Tag Archives: Thriller

Sniper Review

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This review is of 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

When you hear of a film with the title of Sniper, you’re definitely expecting something really intense. It pretty much comes with the territory right? Well, this movie does not disappoint so if that’s what you’re looking for then you are in the right place. There is quite the body count here and you will see just how difficult the job is. The sniper position is really a unique one in the army and has its own set of dangers.

The movie starts with Tom and his partner completing a routine sniper mission. Unfortunately the partner dies and Tom is forced to head back alone. Now he has one last mission to complete before retirement. It’s an assassination mission with 0 backup and heavily behind enemy lines. His new partner is a rookie named Richard who has no in field experience but is a skilled sniper in non combat scenarios. Richard is technically slated to be the boss for this mission and was even given authority to murder Tom if needed. Will his lack of experience be a major liability here?

Right away you will be able to see that the answer to this question is Yes. Richard is constantly panicking and doing things by the book. Tom is someone who has been in the field a whole lot and so he knows what actually works and what doesn’t. It’s a massive difference in approach and leads to a lot of inside fighting among the two. The problem is that there is really no time for that. As a sniper you have to be able to trust your partner 100% and vice versa. If you don’t, then things are not going to work out.

I should note right away that I put 100% of the issues on Richard. There weren’t any arguments where I thought that he had a point. He spends a lot of time whining but he’s the one falling into traps and missing his shots. Richard misses a key shot that results in a lot of extra lives lost because naturally the target ended up being extremely vindictive. This was completely avoidable so Richard should feel bad about it.

Instead Richard gets defensive every time which isn’t helpful to anybody. Then by the end of the film Richard completely cracks and becomes more than a simple liability. He’s the kind of emotional loose cannon that you really don’t want out there. Tom is easily more patient with him than I would have expected any character to be. By the end you’re meant to find Richard likable again and be able to root for him but that didn’t work for me.

As for Tom, he’s a good main character. Richard tries to psycho analyze him a few times and explain how messed up Tom’s life is, but to me Tom is handling this all in a fairly mature manner. He has a tough job and he sets out to do it without any issues. It does look like retirement will be tough for him but I like to think that he would handle it lie any other mission. The fact that Tom hasn’t broken down after all of these missions is another testament to his strength of character.

He has good reason to be upset right in the intro when his partner dies because the helicopter came way too early. Is it possible that the stalker would have gotten them at night? Sure, but it would be a much more difficult shot and there are more variables at night. Tom took care of business with that guy later on as well. If I’m in the jungle, I’d want a guy like Tom to have my back. He may be rough around the edges but he absolutely knows what he is doing.

What does keep the film back from being better is the excessive level of violence though. You’ve got full blown torture with what happens when they catch Tom. It’s expected considering the situation but you just hope they could keep it off screen or something. You’re seeing a whole lot more than you would like to there. The film is definitely not shying away from the general violence either with all the headshots and fights going on.

The general combat violence may not be super crazy but then you also have the collateral damage like a villager who is murdered during the crossfire at one point. The film is showing you what a dreary world it is for the average sniper and does succeed at that task. It just comes at a huge cost. This isn’t the kind of film that has a whole lot of replay value. Nor is it the kind of film that you would say is generally happy. It’s not really meant to be and so that means it’s not really going to be my style.

I would have liked to have seen more of the government back at home. I enjoy all the tough talk and corruption going on there. Everyone acting real slippery and all that. Those set up scenes were really good. The army scene when Richard gets to base is more of a nonsense scene though. I understand the whole sizing each other up part but why were the soldiers acting downright evil? It seemed like Richard was about to have to fight for his life there and hat just seems to be pushing the tough army stereotype a little bit too far.

Also should you really be making the sniper upset when he could camp out at a distance and end things? Yeah he’d be in trouble but if you’re tough enough to be a sniper in the first place, you’re not going to have the same levels of worry. It’s why you always hope that the snipers are extremely resilient because even a single rogue sniper can cause a whole lot of problems.

Overall, Sniper is a very direct film. I want to say that about 90% of the film is the two guys in the jungle getting ready to take the shot and moving through tough terrain. The film doesn’t bother with any cutaways or side plots. There is only one story to tell here. So I applaud the focus but it’s definitely not my kind of film. It goes too hard on the violence and overall dread. That said, if this film seems like it’s up your alley then you should check it out. There are no fakeouts here so if you want a film about sniping, it’ll be hard to be more realistic than this one.

Overall 2/10

Dragonheart Review

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It’s time for one of those classic films about dragons. It takes place in the medieval days so you already know that the film is starting off on shaky ground. It does mostly avoid any real dragon violence which is good but the film still suffers from really iffy characters and everybody being way too passive. It’s easy to see why the heroes were getting dominated for the whole film.

The movie starts off with a bunch of villagers uprising against a corrupt king. They manage to murder him and even fatally injure his son. Unfortunately the prince is taken to the local dragon who manages to revive him by splitting his heart into two. Now the prince has proven to be just as bad as his father, if not worse! The villagers have exited the pot and entered the flame. They have no protectors left and enter 12 years of devastation. Is there any way for them to make a comeback one more time?

I’ll give the villagers this, they did a good job in the first battle. I wasn’t expecting them to actually take out the king the way that they did. I also can’t fault them for the prince living since that required supernatural help. So they did their job but it’s a shame that they somehow all became enslaved again. Could they not have fought back while the prince was still gaining power? Also it’s too bad that none of the knights did anything to stop the corruption. It’s clear that the kingdom was an evil one that needed to be stopped.

