Tag Archives: Thriller

Safe Review

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

All right it’s time for a classic action thriller kind of a film. That said, it does take a while to get going so you would actually think it’s more of a tragedy drama for the first half. Once the two main characters are united then we are in business with a lot of big action scenes though. I liked how the film had a ton of different players and factions involved which helped make the whole thing feel very grand but on the other hand the film just doesn’t stand out a lot. So it was good but I think a lot of it is gonna be fairly forgettable pretty soon.

So first up we have the plot with Luke. He used to be a cop but stuff happened and now he competes in underground boxing fights. Unfortunately his opponent was really weak so by mistake he won the fight with a single punch when he was supposed to lose. So the mafia retaliates by murdering his family and have decided to make his life a living hell until he destroys himself. Luke does his best to hang in there but they are true to their word and keep murdering anyone he talks to. Just when he decides to check out, he notices shady figure chasing after a little girl and decides he needs to help her first.

This takes us to our second main character, Mei. Mei is a super math prodigy with a photographic memory for numbers. She never forgets a number once she has seen it and so the villains want her so she can remember debts and their books. This way there’s no real evidence and it also makes shaking down the local businesses very efficient. Mei doesn’t want to do any of these things but she has no real choice and in the meantime they also use her mother as leverage although she dies early on and Mei finds this out. Still, what can a kid really do? One day she is able to make a break for it and then she bumps into Luke.

The idea of bringing the two characters together is pretty fun so I give the film credit there. Additionally, it’s not just one generic mafia group running around. We have the Russians, the Japanese, and then a corrupt group of cops who play ball with both of them. It helps keep things interesting because the different villain groups get in each other’s way in addition to the heroes trying to stay away from them. Ultimately Luke may even need to team up with one to stop the others and buy some time to get out on top.

I don’t think the film fully takes advantage of this angle though. I would have liked some more actual fights between them. We have the climax but for the most part each group does move on their own. The best scene of the groups actually interacting in a way was when both of them were on the line with the corrupt cop at the same time trying to outbid each other. That was really fun and is exactly the kind of interaction that I’m looking for here.

This is one of the few films where the actor playing Luke isn’t running around beating 20 guys with ease and showing off more martial arts. Luke can fight here but he’s not some kind of master level black belt. He’s a bit more humble this time around. I would have liked to have seen more action scenes to be honest but the ones that we got were fun. At the end of the film it’s heavily implied that he would have actually lost to his opponent so Mei had to step in. I think she made the right call there. Luke’s a fun lead and he does a good job but he doesn’t always make smart decisions. There are so many times in the film where realistically he should have died but the villains didn’t finish the job. In some cases it was intentional which is fine but in others we’re talking a bit of plot armor here.

It’s also why the first half isn’t as fun though. I was ready for the exciting chase scenes and all, not watching Luke just be super depressed as the villains mess him over and he doesn’t do much to stop them. What I thought was a real shame is that at the end he’s given the chance to avenge his family and doesn’t. Look….I know they’re going for the hero play here but Luke’s no hero and the way his family went out practically begs him to avenge them. I think he really should have taken the villain out, he’s come too far to stop now. Not anything drawn out mind you, it’s not like he should become a villain or anything. Just go in with a quick gunshot and then it’s all over. That’s absolutely what should have happened if you ask me.

Meanwhile Mei is a fun character. A lot of times the kids in these films can be annoying but she was actually helpful at times and she was also quick on the uptake. She knew that giving the villains too much info would mean that she was expendable so she did her best to strategize. She helped Luke out in the fights and in general wasn’t a burden. So she’s definitely got a thumbs up in my book as a quality character and I could see the two of them being a good duo in a future sequel.

While the film wasn’t always firing on all cylinders, the ending is pretty fun. For a film like this you do want some kind of happy ending and it’s even slightly sequel bait you could say. I think a sequel for this film would go over fairly well. The writing is on point and while the first half is slow, the second has good pacing. It does have to struggle a bit with utilizing all of the characters though. I was looking forward to seeing more action from Alex. He doesn’t really do anything until the closing minutes but apparently he’s a really top tier fighter. The scene of him taking down a whole squad was super impressive. The way he goes out is funny but he should have gotten another fight or two. This is where I go back to the issue of the film not properly utilizing all of the factions. Alex and the Mayor should have had a bigger role which could have led to more fights.

Overall, Safe is a good film. I have my share of issues that keep it from being pretty good like the really slow beginning. The film can also be a bit violent and torture happens but in general it’s got a fairly light tone. The film doesn’t dwell too much on the darker elements which is good. I’d also say it has good replay value because of how much is going on at all times. There’s a lot to absorb and at the end of the day it can be pretty fun. I’d recommend checking this out if you’re looking for an action title you haven’t checked out yet.

Overall 6/10

Invisible Invaders Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film where the aliens decide to finally take out humanity. Trust me I knew this day was coming because humanity definitely was never going to last long against aliens. Aliens are more resilient, skilled, and just generally trickier than humans. These guys are invisible though which makes it even tougher. It’s a good movie with a fairly cheesy ending but on the whole I had a good time here.

The movie starts off with a scientist dying. After that, he suddenly appears in the house of another scientist and explains that his body is being reanimated by an alien. These aliens give the Earth 24 hours to surrender before they take over. The humans don’t believe this of course and so they don’t do anything. After the 24 hours pass, the aliens begin shooting up all of the national landmarks and overwhelming the humans. There doesn’t seem to be a way to stop them because the invisibility means they can get into any secure location or snipe people at will. So America puts all of their hopes on two scientists, Penner and Lamont. Only they can hope to save the day but will they find a solution in time?

Now the humans are rather lucky here in that the aliens have no real weapons. See, apparently Earth’s atmosphere is rather toxic to them so they have to stay invisible and use sabotage to take the edge against the human. Sabotage is in itself still a very good tactic so we shouldn’t underestimate it but that also means it is their only win condition. If the humans can find a way to make them visible then they will be able to end this in a snap. A hard, but achievable task.

