Tag Archives: Tragedy

All Mine to Give Review

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It’s time for another emotional film that takes place around Christmas. The film doesn’t hold back with the body count and everything going on here. At the end of the day it takes a little too long to get going and the kids aren’t the most interesting characters out there. This one won’t be reaching the top of your bucket list to be sure but it is a fairly unique film.

The film starts off with Robert and Mamie arriving in America where they aim to start their new lives together. They are really on their own right now but aim to have a big family. Everything starts out pretty well as they have a lot of kids but they also start to get sick. Back then there were less medicines and antidotes so things are not looking good. Will they be able to recover from this or is their big America trip about to turn tragic? Time is not on their side so they really need to watch out here!

One thing you’ll notice right away is that the intro takes a really long time here. The film is mainly supposed to be centered around the kids but I dare say you get around halfway into the film before that actually ends up being the case. A lot of time is spent on Robert and Mamie getting used to the area which isn’t necessarily bad but since you know it won’t last, the film feels like it misplaced where the focus should be. If you ask me, they should have bumped off the parents a lot easier to really get into the heart of the story. At the same time, the first half is definitely better than the second so maybe it would have hurt things anyway.

Aside from how they get upset at each other a little too easily, Robert and Mamie were solid main characters. They did their best in a tough situation and kept on working. It’s definitely not easy to take care of a family and build a house from scratch but with the help of some nice neighbors, they did all right for themselves. The old setting may not really be my thing but it’s all written fairly well. The characters are good as well so I don’t have any big issues there.

That said, the reason the second half doesn’t work is the film gets a little too dreary. So now you’ve got a bunch of kids who are going to be taken to an orphanage where they will all be split up unless the oldest son Robbie can find a place for them. It’s definitely not an easy mission as he is also pretty young but he does his best to find a bunch of homes. It’s really fortunate that he knew a lot of the neighbors and friends over the years. It’s not something that would really be possible nowadays since people don’t know each other nearly as well except in a few areas that may still be close knit like this.

With the exception of one old lady who was constantly mean to Mamie, everyone else basically ended up being suitable candidates for the kids. Robbie may have overlooked the doctor for his age when that would have been a good pick, but otherwise he handled the situation well. The fact that the town was tempted to split them all up right before Christmas definitely made them seem very unreasonable though. How would that even be considered as a possibility? The adults would surely be able to supervise and help make sure they don’t freeze to death in the cabin without taking such a drastic step.

They made the right decision in the end which is what counts though. Just would have been nice if they were more supportive and could have helped Robbie, even discreetly. The ones who each took up a kid to stay in their residences were there when it counted though so they get some credit. Meanwhile from all of the kids, Robbie was easily the most mature and the others would have been in trouble without him. He did a really good job and if anything you wish the ending had been happier for him.

The film ends really suddenly so it’s hard to say exactly how happy or sad the ending is but I took it in more of a sad way. He basically took the martyr approach of helping everyone else out and making sure they were okay while not really doing anything for himself. So that last climb through the snow just feels like more of a defeated moment instead of a triumphant ending. That would have been a good time to show someone from the town arriving to help him out. A little more cheer in general would have been good to make this more of a fun watch. There’s no getting around all of the tragedies here based on the story but you absolutely could still try to deliver the story in a more optimistic point of view.

Overall, All Mine to Give is a film about staying strong no matter how tough the circumstances get. It makes for a good message but not a really fun film. At the end of the day you have to try and accomplish both goals and this one was unable to do so. The kids mean well but they’re just not all that interesting and so you aren’t as invested in the film as you would be if the adults were the main characters the whole time. More scenes like Robert beating up his boss would help make the film more compelling because it shows just how much effort he had to put in for the family to be accepted. Robert was a strong man who wasn’t about to be pushed around and he gave every task his best right up until the end.

Overall 4/10

Blue Giant Review

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It’s time for a story about Jazz. It’s not a music genre that I’m super familiar with to be honest. I’ve certainly heard my share of Jazz music over the years and I know the general style of it but I couldn’t break it down into any of the sub genres. Forget telling you if someone is in tune or not. So with this series would I really be able to pull that in? Eh, not really musical stuff isn’t really my cup of tea. I love listening to music but analyzing it is a bit out of my wheelhouse. That said, it’s real good stuff all the way. This isn’t a series you follow for the explosive moments or anything like that but it’s a very chill series all around.

The manga starts off by introducing us to a guy named Dai. He’s initially just your average kid trying to find his place in the world. And one day he finds it, the guy loves Jazz. He decides to be the greatest Jazz musician in the world. This is a fairly lofty goal as Jazz isn’t huge in Japan and everyone tells him its a shrinking industry. It’s also not something that you can get good at in a day. It takes years of skilled precision and timing to get good but Dai is willing to risk it all. He will pour his whole life into this, no matter how much money and time he has to sacrifice. Can Dai pull this off?

Blue Giant makes no illusions about the amount of sacrifice you have to be willing to put in to really gain ground like this. It’s almost painful seeing what Dai and his teammate Sawabe had to do for this. Sawabe basically gave up all of his growing years of hanging out with people and going to clubs to work on his piano playing for his whole life. Dai basically sacrificed his relationships and his chance to hang out with his family for this. They’ve made their decisions and stick to it no matter what. Is it worth it? Well, it all depends on how they feel because it’s not so much about the achievements here as it is that they lived their lives free of all barriers.