The main character is a knight named Bowen who initially had high hopes for the prince. Unfortunately he became disillusioned when that guy turned out to be evil too. So he spent years murdering all of the dragons and eventually became nothing better than a scammer. He completely left his honor code and the film’s journey for him is about reclaiming this. It’s just hard to find him even remotely likable after all of that because he was in the best position to do something about this.

Perhaps taking out the prince himself. Running away doesn’t solve anything. It was also such a sudden transition with him blaming the dragon and running off. When the 12 year timeskip initially happened, I was pretty surprised about it. I understand going after the dragons but I thought the end goal was to make Prince Einon whole again. Instead it just became a pure quest of vengeance? Yeah by the time Bowen shapes up it’s a little too late. Additionally he also got crushed by Einon in their first fight.

Sure, Einon was using psychological warfare but it was a really bad look for him. At least Aislinn was doing something by enlisting the dragon hunters to destroy the dragon. If the dragon dies, then Einon will as well. She probably could have acted quicker but at least she gets some small points there. Then you have Kara who is the last villager to not lose her fighting spirit. She is trying, even if she doesn’t really have the abilities needed to enact change.

She ends up getting into trouble on more than one occasion as a result. Better to do something than to do nothing though. She may have even had a shot against Einon the first time if she didn’t announce her arrival. He had seen her through the mirror but it would have been tougher to ace the timing. I definitely could have done without Einon’s twisted attempt at seducing her though. That whole scene is pretty painful and you wish Kara could have gotten more of a direct revenge against him after that.

Einon has near immortality thanks to the dragon’s heart so it is difficult to keep him down. You have to thoroughly destroy him to the point where he can not regenerate but it would be a squeamish job for the average person. Additionally you will need time and skill to make that happen. For the most part nobody is really up to that task. There is one exception though and this pretty much breaks the whole story.

So we meet the dragon named Draco and he was someone who really believed in the knight’s code. He was even hoping that Einon would walk a better path which is why he revived him. Yet, why did Draco never aid the humans? He seemed to be aware of what was going on and could easily fly around to check whenever he wanted to. Dragons have great abilities and we saw that Draco was the best of them. He should have easily been able to prevent the corrupt kingdom from gaining more round. He could have burned them all with his fire and called it a day. The fact that he didn’t was pretty disappointing.

Bowen wasn’t the only one who let his kingdom down, Draco is guilty of this as well. He let the villagers suffer for over 12 years while he sat back. Additionally, he allowed Bowen to destroy all of the other dragons to the point where Draco is the last one standing. A part of him longed for death as he mentions in the film but you have to do something to fight back in the meantime. Instead he played the part of a passive spectator.

The heroes are just too passive here and so it makes sense that they got completely rolled over. That was basically going to be inevitable with how this went down. The special effects within the film are pretty good though. The dragon looks really solid and the film has aged really well for its day. You can’t show off the visuals much more beyond that because of the setting but the fire looks solid.

Dragonheart maintains a pretty dreary atmosphere for its run though. The villains get away with a whole lot before they’re brought down. We see a villager who had his eyes burned shut and after being a slave for 12 years, he is finally murdered. It’s all just rather grim and yet the film throws in a lot of gags and even some crude humor to try and lighten the mood. The various slapstick and gag moments weren’t handled all that smoothly. I appreciate the attempt but I don’t think this film was able to balance the two approaches all that well. The only parts in that vein that worked well involved a monk who would chronicle Bowen’s journey. You felt happy for the guy because he was always waiting for an opportunity like this. You know that he won’t let any of the events be forgotten and will have enough inspiration for a lifetime now.

Overall, Dragonheart is supposed to be a story about Bowen reclaiming his role as an honorable knight. The problem is that he missed his opportunity for far too long. Leaving the people to die for 12 years is just too big of a burden to easily come back from. Draco is equally guilty of not doing anything and so the would be saviors of the village were the ones who watched its ruin. If you like the retro setting of a Narnia/Game of Thrones setting then you should have an okay time here but I definitely missed my big city backdrop and the heroes are too slow to act. You’re better off with Eragon.

Overall 3/10

The Valley of Gwangi Review

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It’s time for a classic dinosaur adventure. In a way this is a whole lot like Jurassic Park, the old version. Perhaps that’s a surface level similarity but eh it’s close enough.

The movie starts off with a big shot named Tuck deciding to visit a small horse show on his way to the arena. He runs into his ex, T.J. Her show is really struggling, due in no small part to his running out on her for riches and glory. He offers her a chance to go with him but this time she stays strong and won’t fall for his tricks….for like 10 minutes. He sweet talks her into joining his side once again. What she doesn’t realize is that this will ultimately take her into the forbidden valley of Gwangi! This is due to the star tiny horse being stolen by a bunch of native conspiracy theorists who believe that he belongs back on the valley.

Okay so there are a lot of problems with the main dynamic from the start. Tuck seems to mainly be interested in using T.J. He walked out on her easily enough the first time and now he really wants to buy her main horse. She only agrees because she found the mini one with mystical properties but otherwise he was putting on a lot of pressure was already failing. Keep in mind that it’s not a one girl show. She has a whole team and other workers doing their best and now Tuck wants to take the one act that still draws some fans?

For reference, she and the horse jump into a pool of water which is surrounded by flames. I can’t say the act sounds all that interesting but generally all of the animal acts make me feel that way. Anything that has even the slightest bit of danger to the animal makes it all not worth it. We also get bull fighting and the like so you’re shaking your head throughout all of this. The main thing that stays constant throughout all of this is that Tuck isn’t the nicest guy.

Sure, by the end the romance and everything works out but it really shouldn’t have. This romance was poorly thought out right from the start and hurts T.J. as a character for entertaining this as well. Lope has a pretty big role as the kid helping Tuck out but he’s too young to be able to fight or anything like that. He doesn’t end up contributing a ton.