Unfortunately one of the scientists is super annoying. Lamont is one of those guys who throws in the towel immediately and complains a whole lot. Seriously this guy is just a nuisance and he goes as far as to start destroying equipment all over the base while he has a tantrum. It’s one thing to figure you have no shot but it’s another to make sure of it like this. He wanted to force a surrender and while the other characters let him off easy, I would have considered that as a complete betrayal and kicked him off the squad. You can’t have someone like that putting you in danger. He never recovered from that.

Penner is actually a good scientist who tries hard the whole time. Even when things look bleak, he continues to fight hard and holds his own. It’s not an easy thing to do but he still does it. He lives up to his reputation as one of the biggest geniuses in the country and ultimately he takes a lot of risks of his own. Then you have the main heroine Phyllis who does her best to assist. She may not be making inventions but she watches over the crew. Mainly the tough part for her is having to deal with some flirting when everyone should have their minds on business. You’d think that they would with the stakes this high right?

The main guy who likes her is Bruce. So he’s from the army and is the one in charge of protecting the scientists. This sometimes means making some hard calls like when he has to murder someone who was in the way. Phyllis gets mad at this but I was 100% on the soldier’s side. She was right there and yet she acts like there was another way. It’s clear that this guy had lost his marbles and he even threatened to shoot the heroes. So Bruce took him out first and saved all of their lives. I don’t get how you can possibly discount that. It’s what happened after all and it’s not like Bruce enjoyed his mission there.

Bruce also takes a whole lot of risks later on as he keeps testing out the weapons on the aliens which results in his having to go out onto the battlefield alone. He’s nearly choked to death on one occasion and barely escapes with his life the other times. So he’s a good guy that doesn’t hold back on his missions. He accomplished his mission and yes there was a body count but it was as a last resort. He was surprisingly weak in a fist fight when one of the other guys went crazy later on though. I expected him to be a lot stronger as a soldier so he really needs to his the gym at some point.

As a final note, the aliens in these invasion films really aren’t very smart sometimes. There’s no reason to even bother giving Earth demands when there’s no chance that they could be met. Instead, use the element of disguise and deal some damage quickly. Wirth all of the aliens being invisible they could launch the ultimate first strike and blow up so many installation all at once that humanity won’t know what do . Plus if they were smart about it, people wouldn’t even be able to guess that it was aliens so they could use these tactics for an extremely long time. Humanity only stands a chance because of plot armor.

Overall, The Invisible Invaders is a good movie. I think it could have stood to be a little more exciting though. Most of the film is about the characters talking things over and trying to find a weakness. The actual confrontations are pretty rare and considering that the aliens are fully sentient, we could have had more hype dialogue with them. Maybe see more of the other governments as well and what they are doing to counter the alien threat. We see that for the most part everyone is getting wrecked but couldn’t some others adjust? These aliens are basically just guys with guns without the invisibility working so if you monitor the entrances and exits you can see when someone shows up and pop them. Well I suppose that’s for more of a thriller film. Either way I would recommend the movie. It’s a quality feature with good writing and pacing so you can’t go wrong there.

Overall 6/10

Knives Out Review

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This was a really big murder mystery film when it first came out. We don’t get a lot of big budget types like this one so it’s always cool when they show up. Murder mysteries are a lot of fun after all and especially when they throw in a lot of suspects so you can really have fun trying to guess who it is. This one certainly had me guessing for a while because this kind of film always has so many twists. I was actually expecting a certain twist to happen at some point but it would have been a really hard sell so it’s for the best that the film didn’t go there.

The movie starts with a big family all converging on a rich mansion. The reason for this is that the head of the family is now dead after seemingly committing suicide. So this should be an open and shut case but the world’s most skilled detective Montblanc is here for some reason. It’s very strange to see him here if there is no murder or criminal action afoot and the cops are assisting him with some kind of investigation. So now the clock is ticking and every member of the family is rather suspicious. They all really have big motives to murder him except for his nurse Maria who got along with him really well and has a good alibi. In fact she has the rare ability where her body forced her to puke whenever she tells a lie. This will be super handy for Montblanc to have on his team so he recruits her as his assistant.

So lets talk about all of the suspects here. First to understand the suspects we have to understand the victim. Harlan is the man who died and he was super rich thanks to his best selling murder mystery novels. The guy’s family really treated him like a bank and they were always trying to get rich off of him which is rough. It is the one part about being rich that i do think would be tough as it’s hard to form normal relationships at that point. Still, Harlan is a fairly intelligent guy and he has decided to cut everyone out. It’s a pretty smart move to be honest and he just has to be careful on the execution because you never know what the other characters may try and do.

Okay so the first suspect is his maid Fran. She’s the first one to find the body after all. She doesn’t have much of a motive for murdering him beyond the money but she had opportunity and time to do so. Of course this is all assuming tat there even is a murder since this appears to have been a suicide but you have to assume that someone is guilty or you wouldn’t have a complete murder here right? Fran’s role isn’t super large next to other characters. She’s okay but really not very intelligent at all and makes one of the worst mistakes that I’ve seen in a while.

The next suspect is Ransom who stormed out of the party really early and so there is a large block of time for which he is completely unaccounted for. Rather suspicious right? He has a big motive here as he was not going to be included in Harlan’s will. So that means he gets nothing out of the inheritance at all but if he bumps Harlan off quickly enough perhaps the new will won’t have taken effect yet and the old one will still be around where he does get some money out of it.

The will itself is a bit of a controversial topic but I agree with Harlan here. A widely accepted notion is that you need to take care of your family. So even if they’re awful, you include them in the will in some capacity. I get it but I definitely do disagree 100%. If you weren’t a good person or we weren’t close at all then why would I put you in my will? I’d rather just give 100% to a nice co-worker or friend. If I don’t know anyone at all then I’ll donate to a bunch of charities but I wouldn’t give to family just because they’re family. In general I don’t tend to buy into very many traditions that are obligation based. That’s just not who I am.

