrils was way better than biting the neck. Spiders just have a more pleasant way of going about things.

Overall, Curse of the Black Widow is an absolutely wild ride. It’s crazy just how much is going on and it’s all so rapid. Even with that, the second half does drag on a bit with all the exposition and twists. I super did not care about anything that was happening there and wanted to go back to the mystery. That’s what they should have focused on and the movie would have been better off for it. At the end of the day I wouldn’t recommend the film, it made too many mistakes. Still, it was considerably better than I expected and you see so many missed opportunities that it hurts, but you can feel the ambition. The movie took a wide swing and while it missed, it was a fair effort.

Overall 4/10

Angel Face Review

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It’s time for one of those films that has quite a few messy dynamics in it. The main character is certainly not someone that you can root for and in noir titles that is often the case. The real trick is to make the film enjoyable in spite of the protagonist being someone you are rooting against. Fortunately the film is able to pull this off and so that’s why I would say this is a good title. It has a lot of suspense and of course it never hurts to throw in a courtroom scene. I always enjoy seeing those.

The film starts off by introducing us to Frank who is a pretty good ambulance driver. He has bigger dreams but right now this is where he’s at. He has a girlfriend who works with him named Mary but Frank is still not satisfied and as always he heads out to get super drunk and throw a pity party. He happens to see a girl named Diane there who he previously met on a routine house call. Surely this is coincidence that she is at this bar now too right? She doesn’t even need to ask him to lie to his girlfriend because Frank does this right out of the gate. He is intrigued by this mysterious lady and is immediately ready to throw everything away for her. This may be more true than even he suspects as Frank is now thrown into an absolute whirlwind of scandal and controversy. He may live to regret his decision.

So there’s really no reason to feel bad for Frank here. He opened the door to have an affair with Diane right from the start. There was no reason to lie to Mary while he was at the diner and messing around. In fact, since he and Mary clearly had plans, he shouldn’t have been wasting away at the diner in the first place. He should have been getting ready to go home and have a good time with her. The fact that he didn’t shows just how much he took her for granted right from the start. Yeah I was definitely rooting against this guy from the start. Honestly even if it had been a much longer seduction I wouldn’t have had any sympathy for the guy but he really didn’t seem to have any respect for Mary.

Meanwhile Mary was a much better character. I was glad that she was able to see through Diane’s little deceptions and call her out right from the start. Now that was a good scene and Mary also made the right call in not chasing after Frank. Honestly if you find out that your boyfriend is basically getting ready to cheat or has already done so, then it’s just time to cut him out. Now Mary allowing Frank’s friend to be the rebound guy is a bit much though. It feels like this other guy was way too desperate to be with her the whole time. It doesn’t quite sit right with me as Mary is basically settling and this guy doesn’t mind being the second choice. It doesn’t exactly make either of them look all that good.

Finally with Diane, she makes for a reasonable antagonist. She’s clearly a character who is used to getting what she wants. When she doesn’t, heads begin to roll. There is really nothing that would be considered as going too far for her. She’s just going to keep on plunging ahead and it’s also why you don’t feel bad for her either. I wasn’t sympathetic to nearly any character in this film because they all looked bad in one way or the other. I would say my favorite character was her attorney in the end as he was the only one not letting things get personal and he was just ready to cash in his check. Yeah none of those Noir scandals for this guy.

The ending to the film is definitely satisfying after everything that happened. As always Frank looks like an absolute chump but it makes sense. He’s really not ready for what’s going on and I don’t think that he ever will be. This guy lets his guard down constantly and that’s why he’s always getting himself into traps. Then of course we had the long courtroom scene which was really good. It was fun seeing the case being laid out and both sides trying to corner the other. It’s why I always tend to enjoy court scenes in any movie. They’re just well written and this one was no exception. Due in part to the film’s short run time there is also not a whole lot of downtime here. Something’s always happening and you’re never bored.

I guess at most you are typically waiting for the romance scenes to end since you are rooting against it anyway. You know that the whole thing isn’t very organic and can’t possibly end in a positive way. So you’re waiting for the next big event to happen to the characters and the story really doesn’t disappoint you there. Typically I am always an advocate for a film being as long as possible and I still standby the fact that any good film will be even better if it’s longer but I can always appreciate a short title as well. This one had solid pacing throughout so the length worked out well.

Overall, Angel Face is a pretty fun movie. It’s got a good story to it that keeps your attention the whole time and a climax that is quite fitting for the characters. Now you may be wondering how a film filled with so many tragic events could be fun but it’s because you need to think of every character as an antagonist. Then it all works really well. If anything I’d have been upset if the characters escaped this with an outright happy ending because it would not have felt deserved at all. This was the only ending that really fit for such a film and I can definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick title to check out. The runtime is not very long after all.

Overall 7/10

Fruits Basket: Prelude Review

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It’s time to go back into the world of Fruits Basket. Back in the manga days I was always pretty tough on this one. I remember it being one of my least favorite Shojo titles. The anime helped me like the series more although I would say it still has some key issues that never really went away. This film does a quick abridged version of the movie and then goes into the prequel part. As a result, neither section is quite as long as you might have expected here. It all goes by fairly quick so the pacing is on point. Of course you already know how the story will end so there isn’t a whole lot of suspense in there.