Horace goads the Gwangi tribefolk into kidnapping the mini horse so he is the one who really sets everything into motion. Of course I’d say he didn’t really think this through. Things could have easily been fatal for all of them. The thieves knocked out the guard after all but could have easily murdered everyone. The pursuit of knowledge alone is naturally not worth all of the sacrifice for this.

You could say the film really starts once they make it onto the valley though. Now we have all of the dinosaurs and the action. The main characters take this a lot calmer than you would expect as they talk about getting the dinosaurs into the circus act and all. You’d think that it would be a much bigger deal that dinosaurs exist right? I guess back in the day it may have been slightly less of a big deal since you could assume crazy extinct animals exist all over in different pockets.

The professor is probably the most impressed by default but that guy is the type of man to choose research over safety. For the most part you’re going to feel bad for the dinosaurs though. They aren’t quite ready to be dealing with humans. Right off the bat one of them gets his neck broken by the humans. You’d think the dinosaur would have been a bit stronger. Along the way you have dinosaurs destroying each other as well.

The effects are handled pretty impressively for its time. Of course this is to the detriment of the film since the dinosaurs bleed quite a bit and the film isn’t shying away from actually having a body count here. It just should have been more humans dying than the actual dinosaurs if you ask me. So the film is ahead of its time and dinosaur fans will get a kick out of it but it definitely didn’t end up being my style.

The king of the dinosaurs here is Gwangi and for the most part he looks like a normal dinosaur. He is ultimately defeated by the humans and forced to be in the circus which is definitely the ultimate disgrace for a proud creature like this. He gets some revenge later on by taking down some of the humans at least. Now you’re supposed to be rooting for the humans but by this point in the review you can see that I’m team Dinosaur. The humans just aren’t likable.

At least in the most recent Jurassic World film they are trying to create a rare medicine out of the dinosaur dna so there is some kind of a noble cause. Here, it’s really just about the money. They want to improve the circus act with the dinosaurs. The professor wants to increase his knowledge but has disregard for who has to pay for this progress. Ultimately there is a lot of selfishness going on here and all of the violence that ensues is directly the fault of the humans.

It makes the dinosaur violence feel even worse because the whole time you know they would have had more peace without the humans. Yeah, the dinosaur vs dinosaur stuff would still be happening but we wouldn’t be seeing it at least! Shoutout to the old lady at the beginning who warned everyone about the valley though. I was glad that she was actually correct and not just crazy. Yeah, they are usually right in these kinds of creature features but I was still happy for her. She probably gives Gwangi a little too much credit in terms of sentience but it was close enough.

Overall, The Valley of Gwangi does deliver on giving you a ton of dinosaur action. It’s the kind of film that does live up to the premise so you don’t have to worry about being misled here. If you want to see a survival film with dinosaurs showing up and the humans having to deal with them, then you’re in luck. This is the film for you. It is an unapologetic dinosaur film with pretty strong effects. Now if you don’t want to see the dinosaurs and are worried about the annoying humans, then this is definitely a film to give a hard skip.

Overall 3/10

The Town Review

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This review is of 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

It’s time for a film about committing crime in a small town. Definitely not the best option in general but it’s extra rough here when a ton of people are into crime. The main crew have been doing this for a while but things are shaken up when the leader falls in love. Is he going to mess this up for everyone or are they the ones who are getting greedy?

The film starts off with introducing us to Doug and his posse. They just completed a huge bank heist and are basically set for life. Doug figures this is it for the jobs but his partner Jem doesn’t think so. Jem has been gone for quite a while in jail so he is itching for more jobs. Doug thinks this is a really bad idea but Jem doesn’t tend to take no for an answer and makes it clear that Doug leaving may cause some problems. In their bank heist, Jem panicked and took a hostage. She was let go but heard all of their voices and got to see a lot. Doug checks up on her but falls in love and now they’re dating. Jem worries that this could mean death for their group if she puts two and two together.

So on the first part, Jem is right that this is a really dumb idea. You should never date your hostage. That’s just a really bad idea because it does make sense that she would be a liability. She may not have realizes anything just yet but it is possible that she could make the connection at any point. It was Jem’s fault for making her a hostage in the beginning but Doug really compounded the issue here. He is a bit in denial of this the whole time but it was a bad move.

Now Jem is still crazy the whole time and should have been satisfied with the big score at the beginning. It seems like it’s less about the money and more like he just really wants to live an exciting life. He almost thrives on these life or death situations like when he accompanies Doug to go beat up some people who were harassing his girlfriend. Doug didn’t need to give him any details and Jem was still ready to bust up a bunch of heads.

The town is effectively ruled by the crime lord known as Fergie. He’s really not the smartest character on the block though. Sure, Doug was planning to leave and Fergie wanted to stop that but he does so by basically rage baiting Doug a whole lot by revealing how he destroyed the guy’s parents. That doesn’t seem like a good move if you’re planning to stay alive. If anything, it feels like a good way to shorten the remainder of your life span.

This guy is still just a man after all. He can summon up a bunch of help but that’s not going to help a whole lot when he lets Doug meet with him whenever. His ending is one of the most predictable parts of the film. If anything, I think Doug let him get away with too much for quite a while there. You usually need to take someone out of the picture near instantly in this kind of situation.

Then we have his girlfriend Claire who is okay. I think she was moving rather quickly with the romance but she doesn’t know about the robber part and I can’t blame her for that. Not just anyone would have been able to make the connection there. Later on I suppose her reaction is justified enough about how she gets upset with Doug. If anything she probably should have ratted him out. From her perspective, he’s a total villain who manipulated her. It would be dangerous to assume that any part of their relationship was real. She decides to believe in it but I just don’t think that was a great idea.