Then there is Linda who is fairly successful thanks to Harlan’s checks and influence. Without him though, the money will dry up quickly and so she definitely needs to be a big part of his will. If he was going to cut off his assistance to her, then it would make sense to bump him off right away. She’s a fun enough character but you can definitely feel how selfish she is from the jump. Of course that’s pretty much the case for every character here.

Richard has a massive motive as he was cheating on his wife and Harlan found out about it. So bumping him off would be a way to take the secret to the grave or at least that would be the main idea here. In general Richard is always upset about something and he’s an entertaining character with all of the grumbling but probably not somebody you would really want to be around. One of the guys he grumbles with is Walt, Harlan’s son. Walt’s big motive here is that Harlan was about to fire the guy from his job which meant that Walt would have to actually start earning his own living soon. That’s likely not something that would come very easily to him so it puts him in a pretty tough spot there. He’s also very quick to start making threats so you know that he can’t really be trusted.

Next suspect is Joni who is into the very abstract spiritual stuff. She believes in keeping an open mind and always being peaceful but of course this goes out the window once money is involved. She needs money and so if Harlan won’t send her checks anymore then that’s going to be a big problem. Again she’s a very selfish character who only looks out for herself and is more than willing to bump someone off. Her daughter Meg isn’t in a great position to be bumping anyone off. She’s definitely not loyal at all and at the end of the day is about as trustworthy as all of the others which means that she is not trustworthy but it’s harder to picture her bumping anyone off.

There’s also Jacob who is another kid that’s really here to mess around. He’s definitely annoying but hard to consider as a murder suspect. Of course everyone is a suspect but you figure this was a grownup task. Well, Montblanc will have to work hard to figure it out. He’s definitely a really fun detective and I really enjoyed the accent. Adding that in was a real genius move if you ask me because it does help him stand out among the other characters. I definitely haven’t seen another big detective with that voice before. Montblanc also has a good sense of humor and tends to steal the show in all of his scenes.

Maria is also a good heroine although a bit weak willed I have to admit. She is the kind of character who can definitely be swayed with a little social pressure and I was hoping she would be a bit bolder. She has her big moments here and there and is a nice person to be sure but for example if someone’s asking for a lot of money then you can’t give it away. It was crazy to see her actually considering letting go of all her immense wealth so quickly when confronted by the other characters. That’s just messed up. I’m telling you there’s no way I’d even remotely consider giving away the money for even half a second here. That’s not even counting the fact that they were not subtle in how they didn’t care much for her initially. Then you’ve got the threats, etc. Yeah Maria was way too much of a pushover in this film.

The only real negative I’d have here is more of a minor one. The gimmick of the main heroine puking every time she tells a lie was pretty gross. It happens quite a lot in the movie too so that we can really see the ability. Of course I get what they were going for here and it’s super handy in solving the mysteries but at the same time I would have preferred any other kind of gimmick. Like maybe telling a lie makes her suddenly bark or do a backflip. Something a little less gross you know?

Again, this is pretty minor but ugh those moments could really be hard to watch. The visual effects for the film are really good though. We get the really cool background with the knives that are sticking out of the wall and of course the mansion looks really good. It’s got a very grandiose feel to it. The soundtrack is more on the calm side as it’s just a subtle backdrop while the mystery is being solved. It makes sense but of course I wouldn’t have minded a few rock songs to have been thrown in here and there.

Overall, Knives Out is definitely a great film. It brings back all of the classic mystery elements in a big budget adventure for the modern day. There’s a lot to love for this title from start to finish and it has a lot of replay value. I would definitely recommend checking it out as soon as possible. We’ll see if the sequel can possibly stand up to this one. It would seem that most definitely think it pales in comparison so we’ll have to see if it can make a comeback somehow.

Overall 8/10

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Review

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

Resident Evil is one of those franchises where the films are typically doomed from the start but you are still curious how it will play out. The first movie series had a lot of flaws to be sure but it never forgot to turn up with some amazing musical themes and a whole lot of action. It had some crazy scary visuals and in general was very intense. This one tries extremely hard to be scary, often taking the shortcut of just being grotesque but it doesn’t work as well. It drags on and on and while the film was initially trying to be more accurate to the games, it seems like they gave up on that early on.

The movie starts out with a reallllllly long scene of a girl noticing that there’s a mysterious creature in her room. She heads over to investigate and you’re just waiting for the jump scare the whole time as something seems wrong with the other girl. Anyway onto the real plot! Many years later, Claire travels home to warn her brother Chris that Raccoon City is hiding something and they are in danger. Chris doesn’t buy any of it and runs back to the police station. Only problem is that zombies are real and the town is now under attack. It’s mostly deserted at this point which is good but the problem is that the Umbrella corporation is blocking all exits. Can the heroes find a way out?

Where to start with this one right? First off most of the characters are pretty bad here. You have a truck driver who isn’t paying any attention to the road so he crashes into a girl and then tries to tell himself that the crash wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately his dog becomes a zombie so later on he gets taken out which was pretty tragic. The dog really didn’t deserve any of that.

Then we have Leon who is the biggest clown in the movie. This guy’s supposed to be super serious. An amazing agent who takes on all kinds of threats and stuff. He’s the guy you call in when all else has failed and yet that just never happens to be the case here. Yes he gets a big moment at the end of the film. That’s great and all but he’s complete comic relief here and constantly getting into trouble. I laughed when he walked up to the prison bars like a rookie after a prisoner was threatening him. What do you think happens at that point? Well the guy pulls him into the bars and while Leon is stunned he grabs his gun and gets him into a chokehold.

That’s so embarrassing. That should absolutely never happen to anyone. How do you let yourself be that close to the bars in the first place? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at all and just makes him look awful. Then Leon takes so long to open the door that the guy gets eaten anyway. To be honest if I’m that guy I would have shot Leon myself for all the incompetence there so hat way at least we both go down together. Leon shouldn’t be walking out at that point when he’s the one who was creating this whole mess.