The series puts a lot of emphasis on how Jazz is very free music. When you do a solo, it is unscripted. You just play from the heart and play whatever you want with all your strength. Now, don’t take that too literally as it still has to sound good of course but generally speaking it’s not like they’re reading off a sheet of music. You have the main song and then the solos. Dai has a lot of raw talent as he’s great at shooting off his piece but initially he’s not so great at the sheet music so he has to put in the work.

Blue Giant is one of those series that I would say is aiming for hyper realism. Generally speaking I wouldn’t say any of the characters are super likable but none of them are bad guys. Like you wouldn’t see them in competition with any average Shonen lead who tends to be larger than life with a personality to boot. These are people you might run into down the street. You might get along and you might not. They have a lot of flaws, can be combative, and are hard to work with. At the end of the day though, you know they are serious about playing Jazz. So if you watch them on the stage you should have a good time.

Like I said before, Dai sacrifices a lot for this dream of his. I do feel like he made mistakes in how all or nothing he was about it though. Dai fully explains his rationale so it’s not like it’s a mystery or anything. Whether you agree with it or not, at least he is up front about it. Specifically I think he should have gone back home at least a little bit though or talked to the girl that he liked rather than ghosting her for ages. Although in this business, it seems like having a girlfriend probably wouldn’t have worked either way since he wants to spend all of his time practicing and studying. It’s basically an obsession for him. He lives only to play and live Jazz.

Meanwhile Sawabe is very similar but I do think he has the work life balance down a bit better. The guy plays with several bands and has grade A talent all the way. It has unfortunately caused him to be extremely arrogant the whole time though. He doesn’t have the best personality like when he was rude to some girls for no reason or denying someone an autograph. Sawabe does start to get better towards the end though. He is a fun jerk to have on the team though, he absolutely elevates the series with his rivalry with Dai. Sawabe is the only one who can really push Dai to this extent. Perhaps at home, Dai’s teacher Yui could but he can’t do anything during the show. Sawabe was the guy for this and I can’t say I liked how his character arc ended at all. That was definitely not satisfying at all.

Then we have Tamada who joins up with the crew late. He is several leagues below the main two characters since he has only been practicing for months while they’ve been doing this for years. The drum may seem simple at first glance compared to the other instruments but it does take an incredible amount of technical skill and ability. It’s not something you can learn super fast either. The series does make sure to mention that he is several tiers below even to the end but his skills do increase real fast so that he can play with the others. I give the guy props for really going after this even if by the end we do see real clearly that he doesn’t have quite the same drive as the other characters. He was nice enough to let Dai crash with him for a while.

There are also several supporting characters around although they all tend to cycle out after a bit since Dai is always on the move. We have Dai’s older brother who is a great guy. No matter how tough things were, he made sure to look after his little bro. Buying Dai a top of the line saxophone even though it meant going into debt for years was really cool. He doesn’t appear very often for sure but the actions speak very loud. Dai knows that he can always count on him no matter what which is awesome.

Then you have the teacher Yui who is a harsh critic but definitely thinks that Dai has potential. He really helps Dai a whole lot in getting started and rolling the ball over. Without him there then Dai definitely would have taken a lot longer at best or completely fizzled out at worst. You have the bar owner who let Dai and friends practice at her place which was super helpful. There is the girl that Dai liked quite a bit although he definitely messed that one up by choosing Jazz over her. Ultimately you can’t have everything.

Between volumes we get flash forwards where the characters talk about Dai and how they enjoyed meeting him. Usually I wouldn’t appreciate these fast forwards because they’re like spoilers to what is going to happen but since this is a non action series I can let it slide. It’s not as crazy as if this was Naruto or something like that. It’s also sometimes the author’s way of letting us know that a character will not be coming back. Whenever they say something like “I never saw Dai again but I can’t forget the first time I met him” then it’s curtains. A lot of these characters won’t be back and it’s interesting to keep track of that. I bet someone out there probably has a list showing which characters are confirmed to be gone or something like that.

Blue Giant is a very somber series at its core though which is fitting for Jazz. Jazz is a very somber kind of music after all that should move you and some types can even bring you to tears. Throughout the series bad things tend to happen to the characters. It’s not always dramatic things but they do add up. You have the dramatic type moments like a physical injury, the emotional ones like finding out the girl you like has moved on, and then mild ones like flunking an exam or having your instrument break. There are always setbacks and Dai has to get through them.

You are left feeling like this risky lifestyle will come back to bite him though. He can barely make enough money to survive and there is no retirement plan. Can he continue to play music when he’s in his 70s? How will he afford rent? You’re thinking about all this stuff when he’s playing and I would say that’s probably the saddest part of this series in a lot of ways. It feels like a lifestyle that’s unattainable and perhaps that’s why the fast forwards are necessary. We at least know that he won’t be poor with the money he’s making but there’s still the twinge of sadness in that we don’t actually see him in the present. How is he really doing? We just don’t know. Then the manga hits him when he’s down at random points like when someone stole his wallet with his entire life’s savings. That was a heavy blow.