For the most part the FBI agents are completely in over their heads but I did appreciate that the film made them look decent. They couldn’t crack the case officially for a while there but at least they had leads. It’s just that in a town like this, all of the crooks would look after each other so there wasn’t much in the way of hard proof to get after anyone. You had to try and work around that which isn’t easy. When it came down to the climactic shootout, they were ready.

Then you’ve got Krista, the crazy ex. As soon as she shows up, you know that she’ll be trouble and that’s exactly what happens. She is here to really cause some mixups and keep Doug stressed out. She had a tough lot in life but a lot of it was self sabotage with the drugs. It’s why you should never get involved in that business in the first place. Aside from damaging your body, it makes it easy for others to blackmail or just plain manipulate you.

There is quite a bit of action in here aside from it being a mental thriller. The Town keeps you engaged the whole time but it is also a bit of a downer movie. There’s not a whole lot to cheer for here and the ending is more of a bitter sweet one at best. Everyone has lost something by the end and so it felt like they couldn’t really escape their destinies in the long run. They grew up in a crime filled neighborhood and it destroyed them all. It would have been nice to have had a more positive resolution to wrap everything up.

Or maybe a happier middle in there. The film succeeds as a thriller with quick pacing but it has almost no replay value because of this. It’s not a film you’ll want to look up. I will say the film did a better job of making a likable antagonist as the lead compared to other titles. Doug was someone you could almost root for since he was trying to get out of the game and did his best not to hurt anyone. Still a criminal but he could have been a lot worse.

Overall, The Town is a film about how sometimes it can be really hard to go on the straight and narrow. Doug tries his best but the odds were stacked against him. Maybe if he left on his own but then he had to go and fall in love at the worst possible time. There’s definitely a lesson to be had with that. You have to be careful with those feelings because they can really pull you in the wrong direction especially if you go too fast and that romance felt pretty rushed. If you want to see a film about a criminal trying to go straight, this is a pretty decent one to check out. It’s a bit too dreary for me though and so it just doesn’t pass the bar. I’ll go with a classic thriller instead.

Overall 4/10

100 Meters Review

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It’s time for a big track and field movie. The 100 meter dash is not something that I’ve ever really followed but it does make sense that it would be a really intense event. You’re putting everything you’ve got into an incredibly short race. So if anything goes wrong, you can’t recover from it. You’re also putting your legs under a lot of strain with the constant wear and tear through training. It’s a pretty good movie that captures the intensity.

The movie’s main character is Togashi although it does well in establishing a lot of the supporting characters to get their own moments. Togashi has always been particularly gifted in running fast and so he would naturally enter track events. He was known around the school for being quite good and figured that would be his life’s career. Another kid shows up who likes running but doesn’t seem to have the talent for it, Komiya. Togashi works on helping this kid out but as quickly as he appeared, Komiya had to move out and vanished. Many years later, Togashi is still working on being the world’s best when he runs into Komiya again.

There are several big time jumps like this during the movie and each one has the character designs change a bit. It’s ambitious and I definitely think the film did a good job here. The only issue is does run into at times is that the animation can make it easy to mix up the characters at times. They can start to blend together. While the animation can look pretty solid with some of the special effects when running, I would say that on the whole it’s more on the decent side. Under the average weekly anime but above what you’re mainly going to see in US theaters.

This is a movie where the focus is going to be more on the story and themes. Both of those are areas where the movie does a great job so there is no real reason to worry here. Togashi is a great example of someone who really loves his hobby but then the competition starts to wear down on him. He goes through a slump but ultimately finds his passion for the sport again. I think that happens to most people when they finally manage to make it to the top level of competition. It’s just such a different animal at that stage.

Now, the film does run the risk of being a little repetitive at times with Togashi seeming to always need another speech to really get his act together. The film is spanning multiple years so in universe it makes a lot of sense but while watching you may be shaking your head at Togashi a bit by the end. Ultimately he’s a good guy though and is always trying to push the other characters forward. Togashi wants to be the best by challenging himself to improve as opposed to pushing anyone lower.

Komiya had a tough hand in life as he grew up in a tough environment and running didn’t come easily to him. When he really pushed himself he could do well but then he had to deal with injuries. It’s easy to see why anyone would start to put some distance from the sport after that. He ended up with a lot of anxiety but is able to push past it. A good example of this is when he is listening to Zaitsu’s advice at the beginning but in the second scene he just ends up cutting the guy off. Komiya was able to find his own ideals to race with, even if they falter by the end.

It’s solid character development because everyone is always going to have their own approaches and speeches to give you. There’s a time to hear them out but then there’s also a time to just go your own way and never look back. Komiya was able to become one of the greatest racers in the world through his own skills. That’s not easy.

Then you have Zaitsu and Kaido who are two characters who became immense racers on their own merits as well. It was pretty nice seeing each of them get some respect here with both winning at least one pivotal race. Each one also sacrificed a lot to the sport which is another theme in the movie. You are really giving your whole life for those 100 meters. At the end of the day you have to ask if the rewards are worth it. Does owning a bunch of trophies equate to a lot of happiness? Or will having records in your name be something that always keeps you happy? It’s just hard to say and by the time you think about it, your life has been used up a lot.

Togashi keeps it the simplest from all the racers. He just enjoys running and he’ll keep doing it for as long as he can. That’s really all that anyone can do and you have to make your peace with it. It’s a little late to be having regrets by the time it’s all over. Whatever you do with your life, it’s constantly moving forward. So you have to move along with it.

I think the movie pushed the 100 meter dash as far as it could. The short length of the race does limit how much drama you can build into the actual race but the film made sure to build up the angles around it. If the race was longer I would have liked to have crammed in all the racers in one race to end the film off. Logically would that be a little convenient? Yeah definitely but you can suspend a little disbelief for a climactic showdown like that. Of course a classic 1 v 1 is also a good way to end things so you’ll get no real issues there from me.

