Tag Archives: Thriller

War of the Worlds (2025) Review

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Sometimes you end up watching a film where you wonder what the thought process was. Did anyone think the movie would really be a success or were they just getting the film out as a way to say they did something? Well, this one is really a trip. The writing doesn’t make sense, the plot progression is odd, and the film plays out as a big parody. That said….this is why it actually succeeds. If you watch this as a parody comedy, it’s surprisingly solid with how the characters act so genuine with their odd behavior. You’ll get rather hyped up while watching it. Trust me, this is a film that you won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The movie begins by introducing us to Will. This guy is a pretty big shot within the Department of Homeland Security. He’s so high up that he can hack into any satellite across the planet and has unrestricted access to people’s phones and computers. He can essentially do anything. One character tries to warn him that the government is always watching and Will powerfully responds that he knows…because he is the government! Will has no regard for people’s privacy and believes that safety comes above all else. No worries though…power won’t corrupt him.

Well, one day the Earth is invaded by aliens and so the government needs Will in order to coordinate a response. They’re going to have to wait though as Will’s top priority is taking care of his two kids. His wife passed away a while back so this is what he has to do. Unfortunately his son is a big conspiracy guy so Will tunes him out and his daughter Faith is always running around and getting into trouble. Will is going to need to use all of his hacking skills to keep her safe but with him being busy…what will America be able to do about all of this?

So like I said this feels like a full parody. For example Will has more power than would be humanly possible here. This film is a conspiracy fan’s best dream because if you did actually have people running around with this level of tech, it would be bad. Then you have the fact that Will is basically blowing people off constantly to help his kids when lives are at stake. Will also takes time to click on every single pop up as news reports keep coming in.

As one point the government asks him for a plan of action and he goes on a 5 minute ramble about how we’re being attacked by aliens from outer space. The sentence is rather redundant but also they already knew that. They wanted to know what to do about it and he basically just says to fight back. Very nice. I do think it’s pretty realistic that some government agents are going to choose family over duty but the film is just so blatant here that it’s hilarious.

You want fake deaths for shock value? One character named Sandra dies around 4-5 times during the movie and always shows up like nothing happened. Nobody tends to even be all that surprised to see her. We get fake death scares for Faith and Dave at different points as well, even one or two for Faith’s boyfriend. The film loves throwing these in all the time along with some scary music to get to you. It may not be subtle, but hey it’s definitely memorable.

Will is basically stuck in the computer room for the whole film so all he really gets to do is look shocked for most of the film. He takes his glasses of and puts them back on at numerous points during the film. Each time makes it even better than the last. Additionally, he does try to leave at one point and has to give up when the doors were locked. That was a fun little suspense scene.

No worries though, we’ve also got a really fun main villain. This guy is as over the top as can be. He talks tough to his bosses about how he’s going to do whatever he wants and then totally gets away with it for ages until the film’s climax. He has absolute confidence and when Will approaches him about this, the guy takes it in stride. He just laughs about how long it took Will to catch on. I like when a villain keeps his composure like that. Sure he’s insane, but he’s not going to just back down on his convictions.

Will definitely is the kind of character who is slow on the uptake though. After the aliens are attacking and things are going crazy, he still refuses to talk to his son Dave. Even once things get crazier and crazier which points to Dave having some valid points, Will doesn’t want to hear it. He’s stubborn to the end. While the end of the movie gives him some character development, it’s also crazy how Will was so readily willing to hack into his family’s devices and completely ignore their need for privacy.

It’s like he just didn’t register that this was a bad thing at all. Meanwhile Faith was okay but not the smartest character considering that they built her up as a genius. She nearly dies by pulling an object out of her leg even though it was already bleeding a lot and in the car she goes on a speech about how Will has no power. Pretty ironic when he remote hacked a Tesla car from his room to save her live and drive her to a security checkpoint. Maybe that speech could have been left for later on.

Initially I thought her boyfriend was going to be useless the whole time because he would never show up to help her when the chips were down. Turns out he is just really slow but once he’s there, the guy does decent enough. His main asset is that the guy works at Amazon so he has a ton of high tech equipment at the ready. Without all of that, the characters would have been doomed. As for Dave, he may have been the best supporting character. For once I can’t even blame him for not telling Will enough because Will seriously wouldn’t let the guy talk at all.