The art is good overall. At times it can be a bit hard to make out and some characters look really similar but it does nail the grit of the songs fairly well. You can feel the effort they are plugging into every play. There are a lot of close ups too. I remember for the accident the scene was surprisingly violent as well to really hit you in the feels. Expect a lot of crying as well with Dai forcing himself through things. We even do get a pretty good fight where Dai knocks someone out so that was cool. I’d imagine he is in really good shape from all the running he does to practice for Jazz.

Of course there are sequel series to this one so it’ll be interesting to see how that continues. There are a lot of ways you can go with this of course but in terms of pacing I wonder how long they want to go before he is considered a true pro. Even by the end of this series, everyone calls him a prodigy with a lot of potential but nobody would call him a pro yet. And that’s considering that he is really playing his heart out right now. How much farther does he have to go in order to cross that precipice? There are only so many ways the artist can draw the intense music after all so I’ll be curious to see how they depict this. Maybe his solos will go on for even longer periods of time with his increased lung capacity or something like that.

Overall, Blue Giant is a pretty good series. I had a fun time with it despite how somber it can be. A lot of the pages don’t even really have much text on them as you’re meant to enjoy the music so they make for quick reads. I imagine that the anime version would be a little more immersive since you would actually get to hear the music. You can try and imagine it of course but again since I’m not the biggest Jazz expert that is a bit difficult. Everyone’s always talking about how loud Dai’s Jazz is and I’m definitely not used to that. Either way, whether you enjoy Jazz or not you should be able to have a good time here. Jazz may be the medium for the story but the themes about trying your best at a near impossible task are fairly universal.

Overall 7/10

Safe in Hell Review

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When you’ve got a title like this you already know that the main character’s probably stuck in a rather tricky situation. It’s definitely a film where the heroine has to go through a whole lot. There definitely is a lot of tension but I can’t say that it’s the kind that really helps to elevate a film. Ultimately there are very few likable characters here at all and it’s always hard for a film to really survive that.

So the movie starts off with introducing us to Gilda who has had a rough time of things. She has not been able to hold down a steady job for a long time due to one guy who basically blackmailed her into an affair and then his wife found out. So Gilda was blackballed from every industry and ended up becoming a lady of the night. Well, one day that guy returns and Gilda accidentally murders him in self defense. Her boyfriend Carl shows up just in time to save her from the police. While he’s not thrilled about what Gilda has been doing, he takes her to an island to hide from the cops for a while. He’ll go figure something out but she’ll have to stay on the island for at least a month. That wouldn’t be so bad except…this is an island inhabited by a bunch of criminals and degenerated and they’ve all got their sights on her. Can Gilda remain faithful amidst all this temptation and can she even remain safe?

So now you can see how none of the characters are particularly likable. They’re all just throwing themselves at her the whole time despite knowing that she is already with a guy. None of them have much in the way of class at all. Of course some are worse than others. The worst of which is a guy who shows up at the island later on after a plot twist. Definitely the kind of villain you don’t want the heroine to go easy on. Just bump him off and everyone will be happier off for it. He’s the kind of villain who actively brings down the quality of the movie.

Another thing that brings it down is the ending though. It’ really a rough way to go out and I definitely prefer for a movie to have an ending with a bit more hope. You basically have to stomach the fact that the villains won in the end. Perhaps not in all the ways they wanted but they still got a win which is absolutely undeserved. I get the feeling that the film didn’t want Gilda to have a happy ending after the mistakes she made but they were all under rather drastic circumstances. She’s certainly not without fault but is nowhere in the same league as the other characters. The whole film just doesn’t feel all that fair to her at all.

I’d argue Carl should absorb some of the blame here. He ditches her for months at a time on his job which always leaves her to fend for herself. Yeah Carl’s a sailor so he’s gone a lot but it seems like there is absolutely no way to reach him. So when Gilda was out of a job with no hope in the beginning, there was no way to reach Carl. Then when she was stuck on the island, there was no way to contact him easily again. She is constantly left on her own in the absolute worst circumstances. Now she does send a letter later on so there is at least a way to eventually reach him. Maybe she should have trusted him a bit more and reached out sooner but I get why she figured she had to stick it out. Ultimately she does still get more of the blame because she didn’t trust Carl when it counted. Sometimes trying to stick something out by yourself doesn’t work, particularly in a realistic setting like this.

So if she has to have a bad end, then that should apply to the rest of the characters. At least Bruno who ends up being just as demented as the other characters. In fact he was the second worst beyond the first guy. Nothing happening to him is really a shame. It’s like the film could have used an extra segment at the end. It is really short as it stands, the film is barely over an hour. So maybe extend this to 90 minutes and have an epilogue where various characters are taken out. Have a big revenge scene where Carl shows up and blows everyone away.

You could also have just included the moral of trusting him at the end. Instead of doing the false confession to get executed, have her make her speech which is when Carl shows up. Maybe have one of the other hotel guests reveal that he saw the whole thing with her being handed the gun. There are so many ways you could have written around the ending to have her actually make it out of there in one piece and given Bruno the chair instead.