This is a film that’s just very strong all around. We get a number of good supporting characters and even by the end we’re still meeting new runners who are incredibly fast. It shows that new racers will always come in to replace the old ones and that the sport is in a healthy place. It’s a very uplifting kind of movie that you can recommend to anyone who has even a bit of a competitive spirit within them.

Overall, The film cops out at the ending on who the world’s greatest is but I like to think it was Togashi. To me that makes sense with the ending but it’s ultimately up to your interpretation. Either way I would recommend checking this film out. It’s a good adventure filled with a lot of drama and intensity. It all goes by pretty quickly and that’s considering that it had different false climaxes. You may think the film is about to end and then it jumps into the future again. You could easily build off of this into more spinoffs and sequels as well.

Overall 7/10

Cosmic Monsters Review

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There’s always something comforting about watching an old creature feature film. The fun dialogue, the quick moving plot, it’s all just good stuff. Sometimes you barely even need the creatures around because the vibes are just good. This is an example of such a film that is very simple. I would go as far as to say it’s a super basic movie but it knows its objectives and clears them. This is a fun popcorn film you can check out at any time. The movie never drags on and you get a fun climax. I don’t really have any issues with this one even if I may have a hard time telling it apart from 5 others in a few years.

The film starts with some scientists trying to run a bunch of experiments with magnetic fields but they haven’t had any luck in a long while. The government has about had it with them and they have the gall to request more funds. These scientists are given one last chance but in the meantime hey will have to work with a new computer professional, Michele. These guys are not happy about this, they all grumble a whole lot about how a lady couldn’t possibly understand the work. They say she’ll be tough to work with and what have you. They whine so much that the government agent seems pretty happy about it and leaves them to the work. What they don’t realize is that these experiments may have real dangerous consequences.

I will say that I was glad Michele stood up to them right away. Not like it was too hard to be honest but she showed that she had the skills to keep up with them and they get on board quickly. Of course the film couldn’t resist the urge to immediately have some flirting thrown in there as well with Dr. Graham. It would have been perfect if that wasn’t a part of the dynamic at all so that Michele would have really just been one of the team ready to change the world with science.

Now at first you may think that Dr. Laird is just one of those classic mad scientists who slowly starts to get real extreme…and by the end you’ll still be thinking that. He’s not exactly subtle but that makes for a fun character type. The mad scientist has always been a really interesting character. You’re certainly not rooting for him but you can really appreciate the dedication to his craft. He really did come close to some amazing breakthroughs and actually got a few, just unintended from what he was after.

Dr. Graham is more your average main character. A good scientist who isn’t really extreme. He stops when things get too dangerous and knows his limits. Nothing wrong with that but it also means he won’t be a very memorable character. The cast is fairly small though so that helps his odds. You have the government who decides that this tech could be incredibly handy in combat but there’s mostly just the one or two point persons.

In a way the creature stuff almost seems like it’s getting in the way of the interesting consequences of these new innovations. Using magnetic fields in a way where you can cause gold to be brittle would naturally be really handy in wars or normal fights. You could have actually had some enemy officers trying to start a fight like the government expected. Instead, it’s aliens time! It’s not quite as exciting as you might expect though.

First off, it starts with a little girl who has no real survival instincts. Even after her mother warns her not to do this, she goes deep into the forest and talks to strangers. One of them is the mysterious man who seems to be interested in the experiments. This guy seems rather odd but the kid doesn’t notice. As the film goes on, we find out a little more about him. The thing is, this guy is very hesitant to act and do anything even when the stakes are high so you wonder what he was even going to do. If the main characters didn’t have a long talk with him, I guess he would have just silently left and maybe gotten some big weapons involved?

There is even a scene where we find out that the world might have to choose between one life (The crazy scientist trying to destroy the world) and the world itself. The alien admits that it would be a hard decision for him as he goes on about the importance of life and all. So maybe he is just an ultra pacifist to the extreme but the whole thing was not a good look for him. He talks as if humanity is so far beneath his people but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Perhaps scientifically but that would be it.

Also we do get a random mass murderer who shows up thanks to the radiation messing with him. He’s good for a few jump scares initially but there’s not much point to this except to try and get the characters closer to figuring out what is going on. Amidst all this, we have giant insects! Yes the gravitational fields also affect them along with radiation and such. I don’t really get why they didn’t just say the scientists were messing with radiation, would be a simpler way to get to the same end point. It’s all sci-fi though so ultimately I’m on board with it either way.

There isn’t a whole lot of time for the giant insects though as the film is basically over by then. It’s one of those sci-fi films that ends extremely quick. It’s going, you’re in the big climax and then it just suddenly ends. It’s always impressive when films do that because even as the viewer you’re just left shocked. I feel like it happens the most with sci-fi films too although that may just be since I’ve seen quite a few of those.

Overall, Cosmic Monsters is one of those films that goes by real fast. It’s a film that is very distracted though. There are just so many plots going on here and a lot of them barely have anything to do with each other until they collect at the end. I also think there shouldn’t have been a big messy romance here. Even the first guy is initially surprised when Michele is moving on but then basically congratulates the next man up. Not exactly broken up about this eh? He was being rather presumptuous either way. The film’s title may leave you disappointed if you are expecting a lot of cosmic monsters though. Go into this expecting a chaotic sci-fi film and trust me you will have a whole lot more fun! How can you go wrong with giant insects, a mad scientist, and aliens all in the same film?