Hopefully in a sequel he will be experienced but I wouldn’t hold my breath. The writing for this film was pretty bad the whole time anyway. Wesker definitely has a very different kind of role in this film. He’s certainly missing all of the usual aura that he has. This guy is just another dude with a gun now and he also comes across as rather petty since his motivation here is money. It’s not global domination or anything like that, he just wants his big pay day. That’s a fine motivation for a grunt, but not Wesker. That’s going way too far in the other direction.

I didn’t really have a problem with Chris or Claire. Chris maybe could have listened more but I do have to admit that Claire made an historically bad argument in favor of the conspiracy. Showing a video of a crazy looking guy yelling about the virus and how Umbrella is evil isn’t a great jumping on point. She didn’t give Chris any reason why he should even believe this guy. Chris also did dash off rather quick so it would have been tough to convince him either way but the whole exchange didn’t work out in Claire’s favor.

Chris does get a really bad scene later on with a lighter though. It’s supposed to be tense but it was just dumb. So basically there are a bunch of zombies around and so Chris turns on the lighter to scare them off. Problem is that it’s defective so it keeps on turning on and off. This way you can see the zombies getting closer as they keep on circling him over and over again. The scene doesn’t work because they should have finished him off so many times. Like it just doesn’t make sense that he keeps on surviving because of how close they were. It should have been all over for him and so it was pretty annoying to see him just continuing to escape with that plot armor.

I’d argue more plot armor is when the girl from the opening scene returns in some kind of monster hybrid form and crushes one of the zombies. These monsters should not be losing in a battle of physical strength like that. Maybe if you’re Alice who has super abilities but a girl who is seemingly some kind of hybrid? It’s a bit harder to buy even allowing for the fact that we didn’t get to see her much. Meanwhile the final boss looks really bad as it gets one shotted. So the problem here among many others is that you couldn’t take the zombies super seriously as a threat since they kept losing.

There’s not much of a good soundtrack here unfortunately. There are a pair of songs that play randomly in moments that really don’t seem to match with what’s happening on screen though. Trust me that really took me by surprise because of how crazy it was but not really in a good way. As for the visuals, again I’d say the original is much better. This one’s going more for grotesque as opposed to cool so you lose a lot of points there.

At the end of the day what more can be said about this one right? It squeezes in all of the negatives you would expect to see. We’ve got animal violence, general excessive violence all over the place, a very weak cast, poor writing, and it’s just not that interesting. There are very few positives I can even give the film which is why it’s so low. There is one positive though and that is that I enjoyed the way the information was presented. For example when the on screen messages tell us what time it is or why the city is so abandoned. It was a fun way to deliver the exposition. I enjoyed it at least which is a small consolation. If only the rest of the film could have hung in there. I wanted to see more of what Umbrella was doing about this and reactions from the rest of the world. It feels like the setup is really nice but the film just didn’t capitalize. There’s a lot of fun things you can delve into here aside from the obvious zombies murdering everyone.

Overall, Resident Evil has another stinker here. I would definitely recommend watching the original films instead but I suppose technically the best thing to do would be to skip the whole franchise at this point. It’s difficult to pull off a zombie film as it is and I don’t think these will ever be the ones to buck the trend. At least there is an after credits scene to help set up the sequel and in general there are a lot of ways you can continue with the series but we’ll see what they actually want to do for the next adventure. Hopefully they get a little more out there with the next one.

Overall 1/10

Woman in Hiding Review

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It’s time for an old noir thriller. I felt like this one was a bit weaker than the average Noir title thanks to the main character in a lot of ways although it’s not like the main villain was all that great either. So it’s a team effort there but at the same time it is still a good movie which is the important part. There’s enough to enjoy here without issues and it will keep your attention.

The film starts off with Deborah deciding that she is through with Selden. The guy basically never comes by to see her. It’s apparently been over 6 months since he effectively ghosted her so she’s going to move to New York. Selden makes some weak excuses but she won’t have any of them. She knows deep in her heart that she has made the right move and settling for this guy would be doing herself a disservice. Her father has everything set up and so she goes home to get ready to pack. Unfortunately Selden runs in later on and explains that her father tripped and died in a crazy accident. He’s also back in love with her so she quickly marries him. Unfortunately this was part of his plan and now he owns the mill.

He threatens her to not leave him or try anything or he will take her down for good. So Deborah waits until night fall to make a break for it but gets into a sabotaged car and crashes. This does allow her to fake her own death but Selden is too prepared and stays on her tail. Surely switching states and names would be enough right? Well she meets another guy that she falls for and what she doesn’t know is that there’s a reward out for her. Uh oh……

So as you can probably guess I have quite a few issues with Deborah in particular here. She just seems way too easy which how she falls for these men. In fact the entire plan only works because she’s always falling in love so easily. (Which as we know when you fall in love too easily then the feelings aren’t all that deep) I don’t get how she let herself marry Selden after it was clear that he didn’t care about her the first time. I won’t fault her for not realizing that he murdered her father since that’s a lot more obvious for the viewer than the character but what she should have definitely realizes was that he just wanted to run the company and she was a means to an end. The fact that she never even suspected that makes her look absolutely terrible.

It took actual proof in front of her face that he was cheating on her for her to finally see the light. Then, in the days before internet you’d think it would be easy to stay out of hi gaze once you’re out of town right? Well it could have been easy if she had kept to herself and not taken chances but starting to like another guy? Cmonnnnnnnn, it just shouldn’t work that fast. She falls into every trap and just makes this adventure a whole lot harder than it needs to be.

I didn’t even like the second guy either. So Keith is someone who just wants to have a good time and he likes her but the guy isn’t the best at listening. Deborah basically spells out the situation to him but he chooses to sell her out anyway. I have to imagine that deep down part of it was for the money but either way it’s a bad look because she had warned him several times that she was being pursued and was obviously terrified. Somehow he took that in the other way to mean that she actually was crazy and the guy over the phone was the one who could be trusted.