Overall, Safe in Hell is definitely a pretty awful film. It’s one of those never ending stories of misery the whole time with a bad ending to boot. None of the characters do anything to actually help Gilda out which is where the film really fumbles the landing. With this kind of premise you’d assume that by the end most of the guys would actually be decent and would end up defending her. Maybe bumping off the corrupt cops or just lying about the whole thing when the real authorities get there. Just about any of those endings would have been more appreciated. Instead Gilda is consistently punished for her use of self defense in what I would call the most valid situations to use it. Definitely stay as far away from this film as possible!

Overall 2/10

Still Alice Review

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It’s time for the marathon of film reviews where I’m absolutely devastating these films! The higher reviewed ones will be coming up but I thought that this made sense as a theme. This film tends to be on the sadder side. It’s not super objectionable or anything like that but at the same time it’s definitely not a film where you will walk away grinning. I definitely would have tweaked the ending a bit with one of those miracle cures but that’s just how it goes.

The film starts off by introducing us to Alice who is a genius. She is very well spoken and conducts herself as a true professional. She is a professor and has a happy marriage with her husband John. All 3 of her kids are doing well within their fields…well one of them is having a bit of trouble with theater but it’s a happy life. Unfortunately one day Alice is diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s and the genetic results say that she has a 0% chance of stopping it. It will gradually continue to get worse and worse until she dies. Particularly to Alice where her intelligence was something she took a lot of pride in, this comes as a big blow. She’s not sure how to really deal with it or if she even wants to continue dealing with this. What can she do?

Alzheimer’s is definitely one of the tougher ailments out there for two real reasons. One is the lack of a cure right now. Yeah, medicine continues to go a long way and you can generally slow this down but as a rule of thumb once it goes to a certain point there’s not much that can work. There’s also still a lot of mystery around how it works but you can actually see the pathways between neurons get cut off and there is currently no way to restore them. So the best thing you can hope for is that you only lose memories that you don’t need but it’s a scary way to live.

The other difficult part which in a lot of ways is the worst part is that there is no real way to have prevented this from happening. When it’s genetic, you were pre determined to have a higher chance to get this when you were born. In some cases they’ll know right away so you can be a kid and know that it will happen to you once you reach a certain age. It’s definitely a tough situation to be in. So these are all the things that Alice has to deal with.

She works on leaving herself notes and lots of little tips to help her remember what she has to do but these don’t always help. Additionally long lengths of time will go by where to her it just feels like a day. One tough moment was when she lost her phone. She thought she lost it a day ago but 6 months had actually passed. It’s definitely easy to get depressed at that point. Everyone does their best to help her out through this period but to see someone slowly deteriorating like that is definitely tough.

So then what you’re wondering is…when does the film become fun? Well the answer is that it doesn’t and that’s the problem. Much like Alice, we have to watch the film’s entertainment value slowly deteriorating along with it. It seems to be a fairly realistic take on what Alzheimer’s is like so I can give the film that credit but at the same time it doesn’t make for a good film. It plays out like something you would read on the news where it’s a tough tragedy but you aren’t able to do anything about it so you just feel bad the whole time.

That’s exactly why I would have had the film give her some kind of a cure. It doesn’t have to go into the range of sci-fi, just say that she’s getting better because the condition stabilized. Maybe she lost the first 30 years of her life but she will remember things going forward for a while. It doesn’t have to be a 100% crystal perfect happy ending or anything like that but I think this would go a long way. The film opened the door for this a few different times with how Alzheimer’s doesn’t always result in 100% mental failure. There are degrees to it but ultimately the film went all the way.

As for the supporting characters, there’s not much for them to do here. The kids for the most part are understanding although one of them always seems rather harsh. They all know that Alice is having memory issues and yet she gives her a hard time about it. The main daughter who wants to work in theater is easily the most patient and does everything that she can in order to help. Alice’s husband is also solid there but since he has a job he’s just not able to be there for her quite as often and has to run off to Academia and move to a new location as well. At least before she went all the way gone, Alice was able to give one last speech in a big professional setting so that gave her one last big hurrah. This kept the film from going to the next level of being mean spirited. I was worried when the notes fell to the ground that she was not going to be able to give the speech at all which would have been pretty mean.

Overall, Still Alice is definitely an emotional film. I wouldn’t recommend it if your family has a history with Alzheimer’s since it will just cause extra stress in the meantime. I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for a fun or entertaining film either. Ultimately there’s just not a whole lot here for you. It’s a film that just gets sadder the more you watch it and that’s tough. You can do sad films in a way where they are still solid but typically those will involve stories with some kind of hope or a fun journey in the meantime. This one just can’t do that because of the nature of the plot and so ultimately you are just doomed.

Overall 3/10

The Book of Henry Review

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All right it’s time for a film that is definitely ambitious but I’m afraid that it fails on all accounts. When you see this film you immediately know that it’s not going places and I’m afraid that it never manages to make the comeback. This is a film that you definitely want to avoid. Instead of picking up this book to watch, read a classic book somewhere out there like Tim: Defender of Earth.