Overall 7/10

The Creature Walks Among Us Review

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This film is a bit of a mess and the biggest problem is that the romance is absolutely crazy here. The film should have focused a whole lot more on the Gillman himself. Instead he is functionally a human for most of the movie and we have this awful love triangle going on. Trust me, the drama is not worth it for this film and you should stay far away. The winning formula is not to be found here.

The movie starts off with the main characters taking down the Gillman once more. He was badly burned so they take off the gills and it turns out that he looks just like a human now. He can no longer breath underwater without the gills but maybe they can slowly rehabilitate him. The problem is that Dr. William is bit on the crazy side. He’s also randomly abusive towards his wife Marcia and so their relationship is incredibly strained.

Unfortunately one of their divers is a man with no redeeming qualities named Jed. Jed decides that he wants Marcia all to himself so he begins to continually harass her as he tries to weaken her will so that she can cheat on her husband. Marcia doesn’t have much love left for William with how things have gotten and so she gradually weakens enough to allow Jed his advances. What does any of this have to do with the Gillman? Well, the poor guy is getting an up close view at how humans cannot be trusted and are all rather sinister.

That’s a huge problem for the film which is that the characters are simply unlikable. You’re basically rooting for the Gillman to take them out. First it’s easy to say that William is the worst of the humans. There’s no excuse for being abusive. The fact that he gets physical puts him on the lowest rung of the totem pole here and you’re waiting for someone to bump him off. He’s also not that good at thinking ahead as he puts himself in a really rough position when trying to frame the Gillman.

The Gillman gets framed? Yeah that actually happens near the end which was definitely a real desperate move. Could have been interesting if we had a courtroom trial or something but all of this is taking place privately with the characters on their property so we never get that far. Next up I have to put Jed as the second most unlikable character. You should never be trying to get someone to cheat. How classless is it to go after a married woman? That’s just total villain behavior and this guy seriously cannot take no for an answer.

So I can’t say that I felt any real sympathy for him. He found out real quick what the repercussions for this would be and shouldn’t have been making those mistakes. Finally, Marcia takes up some of the blame here but naturally not as much. She was on the back foot here but could have been more decisive in shutting Jed down. For example when Jed was going to go diving underwater, she insisted on coming along.

Everyone warned her that she’s not experienced for this and she could get the bends. Marcia insists on going and naturally she immediately makes a big mistake and Jed has to save her. That’s far from pushing him away and now it’s an excuse for him to be real close to her. Marcia needed to make sure she wasn’t putting herself in that kind of position. Sure, she couldn’t have assumed that she would make a mistake underwater but the point of the mission is that diving is really hard. It’s why Ned is here as an expert in the first place.

So instead of swimming with him, she needs another way to stop his endless pestering. This is the kind of serious matter where you do tell everyone and make a big stink about it. You have to embarrass the guy and if you don’t feel safe, then it’s time to get the cops involved and such. It’s also time for her to end the marriage to William and just start fresh. Hard decisions but this guy was clearly escalating more and more. Once things go physical then there isn’t a way back.

Still, this is a whole lot of screentime for the pesky humans. Keep in mind that the runtime for the movie is short. This is under 90 minutes total. The Gillman spends a good amount of that time getting burned and then being in recovery mode. He wakes up in time to take down one of the animals just for the film to remind us that this is not a quality picture. Far from it! Then the ending also goes out on a total whimper.

The Gillman walks out onto the sea. We know that he can’t breath under the water anymore so the implication is that he walked into his death. Living on the ship with those crazies was enough to thoroughly break him. That’s pretty sad in its own right. There is no climactic battle, in general the film didn’t have much action. This really feels like a poor way to end the Gillman trilogy. You’re left wondering what the whole point of the film was really about.

What purpose was there in showing that the Gillman was actually very similar to a human being? William had an obsession with evolution and biological changes like this but it’s not like that ever went anywhere. The Gillman didn’t ultimately learn how to hold a whole conversation or anything like that. You can barely even call this a horror film to be honest and maybe that’s not one of its official genres anyway. It’s more of a full on drama.

Overall, I’d say to stay away from this film. It doesn’t really satisfy you as a creature feature film and when it comes to full on dramas, there are way better ones out there. We needed a much better cast of characters here and there should have been way more action. If you do want to go into the romantic drama, then go all in and have both guys trying to murder each other throughout the film or something. Put it out in the open and the film is a battle of wits in this murder game. Then you somehow have the Gillman get involved in all of that. it would have been infinitely more interesting that way. Instead what we get is a mishmash of genres that won’t really satisfy anybody.

Overall 3/10

Jurassic World Rebirth Review

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The Jurassic World films keep on coming. At the end of the day, the public is always ready for some dinosaurs I suppose. That said, the films rarely end up being all that good. Having a lot of dinosaurs running around is generally going to result in a lot of animal violence and that’s just hard to escape from. Rebirth certainly isn’t the worst at it but it is also going for a more serious survival tone than the previous popcorn fun titles in the World genre.

This movie begins by explaining that the dinosaurs broke containment once again and now rule over several islands. Humanity has gotten used to this so you generally just avoid those areas and the government keeps them blocked off. When dinosaurs appear in the world at large, they aren’t really acclimated to the environment and don’t last very long. Well one company needs samples from a rare dinosaur in order to make the next jump in heart related medicine. This is super illegal so the company reaches out to Zora, who will do just about anything for a good check. She agrees after hustling the company for a ton of extra money and brings along a few hand picked professionals for this kind of mission Can they complete the objective and escape with their lives intact?

Right away you can tell that this is going to be a film without very many heroes. I suppose the main scientist would be the only one to count. Zora is basically a bounty hunter, she completes her missions and serves her own interests. It was a bit of a low blow how she kept scamming Martin by making him pay more and more when he was already paying top dollar for this. Zora isn’t really meant to be likable though, she is a necessary evil that Martin has to use.