He put her in so much danger that I don’t care how sorry he was about it afterwards, there’s no way I can picture her staying with him after that. You’d think that she would be completely traumatized at that point and would prefer sticking it out on her own. Meanwhile the main villain wasn’t the smartest either. He could have handled the situation with Patricia so much better if he wanted to keep the company. Additionally if he wanted to stop Deborah in the opening scene there were much better ways to do it than sabotaging a car and hoping that she didn’t survive. There are so many ways that the plan could have backfired even outside of the way that it backfired in this plan. The guy just wasn’t smart.

Speaking of characters making mistakes, we’ve also got Patricia who makes a lot of mistakes. So Selden nearly murders her in the opening scene and ditched her for money immediately yet she continues to like him for no real reason. It’s clear that he is just using her and that he’s insane but later she tries to act shocked about it. There’s no way you can believe her and I don’t see how she can even believe herself. It just makes her look even worse. If you’re going to be a backstabbing villain then you have to own that but trying to play it both ways and gain some sympathy will never work.

So in the end, what keeps this from being a stronger Noir title is that I didn’t really like any of the characters. They were all really annoying the whole time and kept on holding each other back. Deborah should have escaped easily once she made it out of the car, Selden never should have let it get to that point, Keith never should have sold her out, and Patricia should have never thought that she could trust Selden. They all kept on making mistake after mistake which was annoying but at least the core story was still engaging. This is a thriller that keeps you wondering what will happen next especially sine it’s hard to guess what the characters will mess up next.

Overall, If this sounds like your cup of tea then you should check it out. There’s always room for more thrillers out there right? If this sounds like it might be a bit of a slog, then it’s time to shift gears back onto a more iconic one. At the very least this film will remind you that if you intent to hide or fake your death then you need to really stay out of the limelight entirely. That absolutely means no falling in love for a while I’m afraid.

Overall 6/10

An Eye for an Eye Review

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

It’s time for a revenge story. Sort of like John Wick but this film does balance in some humor the whole time as well and it can be difficult to balance out those two tones. I will say to the film’s credit, it did a pretty good job with the two of them. I was pretty satisfied the whole time at least on a tonal level although the film as a whole I wouldn’t say was all that great.

The movie starts with Sean and his partner getting ready to finally complete this big undercover drug case that they have been on for a very long time. It’s been a really grueling mission the whole time but things are looking up. Unfortunately it turns out to be a set up and Sean’s partner is murdered while he barely manages to stay alive. So what’s going on here, who set them up? It’s hard to find out because Captain Stevens on the police force is blaming Sean for everything so Sean quits. He isn’t able to stay out of the situation for long though as his partner’s girlfriend is murdered after calling Sean about a lead she had. Now Sean will have to team up with her father James who happens to have been his old coach. Can they uncover the truth behind all of this?

If it was just a matter of beating everyone up then that would certainly be easier but the main problem here is actually figuring out who the big villain is first. There are a lot of players involved so you can bet that there are a ton of coverups and misdirects as well. Sean gets lucky more times than not. He’s a great fighter but I wouldn’t call him a detective so it’s fortunate that Linda and her colleague Heather managed to pick up most of the pieces. Linda even came close to escaping but unfortunately let her guard down at the end.

As the main hero I would say Sean is a solid main character. It can be annoying how he gets knocked out at times but since most of the movie is about him absolutely dominating whole squads of villains I can let it slide. The one point in particular that made me shake my head though was when he was face to face with the guy who murdered Linda and then allowed himself to be downed in a single blow. You just can’t let that kind of thing happen to you. Otherwise I did enjoy all of the fight scenes. The movie did a good job with the choreography and showing how Sean was just on a completely different level.

At the same time he loses some points for not treating the situation with the level of urgency that you would expect here. There are murders going on and everything is real shady right now yet he has time for a romance? The romance here feels really rushed, forced, and unnecessary as you’d expect. There’s just no room for that right now and it would have been better if that was something that could have been a plot to be started as the credits roll. “The danger is over and the world is saved, now we can discuss the future.” Something like that would be completely reasonable.

So the same is true for Heather and even more so in a way because she’s currently being targeted by the villains and unlike Sean, it’s not like she can fight. They already broke into her house once early on so she needs to keep her priorities straight. One guy who is not good about priorities has to be Captain Stevens. I did think he handled the whole situation poorly at the beginning with being so hard on Sean when the operation fumbled. I don’t know how he actually figured he could blame it on the lead. His reasoning was shaky at best.

To an extent I think it’s because the film was trying to convince us that maybe he was the murderer. A nice attempt I suppose but you have to handle that with a little more subtlety otherwise he’s just unreasonable. James was a unique character because at first you figure he’s going to be the tough mentor type character who is always ready for action but instead he spends every scene getting absolutely humiliated. The guy loses almost all of his fights but still talks tough afterwards. After a point it’s clear that he is a comedic character so that helps but at first I was definitely astonished.

In a way it’s realistic though as you probably can’t fight so well when you’re really old despite what most films would have you believe. So I was not expecting the character’s story to play out the way that it did but it worked out well enough. Again, maybe he should be taking things a little more seriously considering what happened to his daughter but after a point you have to just decide if you can roll with the fact that the movie is going for a light comedic tone to offset the dark moments or not. I think some of the scenes could have been timed better but ultimately I was mainly okay with it.

Ultimately the actual main villain here is okay but more on the forgettable side. He can’t fight or anything and has to rely on the hired help to save the day. That doesn’t go so well for him once Sean enters the building and it’s why you always want to be able to fight. He does have the classic hostage trip at the ready which is a decent equalizer but in the end that will usually just stall for time. His right hand man is fun enough as well. The guy is fairly unassuming but can fire a gun as well.

The movie’s twists work well enough. There’s enough to keep you guessing the whole time. The story itself was okay but I couldn’t really get into it a ton. You have drugs being moved and conspiracies and all but it felt more like the basic outline of a plot to start up the fights rather than it being fully developed. Like if the villains didn’t make so many large moves then they may not have been in so much trouble. Kidnapping Linda would have bought them way more time than murdering her. Since they had a mole within the police they could have made so many more moves over time rather than waiting until the end. There were limitless opportunities to bump off Sean quietly as well.