The movie starts by introducing us to Henry who is an absolute genius. The boy is still very young, yet he is an inventor, stock broker, and does whatever he has to. He is emotionally a little distant compared to other kids due to this but Henry has helped his family out a lot over the years. Unfortunately he has a big problem to get through now that won’t be easy. It turns out that his next door neighbor Glenn is actually a criminal who has been ruining his daughter Sheila’s life. Unfortunately he is the police chief and has a spotless record so nobody is doing anything about this and Sheila’s not really in a position to do anything either. Nobody except for Henry even suspects that something is going on since she rare has visible bruising. Henry decides that in order to save Sheila, he will have to murder Glenn.

Naturally this is a tough undertaking even for a genius like Henry. Additionally he has some medical issues going on as well and isn’t at peak strength. So he has to find a way to murder Glenn without leaving any evidence or causing his family trouble. His mother Susan enjoys playing a lot of shooters throughout the day and just having fun living life while his brother Peter is a normal kid and so he can’t keep up with these life and death stakes. In a way Henry is sort of on his own with this.

The kid genius characters can be a little hard to take seriously at times and I have to admit that this happens for this movie as well. It’s great to see Henry making his family rich and all but when he tries to be serious I just can’t take the scene quite as seriously. He’s a good kid though which is what counts even if he’s not a very interesting character. His brother Peter doesn’t get a lot to do here. He gets some development near the end as he tries his best to help out but his role in the film is effectively filler.

Susan gets a big role as the mother of course. It was a fresh change of pace to see the adult playing video games and having a good time. So often in these films you see the parents just doing work or reading a book but not having any kind of personality or hobbies. If there are hobbies it would be something like golf. So the video games was pretty fun. In a way her plot is about growing up though which goes against this and by the end you wonder if she will be having as much fun.

For obvious reasons within the film’s context she will be serious for a while but hopefully she still keeps up with gaming and all. The idea that it wouldn’t be a serious hobby is a bit dated if you ask me. Unfortunately she looks really bad near the end as the film makes one of the all time classic blunders. Let me put the scenario in this context. You are face to face with an unrepentant monster who is fully prepared to murder you. You have made it clear that his life will be over if he doesn’t murder you and both of you happen to be in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night with no witnesses.

Your only real options here are to murder him or be murdered. The film tries to present the argument for violence never being the way but does so in very sloppy fashion. By all logic Susan should have been obliterated in that scene. So I’d argue her whole climax is poorly written and makes her look like a really bad character. It’s a selfish decision first of all. If she gets bumped off there, then her kid is going to be in a lot of trouble and things will only get worse for Sheila.

It’s one thing if you’re being held at gunpoint to decide not to fight back and just be resigned to your death. It’s another if you have the opportunity to take the gun away and 3 hostages are behind you. The film definitely lost me here…well it lost me more than it already had. The climax is just really bad and there are many times where being a pacifist is straight up the wrong move. This is definitely one of those times.

I’d argue that in general getting drunk a lot at home to the point where the kids can predict it is irresponsible as well but I guess I won’t deduct as many points from her there. In theory at home should be the one place you can drink past your limit if that’s something you want to do. It doesn’t set up a great example, but that’s how it goes. Meanwhile her friend Sheila doesn’t really add much to the film either. Her scene with Henry just ends up being cringe and this felt like Peter where the film was adding a character to bloat the cast a bit even though she had nothing to do.

David gets a randomly rushed romance setup which makes no sense. You can’t really convince me that this would ever work as just seeing him should bring up bad memories for Susan every time. Then you have Christina who you just feel bad for the whole time. She really went through a lot and nobody was being particularly helpful for a while there. The fact that she hasn’t shut down completely and is able to keep up a nice attitude speaks volumes about her good character.

Then you have Glenn as the main villain who is basically just a character written to be super evil so there’s nothing to like there. You’re just rooting for his downfall the whole time. Still, it’s the subplot that destroys the film so in a way you could blame him for making the film no good. Without him I don’t think this would be a smash hit or anything but it would be considerably better. I would also change Henry’s ending a little bit as well and then the score would immediately be tripled. For a long while into the film I was expecting some kind of fakeout even if that would have been really hard to make convincing.

Overall, The Book of Henry is definitely a film that I would recommend staying away from. It ultimately fails by resorting to shock value with the dark Glenn plot as well as Henry’s plight. The film has so much drama and then the characters don’t react to it properly. Particularly with the first plot as there should have been a lot more urgency here and no getting cold feet at the end when you have the chance. The film isn’t always sure what kind of tone it wants to have and ultimately tends to make the wrong choices.

Overall 2/10

Bright Eyes Review

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It’s time for a film that mainly has a very wholesome feel to it but at the same time is a little darker once you actually think about it. I’d say the film goes a bit too far in that area and has enough scenes that just aren’t very fun. The main heroine isn’t really able to hold her ground as the lead either being only a kid and so the film doesn’t go quite as far as it could have. The film ultimately had a lot of room for improvement.

The movie starts off with introducing us to Shirley who lives with her mother in the house of a really rich family that is very mean to the two of them. Mary works as a maid there and so Anita treats her with constant contempt. Shirley’s father died a while back but the Air Force fighters all look after her and help Mary with that task. One of them in particular, Loop really wants to make sure to keep her safe. He suspects that Anita’s family aren’t the nicest but Mary doesn’t complain and he doesn’t really push the envelope there. However, a custody battle over Shirley begins and so he is forced to throw his hat in the ring because if Shirley was forced to join the family he knows they would not treat her properly. Can he claim victory?