I did like Sandra as well. When she wasn’t constantly dying, she was trying to sound the alert on what was going on but Will would just blow her off the whole time. It’s not like they could have done a whole lot in the span of an hour or so but at least she was trying. Meanwhile the government was mainly helpless without Will. They’d be waiting at the meetings for him to show up and were mainly panicking. It was nice to get some army fight scenes where they were doing well against the Tripods but the aliens are too powerful. They just got a bit overconfident.

The special effects aren’t half bad. The terrible camera work hurts for sure but the actual lasers are good. Make no mistake, the script is definitely better for a comedy than a thriller but at least it’s not terrible either. This is the kind of film you will have fun with. If you think too hard about it, I’m betting you will find some serious plot holes though. It’s just that kind of title. It’s not worried about things like that and is just trying to make for a good time. Ultimately I’m not even all that opposed to such a concept. It makes enough sense to me.

Overall, I’d be up for a sequel to this one. Keep it as cheesy as this one with the heroes fighting off another invasion or something like that. Maybe Will’s development could be learning that things aren’t always ultra black and white. He’s super against the government now to the point where he’s making threats against them but perhaps we’ll see how he actually needs their help in the next film. Would doing another alien invasion film feel redundant? Nahhhhh, I trust this movie to handle it well.

Overall 7/10

Love and Monsters Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 7/10

Next of Kin Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Child’s Play (1972) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 3/10

Disaster on the Coastline Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 7/10

Live and Let Die Review

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It’s time for another James Bond adventure. The Bond films do tend to be on the weaker side next to other secret agent kind of films but occasionally they end up surprising you. Unfortunately this is not one of those times. The film can be rather out there at times which is a nice change of pace for the series but it still does run into every one of the usual issues. As a result, it’s a film that won’t end up ranking all that high for you and instead will leave you hoping that the next one will be better.

The movie starts with some secret agents getting bumped off with ease so James Bond is called back into action once more. His mission is to go to New York and find out what is going on. There are ties to the New Orleans overlord Kananga who is head of a rather powerful operation. Something that could even end up overpowering M16. If Bond doesn’t stop this conspiracy soon, it’ll be all over for humanity.

One funny thing about this film is how Bond is 2 steps behind the villains at every turn. EACH TIME Bond thinks he has a lead or is about to get the drop on the villains, we find out that they were aware of it the entire time. He is captured numerous times and has to be bailed out on many occasions. Only luck and plot armor are enough to keep him safe during all of this. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Bond was a total amateur in this adventure.

Bond walks into a villain stronghold with no plan and so he is immediately defeated. Another time he sits down at their restaurant and falls into a trap. He falls into the same trap a second time later. These are only a few of his missteps. The villains really should have just bumped him off at that point but they do love their theatrics.

The villains also have the arrogance of not keeping their fortune teller Solitaire guarded at all times. She has the special ability to read the future so long as she never gets intimate with a man. Bond’s whole thing is that he has no moral compass when it comes to love but even if the villains didn’t know that, why wouldn’t her house constantly be guarded? How are you a pivotal player in a giant terrorist racket and yet you just go back to your home like it’s nothing after a mission? This naturally ends up in disaster for the villains.

Solitaire isn’t a particularly good heroine though as she relies too much on the cards. She allows them to completely dictate her destiny and yes, even her love life. The cards are also total trolls since they gave her an answer that would mean losing her powers no matter how you slice it. So in a way you could say that she never had any real chance of winning here. There is another heroine named Rosie who isn’t particularly likable either. Another easy score for Bond and someone who never really gets to prove her skills on the field.

It’s no wonder why all the other agents are constantly dying. Bond seems to e the only capable one around. That’s also a pretty sad thing since as this film shows, he isn’t all that great. He’s distracted too easily by women an doesn’t know how to avoid any traps. He is not the kind of guy that you want to rely on to save you. It’s just not going to work out very well in your favor.

The humor in the film can be pretty decent at times. When a character named Sheriff Pepper shows up, the film briefly becomes a full on comedy. The change in tone is rather dramatic but it works out well. The chase scene may be a bit too drawn out but it was nice to see the sheriff show up to yell at everybody. He really had a lot of confidence and so it made it easy for you to root for him.

I also appreciated the laughing villain who seemed to have some real supernatural abilities. He was tough to deal with and just kept on coming after Bond. This film delving into the supernatural like that also helped to increase the stakes, it’s just a shame that the villains couldn’t have been more entertaining otherwise. I also don’t really care about the tribe subplot with all the snakes. I did enjoy the New Orleans parade that would be used to bump off the heroes without anybody suspecting anything. That was a scene that I thought was actually super clever and both times it was used was really effective.