Ultimately it feels like one of those movies that isn’t as clever as it thinks that it is the more you actually think about it. I imagine you’re mainly here for the fights anyway though which are fun but I would have liked something more to support it. The film also didn’t sell me on the various flashbacks we would get every now and again to show Sean’s rage at losing his partner. It felt a bit overplayed by the end and just wasn’t as effective as it could have been. Throw in the fanservice romance scenes and this film doesn’t stand the test of time.

Overall, It’s not a bad movie but I wouldn’t say it’s very good either. It’s a forgettable thriller amidst a genre that is filled with many better ones. The revenge genre can be hit or miss depending on how edgy the writers want to approach it. This time they decided to take a more upbeat approach which is interesting but it does make Sean look a bit like a jerk at times. There are some liens that I found to be pretty funny during the movie though. It had a good sense of humor and the fights did live up to the hype. So in the end I would say to check it out if you really like a good battle but the story leaves much to be desired.

Overall 5/10

Apology for Murder Review

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It’s time for a very old school noir mystery thriller type of film. This is one of those titles where you probably won’t have much sympathy for the guy who is being strung along since he ultimately makes all of the wrong choices. So you’re waiting for the cops to nab them. It’s a good film with solid pacing and so you’ll have fun here. It’s also fairly short so it finishes quickly.

The movie starts off with explaining to us that Toni and her husband are not on good terms. She married him for the money and he finally figured this out. It’s a pretty rough deal for the guy who is already busy enough as it is trying to get richer. Toni decides to enlist the help of a guy named Kenny by promising to love him forever. So the guy murders her husband for her and now Toni just has to dump the guy and move on. The thing is, the cops have found out about the murder and Kenny is dangerously close to losing his nerve. Particularly since his boss is the one investigating the case and always gets his man. Is Toni going to have to extend the body count a little?

So the reason you can’t feel bad for Kenny here is because he did flat out murder her husband so that makes him a villain right from the jump. No matter what happens after that, no normal person would just go and commit murder like this. Second of all, Toni was still married and Kenny knew it so getting together with her is a big no no. The guy is then willing to let an innocent person be stuck with the murder rap instead of him. So what this all boils down to is a super selfish guy who will do whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants. Not exactly a hero right?

Not even close to one! Especially since if Toni had actually turned out to like him, he would have really had no regrets. Everything that happens later on is really because she’s not very smart about picking her moments and also isn’t great at playing pretend. If she just kept up the act even to the very minimum of assuring Kenny that she couldn’t wait for them to run off together then she would have been good. Instead she basically tells him to his face every time that she only cares about the money.

Even then Kenny doesn’t really do anything about this until he actually sees her with another man but anyone who at least had a little respect for himself would have made a move well before then so she really got lucky here. Kenny just doesn’t have any real smarts about him and so you’re waiting for his downfall. Naturally Toni’s just a bad here. Aside from being really bad at manipulating everyone, she is the true brains behind the operation. In that respect you could definitely say that she is the biggest villain of the bunch. Without her a lot of these things wouldn’t have happened in the first place and it goes without saying that she is very unrepentant about the whole thing.

The best character here by far is McKee. The guy tries hard to get to the truth of things the whole time and never stops even when Kenny keeps throwing subtle digs at the guy. It does take him a while to realize exactly what’s going on but in part it’s because he was hoping to find a different answer so you can’t really blame him. He was still the most useful member of the cast by far and did good work.

The writing in the film is pretty good overall. Even if most of the characters can be really annoying, I wouldn’t call that bad writing. It just means that those characters are suckers the whole time and that can happen in real life too which is why it can be realistic. Toni was certainly able to bend a lot of her guys to her will, it’s rather depressing when you think about it but a reminder to always be careful that you are of sound mind when making a big decision. Also if someone tells you to commit a crime like murder, it’s a good idea not to do that.

As mentioned the film is really short which is also why the cast is so small. It’s a bit over an hour so that’s enough time to get the murder in and then jump us to the after effects. A good chunk of it is about McKee getting closer and closer to the truth while Kenny tries to slow things down or just generally panics some more. It’s a solid game of cat and mouse there. If it was longer maybe we could have thrown in a few more characters but the balance works well enough. It won’t rise up to become one of the top Noir titles or anything like that but it is engaging the whole time and made for a good watch.

Overall, I’d call this a fairly safe Noir title. It has a compelling story but isn’t really taking any risks. There aren’t really any twists to worry about this time and the story plays out in a surprisingly straight forward manor. Probably the most straight forward that I’ve seen in the genre. I’d say this probably does make it have less rewatch value than another title but on that initial watch I don’t see you having any issues. I’m not totally sure I get what the title was going for though, I would have probably picked something else to draw in the crowds.

Overall 7/10

Bloodfist II 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

All right it’s time to jump back into the world of Bloodfist! I have to say it’s impressive just how different this film is from the first one. It may as well not even be a sequel to be honest since it laughs in the face of the first one with Jake’s character development but hey that’s how it goes right? It definitely makes its share of mistakes and so it won’t be another film to be remembered.

The movie starts with Jake winning a big tournament but he murdered his opponent and so he retires from fighting. He has now fallen into all of the vices including paying a lady of the night when he gets a call from an old friend who’s in a jam. He hasn’t seen this guy in ages and the call is the shadiest thing I’ve ever seen so Jake quickly decides to come along where he is beaten up by a group of thugs. He has been kidnapped along with a bunch of the world’s strongest fighters. They are all being taken to an island to fight against humans who have been enhanced with a drug that prevents them from feeling pain while also increasing their physical abilities. Can Jake get out of this or is he doomed?

All right the most disappointing thing here is the fact that the concept for the story is really good! You can’t help but get hyped for something like this because it guarantees a whole lot of action. It’s a classic case of skills vs physical abilities here. These guys may be amped up but the main characters have the edge in fighting technique which you would assume would be enough to take the lead. The problem is breaking the habit of stopping once you have your opponent down because you need to finish them off.