For the recap part, it’s basically the Kyo show as we see him introduced as a lonely kid who was really on his own. Then he met Tohru’s mom Kyoko and finally had someone he could talk to outside of his Dojo master. The two got along well but one day Kyoko was destroyed by incoming traffic and Kyo had the chance to save her but hesitated because of his curse. This curse transforms him into a cat or sometimes a raging monster if he touches a girl and he didn’t want the world to know. I do think if he had more time he would have grabbed her but in the split second he couldn’t react. So this is why he tries to put some distance between him and Tohru.

But this is a romance title so you can probably guess how that went! It’s pretty interesting to see the whole show condensed like this. At the end of the day the core show is about the two of them getting together so this one cuts the fluff and just gets right to it. The way it arranges the scenes can sometimes be a bit odd as it is not trying to be chronological at all. Still it’s not a bad setup. I feel as always that romance dramas are a bit tougher to make elite compared to romance comedies but it works well enough.

Kyo and Tohru just don’ have close to the same level of banter as your average romantic leads. They get a quick minute again at the very end of the film and even there you’re just not ready for a whole show about them. Nothing wrong with their romance, at least from this movie but they just aren’t super interesting. It would really all come down to the main segment.

In the prequel, we see how Kyoko met Katsuya before nature destroyed him. Kyoko was a tough kid who was a super rebel in part due to being around negative influences and her parents not doing a thing to help her. She was in a tough spot at all times. One day the parents have had enough and kick her out and the school is about to do the same when she meets one of the assistant teachers, Katsuya. That begins their romance.

Now the obvious issue from the jump here is there is a fairly big age gap going on. I don’t think the film makes it clear just how big but you can use logical deductions from him being an assistant teacher and her being a student. At the end of the day, my stance has always been that age gaps lower the percentage of the relationship working out and the bigger the gap, the more likely it will fail. I can’t really say I would support this romance at all to be honest and even aside from all that, a teacher and a student is rather messy.

This may sound like it’s my same old speech but it would work so much better as friends. He could just be a nice guy getting her out of a real sticky situation and helping her to appreciate life more. Then after that she would be able to stop being a rebel and really come into her own. That would have been a whole lot better. Well, at the very least he did end up being a nice guy the whole time. He told off her parents who the film shows to be as petty as possible. The fact that they called her just to remind her that she’s disowned after Katsuya died was crazy stuff.

Katsuya dying to a random cold is pretty effective since it makes the whole thing more sudden. What I would have liked to have seen more of was Kyoko once she was happy again though. We know from Tohru’s memories that they had a lot of good times before she passed on but we don’t get to see almost any of them. Instead it’s mostly about how depressed she was for a while there and then the film starts to wrap up. It’s as if the happy moments always have to go on a speed run to the next tragedy to occur.

In a way that’s the Fruits Basket way though. It felt like bad things were constantly happening to the characters and they couldn’t really escape their fate. As soon as they began to move forward and make a difference, something would happen like clockwork. The series could be quite unrelenting like that.

The animation is reasonably good. There’s not really anything for it to show off though so it’s a bit hard to say. I thought the motorcycles looked really sleek the whole time though so that was cool. Meanwhile the soundtrack is more on the subdued side. I can’t think of any tunes that super stuck out here.

At the end of the day, this is more of a low key story that has to stand on its own without many technical elements to help it out. It’s not bad but I also wouldn’t say it’s all that good. There really isn’t any replay value and the best parts are the ones being recapped from the show so you just want to go through that anime again. Yuki for example has some of the best scenes here like when he really takes it to Kyo. You sort of wish he would have been in more of the movie. If you want a lot of drama then this is the film for you but it doesn’t always leave a lot of room for fun.

Overall, Fruits Basket: Prelude is definitely very dramatic. It’s absolutely got the kind of tone that you would think about you picture the series. This doesn’t always work in its favor though. I feel like this movie doesn’t have much of a hook since a lot of it is old footage and as a result the prequel origin doesn’t have a whole lot of time to itself. We could have used the extra time to show the main characters hanging out and having some good times. It could have been more of a break from how everything would always go wrong for Kyoko in the end. So this is an interesting film but unless you are a mega Fruits Basket fan, you can probably skip this one.

Overall 5/10

They All Laughed Review

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It’s time for one of those films that is just hard to watch with how bad everyone is. The writing is not particularly good and all of the characters are downright awful. Mix that in with the fact that the film is fairly long and you have a recipe for disaster. It’s the kind of film that makes you shake your head the whole time because it had no idea what it was doing. This was an absolute mistake of massive proportions. Very unfortunate stuff.

Okay so the film is about a detective agency where they spy on women to find out if they are having affairs or not. There are 3 main field agents here and they each have different talents. They have two ongoing missions right now so they have to keep running around the city to keep track of both women. The problem is that these guys have the willpower of a baked potato and they are no strangers to having loads of affairs as well. With everyone in the city hopping from one person to the next, this is about to get complicated.

The movie plays out like a crazy delusion that someone who is jaded with big city life might have. Someone who figures that in the city, people are hopping from relationship to relationship the way one might might go pizza hopping from place to place. Nobody is trust worthy and they’re all messing round behind each other’s backs yet they also gossip with everyone. So as a result it’s all real convoluted but the simple part is seeing just how bad everyone is. Even the end of the movie has some twisted morals going on.