So if the Bond films could just stay away from the consistently terrible romances there might actually be something here. Have him act a little more professional. Meanwhile the opening credits song should be used more for total hype than for the fanservice. The songs sometimes aren’t even all that bad themselves but the images will have you cringing. The writing for the film isn’t all that bad either but everyone feels a little too easy. It’s at its best when the film is trying to be about the secret agent stuff. The gag where the driver was in on the whole trick was really good. That was an effective moment without a doubt and one of the big twists about the villain was also good. I would just say that for large portions of the film it didn’t feel like there was a ton of plot here. Certainly less so than in other films because this one got so ambitious with everything going on that it wasn’t always focused.

Overall, Live and Let Die is not one of Bond’s better films. It still has all the fanservice and one night affairs as the older films but without a lot of cool villains or action scenes to try and combat that. In fact, don’t expect Bond to be doing much of any fighting for most of this title. It can be funny to see Bond losing just about every encounter he does have without even putting up a fight but the actual plot isn’t nearly as interesting as it could have been. Ultimately this is a huge demerit to the film. I would recommend checking out some of the latest Bond films instead of this one. It simply doesn’t age well.

Overall 4/10

Puppet Master II Review

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The Puppet Master is one of those films where you know it’s going to be bad right out of the gate. The question becomes, just how bad is it really? If it’s only normal levels of bad then it could be a lot worse but if it’s terrible like the first film then you’re in trouble. Well, I can safely say that this one is in the terrible category. There isn’t much good to say about the film and ultimately it doesn’t justify the purpose of having a sequel in the first place. There aren’t really any new ideas and once again the characters are all losing to a bunch of tiny puppets. A true skill issue if you think about it.

After the events of the first film, the puppets go and bring the original Puppet Master back to life. Unfortunately this guy has now become looney after his death and thinks that the reincarnated version of his wife is here. We then cut to a bunch of researchers who are at the murder house to find out if psychic phenomenon is real or not. The psychic they hire definitely thinks that this is the real deal and prepares to leave but gets bumped off by the puppets. The rest of the group are also in danger now and may be picked off as well if they can’t find a way to take these puppets down. Can they actually defeat them though?

Now one thing you have to remember is that the puppets are not very powerful. They are small and weak, while also lacking any kind of true offensive capabilities. All they can really do is rely on sneak attacks. There is one exception, which is the Darth Vader looking puppet which has an active flamethrower. With this firepower it can easily destroy any opponent. Whenever a human would lose to this guy I would them a little slack. The other puppets are all much weaker though so you should be able to defeat them rather easily. Even the flamethrower isn’t too tough if you are expecting it, but the real tricky thing is if you don’t know that the weapon exists in the first place. In that case, it is definitely fair to fall beneath its overwhelming might.

The humans are all rather unlikable once again though so that’s a shame. In some ways they may not be as bad as the psychics from the first film who were all really looney but these guys can’t manage to stay focused for long either. There is a lot of flirting right out of the gate and the main characters don’t really know how to stick together against the villains. As soon as the first puppet is found (shortly after murdering someone) they should have all been on high alert. Yet, they still split up a lot.

A very mysterious guy in bandages shows up and while the heroes think he is weird, they are not overly concerned. This is now a murder scene so surely anyone who claims to live here should be a massive suspect right? I dare say that a citizen’s arrest should even be in order here. Don’t give this guy any kind of freedom or you will end up regretting it later on. The characters here aren’t the brightest but at least they aren’t actively tying each other up like in the first film so that is some progress.

A big problem that they all make it taking too long though. Like when the psychic finds out that the place is evil, she doesn’t immediately leave and instead plans to go either late at night or in the morning. Plenty of time for the puppets to take her down and unfortunately, she was unable to put up enough of a struggle to get the others involved.

Then you have the next door neighbors who are rather mean for no reason. The lady does pretty well for a little while there but then of course she ends up getting overconfident and makes a big speech before going down. This is the kind of film where you know that resistance is futile and so it does take away from the struggles. While that may be true for a lot of horror films, it is the movie’s job to try and get you to feel like there is at least some kind of chance. If you don’t think that there is any chance…well that takes the fun out of it right?

As you can expect, most of the murders are rather violent. Since the puppets are small, it takes a lot of hits to finish off the main characters and usually that means the kills are really dragged out. You’re just waiting for the film to mov on to something a bit more creative but it doesn’t happen. That’s because the movie isn’t trying to do anything too creative or subversive. It’s just going through the motions in a rather soulless way. No quality writing to help you out here.