That said, the character type can usually still be fun. There just wasn’t anything charismatic about Zora. She just goes through the motions and ends up being a bit of a flat character. In general that’s my problem with the case. They all tend to feel throwaway and it’s what ends up hurting the film as a whole too since it ends up not being very interesting for large portions of time. I blame the setting to a degree as I much prefer a big city to the forestland like this. There just isn’t much interesting to look at visually.

Additionally, since the film is going for a more realistic vibe, it’s fairly rough goings. The whole area is rugged and certainly not sleek or shiny. The dinosaurs are also in a tough position because on one hand the film is trying to present them as fierce creatures that are always a big threat and are dangerous. On the other hand they are also basically like wildlife which are very fragile and can be destroyed by the pesky humans. It’s an impossible balance and for the most part I’d say they look weak.

One guy even has an anti dinosaur gun and manages to take out quite a large number of them. At no point do you think the main characters are really outmatched by the dinosaurs. In a way that’s probably why you needed the corporate villain. Martin is easily the best character here. He’s able to think on his feet and always has a plan at the ready. He even pulls out the gun near the end which was a smart idea considering how outnumbered he was. The guy believes that progress requires sacrifice, just not his own.

As a villain, Martin just really stands out and in a very good way. The film needed a main character who could really hold their own against him verbally. The main group also run into a family who were on the waters when they are attacked by a dinosaur. I know it’s meant to be a rare event so you don’t blame the family too much but in a world of dinosaurs…you may want to rethink certain activities. The most annoying character in this group is definitely the boyfriend. He locks in towards the climax but at first he is slacking off even when it is his shift and just doesn’t take things seriously. You know he’ll win over the father by the end but you’re rooting against him.

So we have certain scenes like that which inject a little humor into the film but on the whole it was definitely lacking in that area. In a way the film may have benefited from taking itself less seriously. At the same time it wouldn’t solve the main issue which is that dinosaurs still do get shot and blasted. There is a body count here and you have to blame the humans the whole time since they are the ones going into dinosaur territory and then claiming self defense while going for their goal.

While Henry is the voice of reason here as the timid scientist, he ultimately did still agree to go on this mission. The guy acts a bit shocked when corporate quickly begins to escalate their actions but he probably should have taken that into account. He’s a character who would have been a lot better if he was more confident. Confidence is ultimately still one of the best traits in a character. That’s why Duncan is a lot more likable even though he’s also a scammer like Zora. At least he is ready for the dinosaurs and letting himself be the bait when needed.

It’s already hard to root for humans when giant monsters are involved and this just makes it even tougher. I suppose that’s why the reason had to be really good like the heart medicine but even with that they are still the invaders here. There aren’t any big human against human fights in this one so the dinosaur action is mainly what you’re going to get. Ultimately for me this one was more of a miss but perhaps not much more than other titles in the franchise. As odd as it may sound, they should make a film like this that focuses on the government discussing the impacts that dinosaurs will have on society. I feel like that’s a film that I could get behind a lot more than a survival title in the forest like this.

Overall, Jurassic World Rebirth is a different take on the franchise at least compared to the recent ones. I tend to prefer the blockbuster approach as this one can almost get a bit dull as it goes on. If you really like dinosaurs then you should check it out, but otherwise I’d say you can skip this one with no regrets. It’s not going to become the next breakout hit for you and it may be time for the franchise to finally move onto robotic dinosaurs.

Overall 4/10

No Country for Old Men Review

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

This is one of those films that tried getting a little too clever with itself. The whole film builds up to some pretty big confrontations and ultimately we don’t get to end any of them. It’s a bit of a downer and while this anti climax was clearly intentional, I’d say that it doesn’t make the end result any better. The film really should have gone with a traditional climax and it would have ended up being much better off for it.

The movie starts off by introducing us to the psycho hitman, Anton. This guy was captured by the cops early on but unfortunately the officer let his guard down so Anton escapes and continues his murder spree. He is then tasked with hunting down a man named Moss who escaped with a bunch of money after running into a total murder scene. Moss realizes immediately that this much money means a lot of trouble so he needs to stay on the run until he can defeat Anton. The problem is that Moss is married so that means his wife is automatically a target now. Meanwhile Sheriff Ed has now been assigned to this case and needs to arrest both parties. Finally, the bounty hunter Carson has been hired to take the money. With 4 parties involved, there should be a lot of chaos.

Well, there should have been at least….this is where things get a bit messy if you ask me. This should have absolutely been a good setup for a ton of awesome fights and while we do get a solid battle between Anton and Moss, the others never get any real fights. Carson is built up a whole lot as a top tier fighter. He has a lot of experience and isn’t scared of Anton despite his reputation. That implies a lot of things, the most important of which is that he can hold his own. Unfortunately instead he is dumpstered unceremoniously while making every mistake he warned against.

It’s an incredibly embarrassing scene and he should have went out with more dignity. It’s a bit of a western staple for the victim to just stand around while he is shot to death but you’d like to see someone try to land a counter shot at least once. This time wasn’t that time though. Then we have the sheriff Ed who is late to every confrontation. He misses every fight and basically just has to comment on the situation every time. He has some weird dreams but ultimately doesn’t advance the plot much at all. I would argue that there isn’t much of a point to him being here. He should have had some kind of action scene.

Then for Moss, well I’d say he generally did the best that he could throughout the movie. The only time he fumbles is at the very end by staying at a motel and getting distracted when he needed to stay on mission. He had lasted a long while up to that point but that’s what makes it all the more tragic. I was glad that he was finally someone who could stand up to Anton though. Everyone else was getting absolutely crushed but he would stand his ground. Again, the ending to Moss’ character was just underwhelming though and undercuts the movie quite a bit.