So right from the gate I can tell you this is an awful film. It will have the occasional funny moment but almost all of its attempts at humor just end up falling flat. Makes me shake my head just thinking about it. For example, Charles is the main character here and you’re supposed to in part feel bad for him when everything’s going badly. He’s constantly in tricky situations but since he’s such a bad guy you’re just rooting against him instead. Instead of the scenes being funny, you’re hoping that he does get hit by the car, that he does get caught so the girl will run off, etc.

Lets take a step back here, cheating is and always has been one of the greatest taboos. For the average person it should typically rank in the top 5, only losing to the most disturbing and evil of crimes. In any situation where there is cheating going on, the person most at fault is the one who is married since that person is the one who made the vow. Closely behind is the other party for still weakening the married person in order to have the affair. The only exception is naturally if that person was deceived into thinking they’re having fun with someone who is single.

So in the main relationship, Charles is less at fault than Dolores but it’s by a very negligible amount. You can tell that there is no loyalty here from either side. Once they are together, Dolores will cheat on him with the next guy and he’ll cheat with her on someone else. That’s just how the cycle is. Especially since Charles is easy to boss around like the singer who had her way with him. This guy can never appreciate the moment and is always looking beyond. It’s easy to see why things have never gone well for him.

Then you have Arthur who has the most confidence but as a result he’s been with the most ladies. He just flies on through all of them and never stops. Definitely not someone that you would want to even be friends with since he would be such a bad example. Fortunately for him, nobody in the city really cares and they all run to be the next in line to be chumped. Sure they get upset afterwards but it’s too late.

Then you have John who falls for Angela during his assignment. It’s basically just like with Charles. He’s only making matters worse and putting his feelings ahead of the mission. Things don’t go very well as you’d expect and the only outcome is that they are both super tainted now. It’s all just a real messy affair and again it makes the big problem here the fact that nobody is likable. Everyone has their moments and all they succeed in doing is dragging the other characters down with them.

In general it’s probably going to be hard to really make any good films about a group that tests out if a husband/wife is cheating. In most cases it’s probably going to happen where the main character falls for one of them. That’s just the easiest way to make a long dramatic story about the subject. After all you’re likely going to need some kind of conflict and peacefully finding out that cheating is or is not going on is a harder story to tell. I’d like to see a writer try and do this justice but it feels like a longshot.

It would have been nice to have at least had one character stay strong but that never happens. Even the cab driver gets involved as well as the secretary. Yeah these are all the kinds of characters where if you saw them on the street you’d want to go the opposite way. No matter how much you may want to think that you are the exception and this time the relationship is real, it’s not. So don’t even fall for that! It’s a massive trap, the trap of all traps you could say. Even within the movie the characters are starting to think this is legit by the end but we all know the truth. It is absolutely game over instead. Hey that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Overall, Like I said this is a tough film to watch because you’re basically just watching a bunch of antagonists messing with each other the whole time. The writing itself is also super suspect at best. The characters have a awkward way of talking where they have to constantly use full names or last names instead of the first one. One character in particular does this as her quirk and then other characters like John talk exclusively in 2 word mini sentences. You wonder why the characters are all so annoying before you stop caring. At the end of the day this is the kind of drama film that goes for a lot of cheap low hanging fruit to try and keep you interested but fails in the attempt. You could find better drama films in the 1 dollar aisle at Blockbuster.

Overall 2/10

5 Centimeters per Second Review

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You ever wonder how fast you are moving per second? It’s not something I generally think about all that much but I tend to rock back and forth as I write reviews so I like to think I am moving more than 5 Centimeters per second. This film is a pretty fun romance title either way. Fun may not sound like the right word because it’s going for a twinge of tragedy the whole time but I liked the vibes and the animation was solid. I thought it was a good time and it managed to avoid the usual romance tragedy tropes like someone getting hit by a truck or falling into a coma. This felt more like a natural way for a romance to go tragically.

The movie is divided into three segments. Initially I figured this was going full anthology style and didn’t realize it was the same guy in the second special until around halfway through when he started being on the phone. It’s a pretty interesting look at a relationship through the ages and again I would say it’s handled well. When achieved, a doomed romance plot like this can be super interesting. It’s also just easy to mess up so I wouldn’t generally recommend that a film tries this. Only the elite can make it so the whole thing isn’t overly melodramatic and such.

The first segment introduces us to Takaki and Akari. The two of them have been best friends through school but one day Akari has to move away. They’re both still fairly young at this point and there were no cell phones so it’s hard to find a time to meet up. Still, they make plans for Takaki to visit her. It’s a trip that takes several hours as he is supposed to arrive there by 7 and leaves in the very early afternoon. Unfortunately a snow storm hits which starts causing many delays. Will he still be able to make it in time? Will she still be there when he arrives? The worries and tension begin to add up.

This segment likes to flash back and forth to the past and present a whole lot. It can maybe be slightly overdone at times but it does show how quickly they bonded. The tough part is their age because if they were grown ups Takaki could have just moved over there or something. Instead, they have to rely on letters and that takes up a ton of effort. It’s hard to imagine a relationship staying strong purely over mail like that for such a long period of time. Ultimately you want to be able to see and hear the person. It’s why pen pal relationships are always treated like such a big deal, because they really are rare. At least they did get to meet once though, even if it took a great deal of effort.