I think if the series wants to have any chance of being better, it needs to move beyond the house in the next film. Yes, we had the next door neighbors up the road, but that barely counts and naturally the cattle started dying for the main villain’s plans which didn’t help matters. Have the puppets go into the city and then we get a war against the army. Sure it would be rather campy but that’s the case for the main movie as well. At least this could give the film some entertainment value because as it is now, it’s not even funny.

Overall, This is your average slasher from start to finish. It’s really violent with most of the characters existing only to get bumped off. It was nostalgic seeing some of the puppets from the first film but it’s not like they have grown much stronger since then. It’s still hard to take them seriously as villains at all. The whole time you are just shaking your head. I would definitely recommend giving this one a skip. There is no real reason you need to watch this movie and I doubt the sequels are really going to raise the bar all that much anyway.

Overall 2/10

Congo Review

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Congo is a film that really didn’t impress me. For starters this film doesn’t actually deal with the killer gorillas for a very long time. This is really more of a classic adventure film. A lot of time it spent showing just how frantic things can get over in the Congo and the heroes have to constantly keep alert because things can go sideways at any point. So that’s an interesting approach to be sure but you need the characters to be really likable for that and these weren’t.

The movie starts with a group managing to finally find the location that should have tons of rare diamonds and minerals within the Congo. The corporate overlord is going to be super rich now and so he is really excited but then they are all viciously destroyed by some kind of creature over there. The CEO can’t have that and so he sends Karen over there to go and finish the job before the government hears about this and closes the borders. Her best option is to hitch a ride with the talking gorilla Amy as well as his trainer Peter. Peter’s not thrilled about having her around but is basically forced into it since he doesn’t have enough money for the trip. The heroes all begin their journey but quickly find that this will be a very dangerous adventure. Can they survive?

Technically speaking I’m fine with the film being a bit of a bait and switch with this not actually involving the evil gorillas for a long while. That means less animal violence and all but it almost feels like the film can be a bit aimless at times. Yes Karen wants to get over to the site where the people died but Peter doesn’t know about this and so he’s just following Amy around. The heroes also get a ton of different setbacks throughout the film like when they are attacked at different points and have to dive out of the plane. It takes a long while to get anywhere when everyone is after them.

The film peaks near the beginning when the heroes make it to the airport and there is a big war going on with the planes being bombed. They meet their guide known as Monroe who ends up being the real MVP here. He has a lot of experience and helps them get across the worst areas. He also adds a lot of the humor to the film with his little jabs here and there. Without him I’m not even sure if the heroes would have made it off the airport. He was incredibly helpful at all times here.

Richard is probably the most pointless character of the film and you wonder why he is even here. He works with Peter but the guy is much more of a scaredy cat. He also doesn’t have any common sense like when he wants to make a break for it all of a sudden while in the truck trying to get out of occupied territory. He would have been shot as soon as he exited the truck so that would be a dumb move and he spends most of the film whining.

Herkermer is also useless for most of it but at least that is very intentional. The guy is a scam artist who is always getting in the way and causing trouble. He acts like he has a lot of money but instead what he has is a lot of ambition. He wants to get mega rich and that’s basically why he is here. The guy is certainly not ready to earn money through an honest living.

As for Peter, he’s not bad. At times he can be a little annoying as well but at least he is trying to help Amy get home for noble reasons. He’s probably the only character in the film without any kind of agenda. The rest are all after something while he’s just here for justice. That said, it wouldn’t hurt to have had a little ambition and I think keeping the diamond in the end would have been a really good idea. At least I would think so.

Karen is good under pressure and doesn’t scare easy. She may be a bit naive at times and underestimates corporate, but she still gets the job done in the end. She was a fun character to have around, and she put up with a lot of drama from Amy but stayed strong. Meanwhile Amy was a solid character here. The idea of a talking gorilla through the technology was a pretty good idea. In general, that kind of tech would be absolutely revolutionary.

Naturally the climax tends to hurt with the animal violence as the heroes have to deal with the gorillas. The film also got generally violent at random points. Not just the climax but the intro where a guy gets absolutely massacred and we even see an eye. It’s pretty brutal stuff and reminds you that this isn’t your average adventure film. Otherwise, honestly the first half of the film could have worked as a part comedy. It’s just the kind of film that you really can’t let your guard down around at all.