Mary is a solid character here who is really just trying to make ends meet and she has done a pretty good job. She puts up with as much disrespect as she needs to in order to get money and look out for Shirley. That’s why it’s rough the way her character arc goes because she was really doing her best and thing still did not go her way at all. I thought the film was really harsh to her because everything went wrong. She lost her husband early on and then another tragedy happens to her.

Then we have Shirley who is okay but she’s very young here so it’s not like there is much for her to do. She is always fairly cheery and takes things in stride. You won’t really see her crying or getting too upset no matter what happens. I’d still say her road isn’t a very happy one even if she doesn’t fully realize what is happening. It would have been nice if she could have spoken up more about Joy, the rich kid who was always being a bully. I know Shirley is a nice person but nothing wrong with calling out the bully and putting her in her place. Shirley may not have had the homefield advantage so the fallout might not be great but I doubt she would really be thinking about that.

Anita and Wellington are fairly cartoonish with how mean they are to Shirley. I’d also say as a result they really aren’t smart at all either. Basically they pretend to be nice to Uncle Ned in order to get their inheritance and yet they do everything possible to make him upset? He says to be nice to Shirley and they basically don’t change their attitudes at all. She keep on allowing their daughter Joy to terrorize Ned and generally be a pain the whole time as well. You just feel like they should have been putting up a much better effort to stay on his good side considering the stakes here. I would say their efforts were pretty awful all around.

Ned was actually a decent character at least. He was actively trying to make things better for Shirley and clearly cared the whole time. It’s really rough not being able to walk on your own since even in a wheelchair his options were limited. I imagine he would have left the family a lot sooner otherwise. The ending is satisfying since you were rooting for him a lot. Loop also did good. The guy was maybe a little more bitter than expected with Adele but it all worked out. I don’t blame him for being upset when she ran off so perhaps getting together again should have been out of the question but otherwise you do need to keep it together for Shirley considering the stakes at play.

For Adele we never got a ton of details on her past and why her relationship with Loop didn’t work out. I was expecting some kind of big reveal/twist on why she left but I guess from the context we have, it was just her making a really big mistake. Ultimately the movie’s ending is good but what holds it back is how it could be a bit mean spirited like I mentioned earlier and the film wasn’t always very entertaining. The songs were definitely really weak here with the main one really not landing in particular. I don’t think Shirley makes for a very good main character either so there isn’t a whole lot of replay value in this one.

Overall, There just isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch this one. It’s not a very bad movie or anything like that but it can be boring at times and I would have handled the plot in a different way. The writing wasn’t always very good and not having great songs hurts as well. I wouldn’t call it a happy movie in the end even if the film tries to really jump forward and not worry about the specifics the whole time. I think you could do better for Christmas films and so for this time I would say to skip this one and check out something else like Jingle All The Way.

Overall 4/10

Human Voice Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 3/10

Son of Lassie Review

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It’s no surprise that I didn’t really like the first Lassie movie. In fact it was pretty awful now that I think about it. It’s just not really my kind of film and the sequel is better but still pretty bad. You have the dog still getting shot and some general animal violence. It isn’t in the same level as the first film of course but why can’t we just have a happy dog film instead? That’s what the people want and most importantly, it’s what I want! Seriously just think about it, this has potential to be as big as Air Bud but instead the film ends up being more of a miss. Also more than the first film it just feels a bit aimless at times.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Laddie, the son of Lassie. This guy is really aggressive and doesn’t play by the rules. This often frustrates the Duke because Laddie messes up the flowers. Laddie’s owner Joe doesn’t really care all that much though because he correctly realizes that Laddie is just having a lot of fun. Well Joe gets drafted into war so he heads out while Laddie is to finally be trained professionally. The owners underestimate him though and Laddie travels across the country to find Joe. Looks like Laddie will be having a spot in this war after all but is it really safe for him?

I wouldn’t say the film has a huge plot beyond that though. A good chunk of the adventure is Laddie running after Joe, being taken back home, then finding him again, etc. It’s really a cycle that just keeps on going over and over again. Sure by the end we actually get to meet the enemies and Laddie gets to prove his stuff but that’s the very end of the film. For the most part it was relatively aimless until then.

Also Joe doesn’t make for a very compelling main character. Everyone’s always insulting him all the time and he typically doesn’t really notice or react. Intentionally not reacting to a diss is absolutely a good skill but the problem is that I’m not sure if he even notices so that’s not a good look there. You really need to be ready for action at all times and the digs aren’t exactly subtle either. So if you don’t recognize that then we have some problems. His lack of confidence is also huge.

He likes this one girl and she basically tells him to confess several times and it takes a lot to force it out of him. The guy’s just way too nervous and always running off. Some guys can be shy sure, but this was a bit much. You’re just cringing the whole time. The whole romance isn’t particularly good but it’s not a big part of the film anyway so I suppose it doesn’t have a huge impact. It’s just part of a bigger problem which is that any scene with Joe is brutal. The guy also had no plan when he was taken at gunpoint in the climax and Laddie had to do all the work.