The second segment takes place years later as a girl named Kanae falls for Takaki. The problem for her is that he just doesn’t see her in that way. He’s always a little scattered and on his phone. He’s very kind to her but it’s in a professional way. So Kanae wants to work up the courage to ask him out and to do this she will need to improve her surfing abilities. Will she be able to break through Takaki’s generational bond with Akari or will it be game over for her?

It’s a fun follow up and in a way the film does a great job of stacking the deck against Kanae. Not only does she have to face her fears to be with Takaki but at the same time the audience is also rooting against her since most people will be rooting for Akari to get with Takaki. So we have a rare moment of everyone in and out of universe being against her. (Well in universe nobody really cares so it might be more accurate to say that nobody’s really on her side since she doesn’t really tell her family either) It helps to make Kanae’s struggle all the tougher. Ultimately this is a bit more of a generic romance type story compared to the first and last segments though. It’s solid enough but doesn’t really stand out. I guess the strongest part to me is that Takaki is still so dedicated to Akari even though it has been so long.

In the final segment, we see Takaki as a grownup. He finally gave up on waiting to an extent and has a girlfriend now. The problem is that he’s still not over Akari so that’s really not cool. Remember, if you can’t get over someone then you have to solve that on your own. Entering into a relationship to speed this up is called rebounding and it’s not cool. I sort of figured this was Kanae as the girlfriend but the movie never really alluded to this at all so I suppose it probably wasn’t. The special mentions that Takaki and this new girl have texted over 1000 times and are still not very close so that’s rough.

1000 texts can happen rather quickly as it is. You can easily hit 20-30 texts in a day with a friend so I imagine with a girlfriend you’re talking more like 50-100. Still, Takaki not being complete with his feelings was definitely disappointing. Ultimately Akari moved on and got married. She still thinks about Takaki but you don’t get the feeling that it’s in a what if perspective and she’s just hoping that he’s okay. Her wondering if she should have told him about the wedding or not is more for closure on his end I would say. Ultimately, it would have been good if they held out for each other but it’s been years and she had been doing all the work. Without any extra context, I feel like it is Takaki who dropped the ball.

I would even say the final scene symbolizes this a bit when the train appears and the characters turn around. Takaki stays there, hoping to see Akari because he’s still trapped in the past while Akari had kept on going because she would no longer look back. Takaki realizing that she moved on helps him to move on as well but I would say as always Akari was leading the charge here. She was always progressing and you just like to see that. So yeah the ending’s not the happiest one out there but the process of getting over a long love is a story you don’t see very often.

It feels like most films are about just continuing to try until the two characters end up together or finding someone else and getting together. Sometimes your love doesn’t work out and showing people how to move on is important. It was long enough where I would call this a love and not a crush either. Takaki better be sure he has really moved on this time before getting a girlfriend though because he really can’t afford to be making any more mistakes.

The animation is pretty solid here and it’s definitely aged well. I liked a lot of the different shots here like the cherry tree and the night sky. It’s all very smooth and it’s the kind of animation style that will continue to age well throughout the years. I certainly have no doubts about that. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side, I couldn’t really tell you any of the tracks by memory. I want to say it worked well enough in the scenes though and for the most part this is a quiet film anyway. It’s more about the writing than anything else.

Overall, 5 Centimeters per Second is a pretty good movie. It’s a low key romance film that has a lot of build up the whole time and shows that even a passionate romance may not always stand the test of time. Sometimes the circumstances and situation just weren’t right so it ends up being doomed to fail. This can happen even without either of the characters being malicious in any way. Give me a realistic relationship fail over one of those cheesy rushed romances that makes no sense any day. The movie itself is also super short so it doesn’t take long to go through. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

The Water Dragon’s Bride Review

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It’s time for a supernatural Shojo title. There is a lot of romance and drama of course, you gotta have the full blend of emotions here and the series lasted for 11 volumes which is pretty impressive. It gets to cover a lot and has a pretty unique premise. It’s definitely not something that you see very often. You’d almost expect this to be like a power fantasy by the end but that’s not the exact audience it’s going for so this is a little different.

The story starts with introducing us to a normal girl named Asahi who has a loving family. Everything was going well one day until she got pulled into the well that exists in her backyard. This isekais her to another realm where she is meant to be the Water Dragon’s bride. This god doesn’t really have any emotions and thinks the whole ritual is amusing but he still takes offense when she declines him. So he sends her back into the village but without the use of her voice. She must now find a way to escape this world that exists in the past and get back to modern day civilization. Is that even possible though?

She has one ally in the past at least. A boy named Subaru who likes her right away. Unfortunately they are both just kids right now and so it’s not like they can really defend themselves from the cruel mortals that are all around them. Subaru’s mother is one of the key antagonists who wants to sacrifice Asahi and get her out of here. Asahi is just lucky that the water dragon has no interest in claiming her life. If he did then that would have really been it for her. As the series goes on she gradually gets to teach him about the various emotions so that he becomes more human.