Not that it would help much at all since the film would run into the same animal violence issues but a better climax would have been to make this much more widespread. Have the army show up and add about 3X the amount of gorillas and make this a whole big war. It would have helped capture the threat a lot better that way and would have been an explosive way to end things. At the very least it would make sure you felt like you were getting your money’s worth on the thriller elements here.

Overall, Congo wasn’t really my cup of tea. Films about evil animals rarely are as you can’t really avoid the animal violence in those. You can probably try to work around this to an extent but it will usually be futile. It’s not like the characters were all that great either so that’s another thing to consider. If you liked Jurassic Park then this one will probably be too subdued for you and if you want an adventure film then you could do much better than this one. So all in all you have plenty of better avenues to pursue with the genres in order to have a more satisfying experience. Congo will need to remain hidden in your memories this time.

Overall 3/10

Crimson Tide 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 film about war time situations and how it can be tough to agree on a proper plan of action. The stakes have never been higher for any of the characters here and it makes for a really suspenseful watch. The story and characters are both really good and the film moves forward at a really good pace. I didn’t really have any major issues with it and was invested the whole way through.

The film starts out by explaining that a Russian extremist has taken ahold of some nuclear facilities and is threatening to fire them off if he is provoked. Captain Frank is told to assemble his troops and go underwater to set up counter measures. If ordered, he is to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike at the enemy. He picks Ron as his second in command and they head underwater. The big problem here is that communication gets knocked out early on after an order is given to attack based on certain conditions. When the conditions are met, Frank is ready to attack but Ron wants to find out more information. This threatens to tear the unity of the ship’s crew apart. What can they do about this?

The problem with a disagreement like this is that neither party is likely to back down. Too many lives hang in the balance and many will die if either one is wrong. Frank’s point is that they already have their orders and the fact that they cannot receive new ones does not mean that they abandon the old ones. Every second they wait is a second that something bad could be happening on the outside. It’s imperative that they take out Russia as soon as possible. On Ron’s side, if they attack now and the threat has already been averted, then they will be triggering a world war for no reason.

For me I would definitely side with Frank here. You have to go with the preemptive strike. It’s the whole reason you’re out here and the stakes are too high to stand back. So while he takes some rather drastic steps towards this end, they were completely justified. You just have to do this if you believe yourself to be correct. You’ll have to watch the film to see how it plays out but it’s a decision where hindsight can’t factor into it. So you have to choose a side and then just proceed with no regrets.

I imagine there will be a ton of hard feelings between the crew long after the events of the film have ended. There is quite a bit of violence here after all and that’s something you never really forget. No matter what the cause was, if you’re attacked or pushed around then you’re gonna remember it. The film develops a few of the side characters who each have to take a side by the end. One of them in particular is rather wishy washy with how he picks his sides but everyone else picks a side and sticks to it.

It also shows how easy it could be for a revolt to happen within a ship because there are so many people there with their own tasks that you can’t possibly keep track of them all. So if one guy is missing you probably won’t notice and by the time you notice 8 guys have left their posts, they’ll be in front of you with guns. You’re also completely stuck underwater so there is absolutely no escape. It has to be the scariest part of being in a submarine. I don’t even like being in a train that goes underwater for that same reason. If something happens then you’re basically doomed.

While I don’t tend to love war films, I do really like submarine stories and so that part of the balance won out. This is really a thinking man’s film where the thriller elements are in the strategy. Yes, there are some real fights here like with the enemy subs but this is still more about each character’s ideology. The top two certainly had very different ways of thinking which appears in the film right from the start. The contrast is set up really well for when the main disagreement happens.

The film does a good job of not making either one of the characters look insane either. You could probably make the case that it is leaning towards Ron as the main character here but it’s not too heavy handed. You are still able to make your decision on who you feel was right in this case. A weaker film would have definitely been throwing in not so subtle jabs the whole time.

Apparently a sequel is being worked on so it’ll be interesting to see how that one plays out. I imagine that the story will be a whole lot different for the next one. A sequel for a film like this is always going to either be hit or miss because the story doesn’t automatically lend itself to a sequel and if you don’t have too many returning characters, it will feel like they’re just borrowing the title for money. Well, we’ll come to that bridge when it happens but it will definitely be difficult to surpass this film.