I always say if it’s life or death what do you have to lose? In this case the villain is walking Joe up a cliff so that he can be shot and fall into the abyss. Joe knows that, the villain knows that, and I know that. So why would you possibly just keep walking up and wait to get shot? Lunge at the guy, go for the gun etc. What’s he gonna do…shoot you? Well that’s going to happen anyway so you might as well take a chance. It’s not like this is a scenario where you only might get shot. The guy made is clear that Joe has to be exterminated so that’s really it. You have to try and fight back while you still can. Definitely a pretty brutal moment for good ole Joe.

Still, like I said the main problem here is that the film can just be rather boring. The story can barely last 40 minutes, let alone the full length of the title. We probably should have focused more on training scenes or maybe even some military battles. You needed more plots or some kind of hook to pull this off. That being said, I was glad that Joe didn’t go with the other guy’s plan to hit Laddie. That would have been absolutely awful so in all of my bashing of the guy, he got that part right.

There’s really not a whole lot to even talk abut with this film in the end. I guess we can say there was a lot of plot armor in nobody being able to stop Laddie from travelling cross country each time. You’d think the characters would learn and keep the leash on each time but Laddie was always a few steps ahead of them. I would have liked the Duke to have appeared more since he’s always the most enjoyable character but he doesn’t do a whole lot here after the intro scenes. Lassie herself also doesn’t have a big role.

Having her step in to save the day would have been a clever way to get some excitement in here. Actually it’ such a great idea that I’m surprised they didn’t do it. Lassie doesn’t have any of the huge pivotal roles you would expect from the old main character appearing in the sequel. It’d be like if Naruto didn’t do much in Boruto or if Goku was slacking off in Super. Lassie should still be the one making a big play now and then even if Laddie is the one with the final moment.

Overall, Son of Lassie is just not a very interesting film. Mix in the animal violence and it was really out of its depth. I think there is probably a great film mixed in there somewhere…but it’s very deep in there so that’s not going to be all that helpful tbh. In the end a dog film should be a fairly upbeat one where the dog isn’t in any danger. Sure that can be boring if handled wrong but it’s all up to the writers. Surely you should be able to make a film that is still really interesting even without that right? If you can’t…well I guess now we’ve got a real problem now don’t we?

Overall 3/10

Yuzu the Pet Vet Review

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Yuzu the Pet Vet is definitely one of the most emotional manga titles around. It deals heavily with animals appearing in every chapter since that’s a big part of the plot so you can probably guess where this is going. The series is meant to be a fairly light hearted, but cautionary tale on how hard it is to raise pets but unfortunately that means showing us examples of lots of bad owners and so there are a lot of dogs that get injured in this one. I’d definitely say to give it a skip if you have a pet or even in general to be honest since there are just too many pets in harm’s way here.

The series starts off with Yuzu moving to her uncle’s place because her mother is very ill. Yuzu’s mom has been in and out of the hospital for a while now but it seems extra serious this time so Yuzu’s not in a great mood. Her uncle is an animal doctor and he treats all kinds of patients. He wants her to help out while she’s around the house but the problem is that she is terrified of animals. The more she helps her uncle, the more she starts to get comfortable around them though. Who knows, maybe she can even become a proper pet vet someday?

The cast is very small here because this really is an episodic kind of series. The only constant characters are Yuzu’s uncle, mother, and the dog Sora. Even Yuzu’s best friend only appears for around 2 pages in the whole series which is pretty crazy. It’s too bad because she seemed like a high quality character and yet there isn’t anything to say about her because that was just way too short of a period. What can you really talk about with a character who has appeared so briefly? I’ll tell you…nothing! That’s all there is to say there. Definitely a wasted opportunity.

As for Yuzu, well of course she’s not great when starting out but she does improve as the series goes on. She gradually learns how to be nice to animals and by the end of the series she is the one with the wise sayings keeping the other kids in their place. She really came very far by the end and I can definitely appreciate that. That being said, as a kid there’s still only so much that she can do to help. At the end of the day the Uncle still has to take center stage when the going gets tough. Once Yuzu is grown up I’m confident she will really be helping in the pet vet business.

I can’t ask much more out of a kid for now and it’s better to be scared of animals than to be mean to them. Even during the pre arc she never tried anything like that so I appreciated this. Her uncle is a solid character. He can definitely be a bit short tempered with the kids and gets super strict but considering how high stakes a pet’s life is, it’s the right move. I can definitely respect that extra fire he has. You need that in order to convince people that you’re on the right side. His advice is always correct to so that’s an important thing to keep in mind. Without him the town would definitely be finished since it seems like there are no other big pet doctors around.

Meanwhile Yuzu’s mom is a solid character. Her main issue is that she can try a little too hard to do everything at once and it often ends up with her getting even sicker. There comes a time where you have to know your limits and that’s her moral by the end. She still helps Yuzu out around the vet once in a while but makes sure not to over tax herself which is important. It’ll be nice to see her as a main character once she’s all better.