There is a time skip later in the series so Asahi is all grown up and can talk again. This definitely helps because while she was always a solid main character, it’s just hard to do anything while you’re still a kid. Not being able to talk is also rough when the whole village is against her. I thought the series definitely got more interesting from this point on. There are a lot of plot elements I would have liked to have seen more of though. We have several gods outside of the water one like darkness, fire, wood, and a few others. The only other one with a big role aside from water is the darkness one who makes for a good villain. The others are more just along for the ride but having a big gods battle royale would have been a lot of fun. Something where we see them all show up to defend Asahi or something like that.

I would say the character who gets the most development by far is the Water Dragon though. Going from emotionless to super emotional by the end is always a pretty big leap but the series took its time with this so it wasn’t all that rushed. Now was the romance still any good? Ehhhh I always have some issues with the whole immortal romance. I mean they grew up together the whole time ever since she was a small child. Yeah he never grew up so now it works a bit better and with the ending we can say that mayyyybe he’s not immortal? I’m still not feeling the romance either way I gotta admit but at least it’s not a rebound or anything.

The Water Dragon also came through in the clutch when she really needed him on several occasions. Whether it was the humans intentionally burning her or trying to drown her, he was ready. He got quite a few rage modes on her behalf and so the romance was really properly set up the whole time. It’s at least not something that was just thrown in at the last second and that’s pretty normal for a Shojo series. The build up is the important part.

Subaru naturally gets the short end of the stick but you could probably have guessed that based on the title. The series is absolutely merciless to the guy though as he has his big scene where he finally gathers the courage to confess to Asahi so she just immediately runs over to the water dragon to ask him out. That’s gotta be completely demoralizing. What a way to go right? You’re thinking the worst she can say is no, but your courage just being what gives her the courage to ask someone else out is rough.

Subaru also did his best to look out for her all those years too. He was a good friend, ultimately that’s just what he has to settle for though. They were not meant to be anything more than that. Maybe if he had asked sooner or something but he took too long. Asahi also had a lot on her mind throughout the series. She had to contend with the fact that gods exist in the world and that she may never actually get to get home. As the series continues she has to go up against the god of darkness as well. So there’s not a whole lot of down time for her in the series to really be thinking about the romance.

Asahi is a well balanced main character though. She is ready to fight when needed and gathers her courage when talking to big figures like the emperor. She doesn’t shirk any of her duties or responsibilities at all. She also had to make a tough decision later on about which world to stay in. Naturally being with her family is super important and all but at this point she’s lived longer in the other world so saying goodbye to those connections would be rough as well. It’s definitely a tough call. I’d generally choose the world with powers but in this case it’s not like the powers are hers directly so that does make things a little more difficult.

We get to briefly see the parents and they really didn’t take the vanishing very well. How could they right? One second they’re spending time with their daughter and the next she is gone. That’s the kind of thing that creates a permanent mental scar. You just don’t really come back from that and it created some mild resentment for her younger brother who never even got to meet Asahi. Always seeing your parents sad about the whole thing takes a big toll and of course when he sees Asahi is tempted to leave again, that just makes it all the more upsetting. It’s like she’s taking the whole thing for granted. So the brother wasn’t very nice but I did feel bad for him because of all this.

Back in the village, Tsukihiko is one of the first big characters to show up. He’s one of the only people to treat Asahi well from the start and is a consistent ally. His role gets smaller and smaller as the series goes on but he definitely had his moments. I liked him well enough and his drastic plan to fake Asahi’s death was pretty good. It might have even worked if not for Asahi. Kagahiko is a big bandit who shows up for a while but I was not a fan of him. He was trying too hard the whole time and feels real petty.

Yeah he ends up having his reasons and all but none of it really excuses attacking the main village and going after Asahi several times. She could have really done without all of that aggravation. There’s not much to him aside from being a bandit either. I never really sympathized with the guy or anything and wouldn’t have minded if the water dragon just blew him up. We’ve also got the Emperor and I wasn’t a big fan of that kid.

For one thing, he is an actual kid so it’s not like he is very good at running the show just yet. Asahi basically has to take on a mother type role for a while there and really explain why his plans wouldn’t work. He even suggests she become his bride for a while there which of course was out of the question. Even to the end he is getting kidnapped and everything so yeah I don’t think he ever really went up for me. He was more on the annoying side.

Matori is the hardened sword master who shows up later. He has some serious skills for sure but can be rather laid back. He’s a nice enough character. I feel like he came in last enough where you almost could have cut him out entirely though. The series would not have been all that different if he was gone after all. At least that’s the way I see it. It helps that Subaru’s sword skills rarely became a factor in the series. Often times the villains can only be stopped by the water dragon. Perhaps if Subaru got to be the final opponent for Kurose at the end that would have helped justify this.

Kurose is a good villain and definitely someone who felt like a threat. I was glad to have him here to shake things up a bit. Yeah he’s not the smartest guy and certainly gets manipulated quite a bit but I can respect the drive. At his core he wanted to save his friend and that’s admirable enough. He just went about it all the wrong way. Kurose had a really rough backstory so you can see how this really corrupted him from the start. He was only just starting to get rehabilitated when the whole thing happened and he had to turn to the dark side. At least he’s doing better than in the real world where he was really getting beat up and was basically murdered. It was quick but I really did appreciate seeing his back story here. It’s rare that we get to see the villains get Isekai’d after all.