The actual tournament is pretty fun although I think it could have been a bit more balanced. For the most part just about all of the heroes were getting completely destroyed by the fighters and I’m not sure how much I buy that. I get that these guys weren’t rookies or anything but the top level pros should have done a lot better. The place is rigged of course so the winners would quickly get jumped and pummeled by everyone but that should have been necessary more times than it was.

Of course the film does get quite violent here with each fighter meeting rather painful ends. There are more survivors than I expected there to be which is a silver lining for the heroes but yeah they get put through the wringer. At least I don’t question why they would enter such a tournament this time since they were all forced into it. It’s the best explanation for why you would enter a tournament where almost everyone is guaranteed to be murdered. Also since it’s life or death, characters do grab guns and whatever they can which absolutely makes sense. Why stick to hand to hand when the whole thing is rigged anyway right?

One of the plots where the film drops the ball is with Mariella though. So she is the daughter of the main villain and gets beaten up whenever a setback happens. It’s really explained to us quite vividly that her life here is awful and filled with abuse. So you’d expect she wouldn’t have any sympathy for the villains right? Like I can get her betraying the heroes since she is afraid of what will happen if they lose but if the villains go down then that’s fine right? Instead she actually seems concerned and saddened by what happens to the main villain and you’re just shaking your head.

She should be absolutely cheering by that point. He had her publicly beaten and humiliated and yet she isn’t filled with anger at what’s going on? We also find out that she can fight later on around the mid point of the film which would have really helped her in a lot of the early scenes….yeah the writing here wasn’t great to say the least. Most of the villains are also annoying and can’t really fight. They just use their status and cheap shots to beat everyone up.

The strongest fighter was probably the traitor Vinny who also only got as far as he did due to cheap shots. In a fair fight he was not going to stand a chance against Jake and he knew it. Jake could be annoying here as well though because the guy is clearly a top tier fighter but falls for the easiest traps imaginable. At one point he is warned numerous times that Vinny is evil which should have been absolutely obvious from the jump, but at least when he realized that the whole phone call was a ruse right?

Well somehow he doesn’t put the pieces together and loses in the most sucker punch-ish way possible. He just turns the corner and gets knocked out. It’s not the only time he gets beaten up either and even when he’s winning, Jake doesn’t push the advantage and runs off. It’s all just pretty annoying because with his skill level he should be doing way better. By the time he gets serious, a ton of characters have already died. It’s an odd case where you don’t feel like he’s in a ton of danger most of the time and yet you know that everyone around him is doomed because he won’t do anything.

You definitely get Mortal Kombat vibes from the film and can see the potential but it just didn’t work. I’d also argue the film could have stood to have started the tournament earlier so that way there is time for more of the heroes to win one round before they get taken out by the higher ranking fighters. I haven’t seen a ton of team vs team films in the martial arts genre yet so that would have been a lot of fun but it’s relegated to the end. I will say that the fights have at least improved since the first film though. The film definitely gets that credit at least.

Overall, Bloodfist II has some fun ideas but still holds itself back. The random scene of Jake having an affair while he is down in the dumps was wildly bad but once we get on the island we get a lot of fights. The main heroine’s plot is fumbled though and we needed more battles. As with the first film, it will scratch the itch of being a solid action film with a lot of fighting but there’s not much beyond that and ultimately I would say you’ll want to pick a different movie to watch instead. For now this is still not touching Mortal Kombat which is the golden standard for tournament films. We need more titles like that.

Overall 4/10

Bloodfist Review

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This review is 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

Time for one of those action packed martial art films! Bloodfist has some good moments to be sure and while the action scenes aren’t quite as dynamic as a lot of the other action titles I’ve seen, they work well enough. The main problem here really just comes from the fact that the film tends to get distracted by other elements which are not even needed.

The movie starts with one guy preparing to throw a fight as expected but his opponent is just rubbing it in too much. This causes the fighter to stop holding back and he claims victory. Unfortunately the mafia don’t like that and so after he leaves the venue, drunk and out of sorts…he is quickly overwhelmed in a fight and murdered. We then cut to his brother Jake who finds out about this and decides to avenge him. The local cops are not very helpful but a guy named Kwong explains that there is a big tournament coming up and if Jake enters he will be able to fight the murderer.

Jake is already a strong fighter but is he really able to handle this? Kwong will train him but is not thrilled with Jake constantly getting distracted by all his flirting with Nancy. Kwong tells him time and time again that this will weaken Jake but he doesn’t care. Unfortunately this is easily the weakest part of the film. Jake is here to avenge his brother so it’s true that he really doesn’t have time to be messing around like this. Shouldn’t he be focused on training to the max and winning? Everything else can come in afterwards.

The romance scenes just drag on and on. Additionally the film is going for easy clicks with fanservice scenes that kept the TV censors pretty busy the whole time. These moments don’t add to the film at all and are clearly just here for those reasons. Once we get to the fights then at least there’s more to focus on. Now the film does get extremely predictable by this point. You know that Jake’s friend Baby is absolutely going to get wrecked in the fight but the film decides to go a little extra and make things rough for his girlfriend as well. The worst part is it’s partially Jake’s fault that she gets taken out when he jumps in to de-escalate things.

In this tournament nobody cares about murder or anything like that so it’s not like Chin Woo is disqualified or anything. It just reminds you how crazy all of the characters have to be to even think about entering this thing. You’re putting yourself in a position where the villain can legally torture you. Even if you’re absolutely fanatical about fighting this seems like a really bad idea to me. The film definitely does get rather violent during the matches. Not always in a bloody way to be honest but sometimes just with the explicit bone snapping and extra hits after the fight was already over.

You can definitely feel the pain there. Chin Woo is a very generic main villain though. The guy is strong and ruthless…but that’s about the only character traits to the guy. The film didn’t bother giving him more than that and I guess I don’t blame the title because there wouldn’t be much reason to do so. Most of the characters here are on the two dimensional side. They’re filling out classic character traits to keep the story moving. Nancy is basically just the love interest, Baby is the friend who will inevitably be crushed, Jake is the MC, etc.