As for Anton, well he’s definitely as crazy as you would expect. We get a long scene where he stares down a gas station owner and continually threatens him for a while before leaving. It was good that the owner didn’t have to die there since it would have been tragic. The whole scene is there to show you how messed up Anton is. Hopefully we get to see one of the heroes take him out right? Yeah….but even with that I think he’s a decent villain. Only problem is he has a ton of plot armor because he’s still just a dude with a gun. He shouldn’t have broken out of custody so easily in the first scene and the cops just look too ineffective the whole film.

The film takes place just old enough where there wasn’t as much tech so I don’t envy the cops’ position though. It absolutely couldn’t have been easy to live in those times. This movie does a good job of showing how scary the wild west environment can be when it spills into the cities. It can be really violent and you don’t always have much in the way of backup or other people who can help you in general.

I enjoyed the main gunfight between Anton and Moss which is why I wish we could have gotten more of that. The back and forth is intense with how high the stakes are. They each have to use the environment to help as an assist like with the nearby car. Any pedestrians along the way are definitely in for a tough time though. There is quite a lot of collateral damage going on here.

While the film is pretty violent, for the most part it isn’t being too excessive about the whole thing. The deaths tend to be pretty quick and to the point. The bounty hunter’s is more of an exception but it still isn’t overly violent, it’s just longer as Anton wants to really rub his victory in.

Overall, No Country for Old Men is a film that takes a lot of time to really build up the atmosphere. It tries to really develop the situation and set up all of the big players. So things are looking up but then it pulls the ole fake out and ruins all the setup. There isn’t really much reason to watch the film as a result. With no proper ending, it means that all the build up ends up just feeling mean spirited as we see how dark the world is without a hero at the end to save the day. It removes any possible replay value here and the film just becomes really empty. You can do better within the western genre.

Overall 4/10

The Great Escape

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It’s time for a pretty intense World War II film where a bunch of captives have to find a way to escape their prison. Naturally this won’t be easy but fortunately they all have a track record of success. It’s a pretty good movie that covers a lot of ground so the long length never gets in the way. You do have to suspend a little disbelief for how much freedom the characters are given but for the most part it’s rather grounded.

The Allied Forces have been doing a whole lot of damage to the Nazi’s during WW II and aside from the offensive battles, even the captives have been causing trouble by constantly escaping and forcing soldiers to be sent after them. Well, now the enemy has built a super prison meant to hold all of the escape artists in one place. In theory, this is the end of their escape attempts and now the Allies will be on the back foot. What if they were all to escape though? That is the plan for the heroes, it’s time to have all 250 escape their imprisonment.

This is a full ensemble film so there are quite a lot of soldiers here. The main one I’d argue is Virgil. He sets the stage right away by walking in with a leather jacket and a full baseball set. How did security let him keep it? Well they wouldn’t dare take it from this guy! He walks around like he’s in charge at all times and has the toughest spirit to crack. He has made countless escape attempts and while he is always captured eventually, it does waste the enemy’s time which is the whole point. Throughout the film he keeps making his own attempts while the others work on an ambitious tunnel.

Although Virgil is a solo act, he does help the others when the chips are down. He’s a very likable main character and I would say a big reason for that is how confident he is. That’s the kind of character you want to be leading the escape attempts. It’s also important to put your best foot forward because this is a war and people are going to die. Virgil is a character who can accept that as he moves forward.

Unfortunately not all of the soldiers are able to keep this up as one of them does give up midway to end it all. Definitely a very somber moment midway and one of those sobering scenes where the characters are reminded of the stakes here. They may be treated decently in the camp, but their allies are being murdered while they are in here and so that’s why they must continue to fight. They don’t always agree on the route to go but when the enemies close in, they are sure to back each other up.

That’s a really important part of being in this war after all. There is no time for disagreements when it is time to act and it’s something I always appreciate about these films. The film gets to let us see all the characters bonding and so it makes the ending even more impactful as characters start going down. Personally I would have enjoyed a happier ending but I guess that’s just how these things gotta go sometimes.

At least none of the characters should have any regrets. They did accomplish their mission of taking up a lot of time and resources at least. One character worked especially hard in digging the tunnel even though he was strongly claustrophobic. He pushed on for his country even though it pretty much broke him by the end. On a lighter note, I did enjoy the marathon of escape attempts early on in the film. They were weaker ones like hiding in the trees and such but they were still fun. The film knew how to turn on the humor when needed.

As mentioned, there are times where you have to suspend your disbelief though. The guards seem to just completely vanish at times and even with timing the drilling carefully to the sound of digging or singing, it’s hard to picture that going unnoticed. There are a ton of prisoners running around after all so you’d expect the guards to be doing extra checks and just running in on them from time to time. This whole jail is around because these guys are big time escape artists so you figure that would make the enemy soldiers be on extra high alert right? At least I would have guessed that.

You also have guards letting themselves be stolen from and blackmailed. At times this goes into the more comedic elements of the film but on the whole the film is serious so I’d still treat those scenes seriously right? This is fairly common for any heist/escape type film though. On the whole I would still say it was written well as the characters immediately start to scope the place out when they arrive. They clearly put in a lot of work and so it is still more believable than the average escape film. Also the film takes place over a very long time frame so it’s not like they built a tunnel in a day or two.

Overall, The Great Escape is a pretty solid film and I’d recommend checking it out. Ensemble films like this can be really fun when the film is long enough to really show them all off. Each character got a lot to do and the cast was so big that you might even forget that a few of them are around every now and again. You can assume there were some decent liberties taken here as things don’t always line up with how smooth the attempts are going, but you just have to roll with that to an extent. The writing was on point.