The artwork for the series is pretty good. It can definitely be very expressive at times. The water can be a little chaotic at times though. It may be semi intentional but I also think it can just be really difficult to show a lot of water on screen without it getting at least a little messy. It’s a tough balance that you have to try and keep up throughout. Still, it was always readable so I definitely don’t have any big issues here. The writing was solid and the dark god was a formidable foe and that’s what counts.

I dare say the series was almost going for a bit of an anti human message there for a little while. There are just so many corrupt humans who were trying to destroy Asahi right from the start without hearing her out. The fact that she is just a child makes that even worse. I guess we can assume that the people will be more reasonable as time goes on but I still wouldn’t trust any of them to be honest. With the ending it doesn’t really matter by that point though. It’s a fairly upbeat ending although one character had to do a ton of waiting. I know he had a lot of time but that would probably still have been a really tough wait.

For me the series biggest strength and what I would praise it for is that it’s always interesting. I may not always love the setting but they did a good job of showing us just what a difficult situation Asahi was in. Particularly when she could not talk as she had to try and be expressive to get her point across. Since she was a child, that took extra determination. She was also in the middle of enemy lines the whole time even if the village wasn’t meant to be super evil. So you really get to see her journey through the years and the series did a good job with that.

Overall, The Water Dragon’s Bride is a good title. It doesn’t keep up with some of the other Shojo titles I’ve read to be sure but I didn’t really have any big issues with it either. It uses the Isekai genre to tell a reasonable romance plot and we get some action along the way. I’ll never turn down a good action scene and this could have made for a fun little anime. I think it would have been even better if it was set in the modern day but of course you would have to do some true re writes to actually get that to work. If you like romance then you should definitely check this one out. The characters are solid and there is a lot going on here. The author really managed to squeeze in a kid section, time skip, Asahi going back home, and a full backstory for the villain. The 11 volumes length was used pretty well.

Overall 6/10

Never Say Goodbye Review

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Uh oh, it’s time for a film about the ole rebound so you know this is probably not gonna end well. In some ways you could make the argument that it’s good the main two characters try to get back together but based in large part to the execution I would disagree. Splitting up isn’t great but going back together isn’t either when you know it can’t possibly last. There are a lot of red flags to the relationship in this film.

So the film starts by introducing us to Phil and Ellen who are currently divorced. They each have their appointed time frames with their daughter Flip but she isn’t thrilled with this arrangement. She loves hanging out with both of them and wishes they could all just get along. Life just isn’t that simple sometimes but they don’t really have the heart to tell her that. Flip basically begs them to try and get back together so they give it a shot by going to a date. The problem is that Phil has a girlfriend right now and forgot he was going on a date with her at the same time. He has to try and balance both dates now but it won’t be easy. Can he bring back the marriage?

I mean the obvious answer here is no right? If you already have a new girlfriend then it sounds like you’ve completely moved on. I would feel like the whole thing is completely insincere at this point. Moving on like that is a massive red flag to the point where I would say it pretty much disqualifies you entirely. It’s just such a bad look and it makes them both look bad. Ellen shouldn’t put up with this and should have immediately given up on Phil when she found out. Meanwhile it makes Phil look super greedy like he wants his wife back but still wants to be having fun on the side? I’s clear that he’s not responsible at all so why would you want to re marry him? It would jus be running into the same issues again and again. The reasons why they broke up in the first place would just return for them to break up a second time.

There is really no hope there. Now I know they want to band together for their kid but that’s actually not a great reason to do it. Ultimately all that’s gonna do it lead to more resentment and create more problems. If things were so bad that they had to fully divorce, then it’s not something that can be so easily repaired. They should have just sat Flip down and really given her a detailed reason on why this was not going to be able to happen.

Flip’s a kid so I won’t be super harsh on her but she definitely stirs up a lot of trouble here. No kid wants to be living in a broken home to be sure but it’s something that is really out of her control at this point. Then her final scene is rather rough as she is getting greedy already. It’s supposed to be a very wholesome moment of course but instead you’re just rolling your eyes here. She needs to just calm down a bit.

Since this entire film is really revolving around the main romance, the fact that it isn’t very good definitely ends up hurting the movie as a whole. You can absolutely pull off this kind of premise but only if both characters had not moved on. Like lets say we are introduced to them both and they’re super sad sacks who stay home all day and have nobody to hang out with. Now we actually have something here because that would make sense. You can see how they realized splitting up was a mistake. Since that’s not how the film went though, then you know this was not a good idea.

Phil’s girlfriend Nancy is rather rude the whole time but it’s hard to blame her. On a narrative level you know she is absolutely doomed and from her point of view this is all happening so fast. Why is the ex back in the picture? It’s a risk you always take when you date someone who has a past but it goes without saying that Nancy isn’t going to like Ellen. She has no reason to.

Meanwhile on Ellen’s side you have Rex who likes her but the feeling definitely appears to be more one sided. I dunno it seemed like she didn’t take him seriously and the guy got absolutely crushed by Phil so it’s definitely not like he is anyone special. I can’t say I liked him though, either way as the divorce lawyer it seems like bad practice to fall for your clients in any way right?