The only one who actually has a lot of depth to him is Kwong. The film handles him really well and his role is bigger than you’d expect. He’s not just the old mentor who is super good at fighting and always ready to train a new fighter. This guy is very important and active in the story which was a good idea on the film’s part. I’d even go as far as to say that Kwong is a highlight in the title overall and helps to enhance the movie. You definitely couldn’t say that about just anyone.

Bloodfist also has a really good climax. I dare say that it even tops the actual final battle of the tournament both in choreography as well as location. It just feels like more of a true fight and I always like when the fighters take the battle out of the ring by the end. As I mentioned earlier, the fights aren’t exactly top tier despite the true skills of the actors. It doesn’t have the right camera angles and dynamics to take things to the next level. That said, they are still good fights and there is a good amount of them. If you take away the subplot romance and the extra fanservice scenes then this film would have actually been a good one.

There’s just no reason to go to the strip club and it’s a sign that the writers were not confident in their own abilities. I’d also argue that the writing holds things back a bit like Jake not always acting as urgently as he should be considering the stakes. So this will always be in the shadow of better fighting films like Mortal Kombat and Rocky. I don’t see this one quite becoming as well known or making a comeback. It was big enough to get a bunch of sequels of course but it’s not a true A tier contender.

Overall, If you like action and want to see a bunch of fights then you should check this one out. It is very straight forward about including a ton of action and what you see is what you get. It’s not trying to do anything fancy and the execution isn’t great but I could see it fitting the bill if you just want some action. Unfortunately for Bloodfist there are just way too many other action films to check out if I wanted a quality action film. So I have to give this one a thumbs down and keep it moving. We’ll see how the sequel fares.

Overall 4/10

The Evil of Frankenstein Review

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Well this film is definitely back to what you expect to see when you watch a Frankenstein film and I mean that in all the worst ways possible. The writing makes no sense and everyone is out of character. I won’t even talk about the continuity since this just ignores everything anyway but I don’t get why this is such a downgrade. In the last film Frankenstein was a stable genius but in this one he just looks like a sucker who has no idea what to do. He has fallen so far that it’s crazy. He really is a different character here.

The movie starts with Frankenstein being sloppy so he and Hans are run out of town. They manage to escape to a small circus where nobody recognizes them but Frankenstein is saddened to learn that his old home has been completely looted and the local guy in charge has taken all of his possessions. Frankenstein makes a big scene so now the cops are aware that he’s here. He does some more running and confronts the guy again only for the cops to defeat him once more. A local girl saves him and that’s when it turns out that the monster is still alive and just trapped in ice. Frankenstein frees him and uses a local hypnotist named Zoltan to wake the beast up. The problem? Zoltan now has full control of the monster. Frankenstein really messed up this time.

A lot of my issues just come from the fact that Frankenstein is no longer a genius at all. He makes the absolute worst mistakes over and over and over again and there’s no reason for it. Why make such a big deal about his material possessions and his ring? I guarantee that the old Frankenstein didn’t care about these things. He was cold and calculating, not overly emotional like this guy is. He continues sabotaging himself for the whole film and looks so bad. I also can’t stress enough how bad it was for him to be getting blackmailed by Zoltan.

Zoltan is a drunk who was being kicked out by the cops and he’s overwhelming Frankenstein?? Come onnnnnnnn. The fact that Frankenstein didn’t see this coming is also pretty bad since he saw Zoltan in action earlier. He knows exactly how hypnotism works so then he should have known that the monster would be listening to him. So Frankenstein really brings down the film quite a bit. His partner Hans also seems rather useless in this film. In the last one he had enough intelligence to hold his own with Frankenstein but in this case that’s no longer impressive since they have both fallen so far.

The girl was a reasonable character that you actually felt bad for. She definitely had a hard life and I don’t totally get what the purpose of her character was. She ends up helping Frankenstein a whole lot by taking him to the cave where he found the monster…but why was she really here? It felt like the film wasn’t even sure and in a way I guess you may be wondering why it matters. She is in the film so it doesn’t really matter why she’s there right? I guess I just can’t put my finger on it but she felt like a character who had a bigger role in the script and scenes got cut out of something. I dunno maybe that’s just me.

Meanwhile Zoltan is not one of the better villains. The guy gets control over a monster and the first thing he thinks to do is send it into town to steal money? Shouldn’t you be at least a little subtle about this? Once the cops start shooting and all then it’s going to be all over, monster or not. Use a little tact at least. Then the guy gets greedy and ultimately commands too much so it’s over for him. Yeah nobody’s very smart here. The smartest character was probably the head of the cops with how many times he caused Frankenstein to run away. I respected that guy.

For miscellaneous issues, the film reverts back to animal violence. Of course it does right? Why would we possibly need that….but yeah it’s pretty awful. We see the monster eating animals and then Frankenstein runs in front of a gun and gets shot. I’m telling you he looked soooo bad in this film. I also don’t think it was necessary to get such a large rewritten flashback of the original film. I think the writers knew that the current story didn’t have enough depth to it for a feature length presentation but then in that case maybe make a whole different plot? Cmonnnnnnnn.

Okay let me cut the film a little slack. We don’t get much of the body horror this time with limbs being taken off and all of that. So we’re trading poisons a bit and in that case I’ll take this poison over the other one. That’s pretty much all the solace I can give at this point. There just isn’t much I can say about the film at all in terms of positives. It’s not interesting and this time we don’t have the good writing from the last film. It basically ditched everything that at least made the franchise salvageable. It’s one of the weakest films I would say completely. The first film is still worse with the kid getting brutally murdered but that’s a low bar to match.

Overall, This film had no real thinking behind it. It fumbled the ball almost immediately and just could not be saved after a point. The film annoyed me just looking at it and that’s saying something. It just kept on going from bad to worse and the worst part is that a good amount of it could have been improved if Frankenstein at least looked decent. Sure, it would still have a bad score but at least the film would have had something to support it. Without even a decent main character it was doomed from the start. I definitely recommend staying far away from this film. Frankenstein films are definitely well over the hill.

Overall 1/10