Overall, Crimson Tide is a very good film. The writing is really solid and the situation feels very realistic. You never know how someone will react when a situation like this pops up and even close friends have to end up going at it. You can have as many plans and procedures as you want but when the situation actually happens, people aren’t necessarily going to listen to what is said in the book. They’re going to do what they think is right at the time and you just have to hope that it is close enough.

Overall 7/10

Ride Out for Revenge Review

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It’s time for another western! This one is about good ole fashioned revenge which can always be a tricky topic. How far do yo go in your revenge before you’re just perpetuating a never ending cycle of violence? It’s a tough call to be sure but I never tend to get upset at a character for getting their get back. In this case I’d actually say the film goes too far in making the main characters unlikable to the point where you’re absolutely rooting for the Indians. They didn’t start it so they should get to end this fight.

The movie starts with Little Wolf and his father heading into town to ask for some assistance. They are running low on supplies and are having a hard time surviving. Unfortunately Captain George is not all that broken up about that and instead tells them to get lost. In fact the government has ordered that the Indians all leave the land but they have refused to do so thus far. The Indians bring some gold in order to facilitate a deal but George allows his men to shoot the chief in the back while Little Wolf manages to get away. The bridge is burned now, the Indians will fight to the last man and get their revenge. All of this could have been avoided if George had listened to Tate, who warned against this. Unfortunately the village always makes fun of Tate for taking the side of the Indians. So now things are about to get dangerous.

So right away from the starting point here, I would totally be siding with the Indians to get their revenge. Their chief was just shot in the back. I can’t think of any country that would take their leader being assassinated without putting up a fight afterwards. It just wouldn’t make sense and that is why it’s annoying when Tate decides to go and stop them. Of course it’s not an easy decision and Tate admits as much but it’s one of the more annoying tropes that I see out there from time to time.

Person A wrongs Person B. Then when Person B goes back to fight person A, A’s friend C shows up to stop B. Yes two wrongs don’t make a right but it’s also real easy to say that when you’re on the winning side here. The Indians are fighting an uphill battle from start to finish as Little Wolf’s sister is also siding with the humans and not wanting to go down the road of violence. The notion that the Indians will eventually die in war is a valid one but you still have to try and get your revenge or else it will be a stain on your honor forever.

The main characters are also shown to be comically corrupt to really ensure you don’t feel bad for them either. After shooting the chief in the back, they all get drunk and laugh a bunch at the bar. They make fun of Tate and basically threaten him and even the kids have been indoctrinated to hate the Indians. The film’s message about hate as a disease is really clear and even by the end I would say there is no happy resolution here. That said, it still feels very unsatisfying for the Indians who don’t even come close to getting their revenge.

I’d argue that after something happens to a kid in the movie, Tate should have went straight for George and taken him out. After all he’s really to blame for what happened. The town deserves a lot of responsibility too for being sheep about the whole thing but it does start at the top. Then there is a lady who likes Tate and is super jealous of his Indian girlfriend. She is not one of the smarter characters because one way you will absolutely never get with someone is to insult his girlfriend. She never really acted in her best interests and wasn’t a subtle character at all. In fact I think she could have talked her way into going with Tate and the kid if she wasn’t so forward.

The trip is the one big plot hole of the film or I consider it to be one. Tate keeps on mentioning that the Indians will get their revenge that night and so that’s why he plans to leave with the kid right away. Then night falls…and Tate decided to leave in the morning. Really?? Why would you wait when you know that the Indians are coming? That part felt a little contrived and nonsensical. I also think the film would have been a lot better if Tate actually had left and the town had to face up to the repercussions of their actions. In this case, their complete destruction for how overconfidently they handled everything. The Indians should have returned fight away the next day to finish them off or even done the job at night. Once the weapons were taken, that was really it.

War has no victors, a lot of innocent people will get dragged into it either way. So you just let that play out with both groups destroying each other and that ends off the solemn message. The film had a bit of a somber tone throughout anyway so it would have worked just fine. The film did a lot f show don’t tell and handled the topic really effectively. While it may not have been quite as satisfying as I would have liked, it is a good all around film. Quite a few plot contrivances here and there but ultimately I didn’t have any big issues.

Overall, Ride Out for Revenge is a pretty good film. It was certainly leagues better than the last two so it was a good way to end off on the western ride. Tate also made for a good main character since we at least got one voice of reason. I could have used a few more of course but the whole one man against an army plot is a good one. The film’s message is also one of those that will always be timely since these feuds and wars are never ending. As long as humans are still walking the planet, there will always be fighting and violence.

Overall 7/10