Now as I was saying earlier, Flip is always causing a bunch of trouble? Well she strikes again by writing to a marine while pretending to be Ellen so the guy shows up all ready to start a relationship and of course he gets thrown into this whole mess. He ends up taking it extremely well after having his feelings manipulated and everything. You do have to keep in mind that this is primarily a comedic film so all of this is treated rather lightly but from his perspective it definitely sucks.

Also while Luigi is treated well as a loyal friend to Phil for trying to hide his two timing, that’s actually pretty bad. Even if the person is your friend, trying to hide their bad sides is not a good idea. You can hide the ones that don’t affect other people and are mild but when they do affect others, you are making a grave mistake there. The other friend Jack wasn’t really any better and would just show up to create more drama.

Now it’s not like the film is never funny or anything like that. It has its moments and in general I do think the film had good writing. It just is based around a premise that I don’t think worked much at all. The romance should have taken more of a backseat to the comedy and had the film show us why this was such a bad idea. Make the whole thing go absolutely bonkers the whole time and that would have had way more potential. There’s quite a few ways you could have really positioned this in a favorable way. At least that’s the way I see it and you could still have a fairly happy ending.

Just have the main two admit they are not compatible but they will still talk to each other more so they’re not buying Flip the same presents and things like that. I dare say that if you do this, it really fixes all of the issues at once. Then you can enjoy all of the shenanigans more. Flip will probably still be annoying the whole time but what can ya do.

Overall, Never Say Goodbye is a film that tries to make this case but sometimes you do actually have to state your farewells. I get that the film is trying to have a positive message and I appreciate that but in this instance it just didn’t work. The film has its light tone and can be funny but in the end I wouldn’t really be able to recommend this one. There are many other comedies that have a lot more fun with their premises and ultimately they would get the nod over this one.

Overall 4/10

They Live By Night Review

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It’s time for a noir title with a lot going on but it does not execute as well as it could have. It’s not super out of the ordinary for the main character to be unlikable in a noir title like this but at the same time you still need to have some kind of redeemable quality to really let the film go through smoothly. Mix that in with the underwhelming romance and this is not really one for the books. It can keep you entertained but the characters tend to get you annoyed more often than not which throws you right back out of the title.

The film starts off with Bowie and two other inmates escaping from jail. Bowie supposedly murdered someone which is a pretty big charge so he needs to lie low. The other two criminals are hardened veterans so they find a safehouse with people they know. The next challenge will be to rob a bank so they can free another criminal but this time doing it legally. Bowie is really just along for the ride but he ends up falling for the girl who lives there. Her name is Keechie and she doesn’t know a whole lot about the world. Bowie’s out of his depth as well so this could really work well as a match. Can Bowie get out of this crime circuit though?

Okay so I don’t really sympathize with Bowie because of how far this goes. At the end of the day it may be peer pressure but he was still doing everything. Robbing a bank is a crime no matter how you slice it after all. I do think he at least made the right call in skipping town with Keechie when the stakes were getting real high but at the same time he played it sloppy once one of the other criminals, Chicamaw caught up to him. You have to take the guy out of the picture. The longer you keep him around the worse things will get.

Yeah, taking someone out isn’t easy but this guy’s a villain through and through so you can’t really feel bad about that. Bowie also has Keechie to think about at this point so that really means he has to go all in. Ultimately things don’t go great for Bowie and you weren’t expecting them to considering what happened throughout the film. Right through to the end he was outplayed and that’s why he was not meant to be in the criminal game. In a way you could say it’s probably a good thing when you aren’t cut out for the competition but of course it’s even better to not even get involved in the first place.

Now why was the romance so bad? Well I think they overplayed the naive angle for Keechie. She just didn’t seem to know much about anything and so she wanted to take things slow but Bowie was the one always getting upset and trying to speed things up. It’s hard to see what she saw in the guy. From her perspective he’s another crook and someone who is trying to move rather fast instead of getting to know her. Yes, you can say she is desperate because no other guys have wanted her and that definitely throws a sad element into this but it doesn’t make the romance itself any better. In fact you could make the case that it makes the whole thing worse.

Keechie isn’t properly developed at the start of the film. I would argue that she gets a little development later on as she stands up for herself more and makes decisions. It’s not as if it’s a bad relationship all the way through but the start is just way too rocky to buy into. At least it was a way to escape the villain base which was really just a powder keg for a while there.

Also Chicamaw isn’t the best main villain. He’s jealous of Bowie for getting all of the credit for the latest crime but that means the cops won’t be looking for him as hard. That’s almost objectively a good thing from his point of view in every way. The fact that he is so petty that he would put all of this in jeopardy for clout is absolutely crazy. The guy also gets drunk quite a lot so I wouldn’t call him the biggest threat. It’s why Bowie needed to take him out a lot sooner. Yeah he can’t win a straight fight but he could absolutely do something from the sides using trickery.

I will say that the writing is solid as always though. The dialogue between each of the characters is on point without a doubt and the pacing isn’t bad. The film moves from plot point to plot point well, the problem is really that the plot itself wasn’t good enough here. You need to really rewrite large sections of it for the film to be better. It just isn’t the most entertaining film and with so many other better titles to check out, this one just ends up fading into the background.

Overall, They Live by Night is not a film that I would recommend as much as the average noir title. It could have used a mystery or something. Just watching the main guy making various mistakes doesn’t really do anything for me. The main part of the film is also about a romance that I just didn’t care much about either so there was no real saving that part of the film. I was just shaking my head by this point. I do think you could make an interesting story here about the heroine changing a villain from his old ways but you’re not really going to find that here. If the film was aiming for the ending to be a solid book-end to the subplot of Bowie not being ready for these stakes then I do think that was really clever tho.

Overall 4/10

The Road to El Dorado Review

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The Road to El Dorado is one of those animated films that is fairly fast paced with a lot going on at all times. This really frantic style of animation definitely works really well and it’s important to continue to use it a lot when you’ve got a film that is hand drawn. The reason is, it allows you to show off why it is the best form of animation. You just don’t have quite the same amount of moving parts in another kind of animation style. So here your interest is always captured by what’s happening on screen. I do feel like the film doesn’t keep up with the strongest animated pictures but works well enough as a pretty solid adventure.

We are introduced to the two brothers Miguel and Tulio who are good at scamming people. They just finished another scam operation and got a map to the lost city of El Dorado! They manage to make it to this city of gold and even meet a nice lady named Chel who tags along with them. Some hijinx occur and the village elders believe the two to be gods. This is a solid opportunity for Miguel and Tulio so they really lean into this. They convince the village to stop performing human sacrifices and really start changing all of the old traditions. This does lead the elders to be rather suspicious. Are these two really the gods they claim to be? Miguel and Tulio better start thinking about an exit strategy.

That’s probably their biggest mistake to be honest. If we’re being honest the ruse was never going to last forever. At some point it was going to be discovered and so they should have been ready for it. Unfortunately they really weren’t until it was too late. The most annoying part of the story is when we finally get to the big fight between the main two. I expected it would be over the main heroine initially and in a way it is, but not in the usual sense. Tulio talks about leaving with Chel as just the two of them which hurts Miguel. I thought that whole scene was extremely forced. Why would that even be something you say and why before you have actually left the kingdom. You’re going to need all 3 of you no matter what the end game plan is. So that was definitely very annoying.

It also just felt out of character but that leads to a lot of petty dialogue and disagreements between the two for a while. So for the record, I blame everything on Tulio here, everything after that is basically retaliation. Yes, it was super annoying retaliation but he didn’t start it at least. It seems like the movie needed some way to break the two apart and I am glad that it didn’t become one of those big love triangles. That said, it still could have been done smoother. Plus you have the corrupt priest Tzekel as a villain already so you could have used him to trick the main duo.

Tzekel is one of those villains who almost didn’t go all the way crazy. Basically he just didn’t think the main two were legit (They weren’t) and he felt like they were changing all of the traditions. They probably could have thrown him a bone and he would have been happy to serve. They just didn’t play up to his ego here. You could make the case that he would have gone evil anyway since the guy was always shady but it’s hard to say for sure. Either way the heroes did good in stopping the sacrifices and everything like that.

Chel is a nice heroine. She actually does contribute when the fighting starts and never just runs off to save herself. I can definitely appreciate that quite a bit. You’re not going to see her fainting or panicking. She already has good street, well I suppose jungle smarts about her. Then you have the horse Altivo who is a fun character. His role may not be as big as some of the other horse characters in these animated movies but he still makes a difference when it counts..

As for the main two, Miguel and Tulio are more fun than likable at times. I like their energy and they always have some good banter. They do tend to lose focus at times though. Look they came here for the gold, not for status, women, food, drink, or anything like that. If they just locked in and didn’t get too greedy then this could have been a very short film. Imagine if after their debut they said that they needed a ride out for celestial business? There are a lot of ways they could have tricked the priest and the other characters. Especially in the start when they had no idea what was going on. Obviously the longer you wait, the more you’re in danger.

I don’t really remember the soundtrack to the movie so I want to say none of the tracks really stuck out to me. Nothing bad as far as I remember but I suppose it was more on the generic side. At least the animation was really solid so that covers the bases on the technical stuff. The final boss does start to get into one of those “I’m huge!” areas which is unfortunate but at this point I suppose that’s the case for almost all of the climaxes nowadays. Most writers still think that making a villain huge is automatically a big W and super impressive.

This isn’t an action film first and foremost though so it’s not a really bad thing or anything. We still get a lot of chase scenes and everything. I also liked the sport that they played early on. The rules were pretty fun and there was a lot going on. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of that only this time without the main characters cheating the whole time. Lets just see what the characters have got even if they lose big time. In a way maybe the film could have stood to have had more scenes of them just hanging out. The storyline is rather straight forward and it’s not like the film is very long. That’s part of why the review is very straight forward too. There’s not a whole lot to really discuss or unpack next to other titles. So I say you lean into that and just have more time with the heroes exploring. Maybe make it a bit longer before they actually bump into anyone so they are just exploring the mysterious island.

Overall, The Road to El Dorado is a pretty fun film. It does end a bit abruptly and I’m not really super thrilled with how it ended but it’s not bad. It just feels more like one character was forced into a decision rather than choosing it himself. It’s a small thing but it does have a big impact if you ask me. Either way if you like the jungle backdrop or in general are just looking forward to a fun film with a lot of banter, you should check this one out. After all how many other films have a setting quite like this one right?

Overall 7/10