I should note that the uncle has a pet dog named Sora who is always around. He’s a bit of a mean pup though as he is always trying to bite Yuzu and cause problems. Not the best first experience for someone who is already scared of animals. Sora gradually becomes nicer and less violent as the series goes on. By the end I would say that they really are good friends.

The art is very clear here. I would say the quality is surprisingly high overall and there is never any moment where you are wondering what is going on. The artist does a good job here. Sure, there are no action scenes so it’s not going to be as difficult to keep things clear as with another manga but it still deserves some good props for pulling that off. It makes going through the volumes real easy.

Of course the only thing that makes going through them hard is how sad most of the stories are. Basically how things play out is usually the owner is being an accidental jerk and neglecting the dog. The dog gets sick so then they head over to the uncle’s place where he fixes up the dog. On a high level that’s usually how this goes and so the rough part is always the first half. For one reason or another the owner will usually say that he or she doesn’t want to go through with any operations or see the doctor. Usually the owner is convinced that his puppy will be okay and so the dog has to put up with a lot until he’s at the doctor’s.

The series also tries to teach us about loss so lets just say that not every animal survives here. Another big no no when you think about it. I don’t want to see any animals dying or even hearing about it. Again the series may be about animals but you don’t have to go this far with it. Having animals get injured or get super sick is just way too sad. The manga should have been about healing them before they get sick. Like have one of them get the ability of foresight and that would have been cool. Sure, the manga is slightly not realistic but you can still teach a lot of lessons to the kids reading the series. I think that would work really well and there aren’t many alternatives. Sure you could make the series about robotic animals I guess…but I feel like that would probably be a hard sell. I don’t see it working as smoothly as you might assume even though I would be all for it.

At the end of the day one of the biggest issues here is that you just won’t have any fun. Sure the chapters usually end on a positive note but only after you’ve been completely beaten emotionally. It’s hard to enjoy the payoff by that point. It’s like when you fall off a bike and injure your knee. Sure, it feels good when you get up and make it home, but the bump still stings. That’s what every chapter is like here and since having fun is one of the main objectives here, there’s just no way this would end up being a quality title. There isn’t really any good reasons to check this one out at the end of the day. I would recommend a ton of manga way higher.


Overall, The series is fairly short at 7 volumes and since it’s episodic by nature that makes it feel even shorter. The volumes are mainly all stand alones and even most of the adventures stop at just one chapter. So it’s not like the sagas are long either. Whether you like the series or not will depend completely on how much you enjoy the premise and the stories that are included here. Ultimately they didn’t do the trick for me. Even though the stories are about helping the animal in the end, the animal always had to go through a lot first which was no good. That’s what the series really should have avoided even if it means changing the premise of the series altogether. At the same time I think you could have pulled this off without injuring any animals. Have the missions be a little more low stakes and it all could have worked out.

Overall 1/10

Sicario Review

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

It’s time for a very gritty look at what it can be like to try and stop a force as powerful as the cartels. It’s a tough reality that in some areas the police basically have no power and so everyone operates under the books in a society where might makes right. The main character learns this the hard way and while it can be a reminder how your life could always be more difficult, it doesn’t make for a great film. The excessive violence eventually knocks the fun out of the experience.

The movie starts with Kate and her partner Reggie arriving at a house where they take down the villains but unfortunately were too late to save the innocents. The building is filled with the bodies of everyone that they murdered and Kate feels rather hollow about this victory. The government calls her in though because this was traced to the Mexican cartels. They are sending in a task force to basically cause a lot of commotion and take these guys out at any cost. Kate decides to join in because she wants to see justice done but she’s about to see that “Justice” is going to encompass a whole lot of actions here. It’s not quite like any of her previous missions up til now.

Shortly after entering Mexico the main characters have their first gunfight which quickly gets you up to speed on how you really need to keep your guard up at all times. You always have to watch your back and even be staring inside the other cars because if you react late then your life is already over. You have to basically make the first move or be ready to make a move before the shooting actually begins. It’s certainly a tense atmosphere and as Alejandro tells Kate you can’t even trust your own allies. You never know who has been bought off or defected to the other side so at the end of the day you can only really trust yourself.

I’d say it takes a whole lot of grit in order to be able to survive in an atmosphere like this for even just a short while. For the members here who have been in the territory for years, well that’s not something that just anyone can do. Additionally the characters do resort to torture and other extreme methods in order to get answers which also requires a tough stomach. I’m still never on board with torture though even if it can be the only way to get results. It just feels like a line where once you cross it, you become one of the villains even if it’s for a noble cause. It’s just going too extreme even if it helps to serve your cause.

That’s one of the main struggles for Kate in this film as she just doesn’t agree with how extreme everything is here. You have people going on revenge missions and everyone is really using everyone else. This mission only works because some goals temporarily align but what happens when they don’t? You’re always having to keep score of whose interests are being served and that’s exhausting. Unfortunately Kate’s ways of coping with this aren’t always great.

The worst scene of this is when she decides to get drunk with the crew and then have an affair with someone that she’d never met before. Naturally he turned out to be one of the gang members and she’s very lucky that Alejandro showed up in time or she would have been dead. It just seemed very sloppy though. You’re effectively in enemy territory for all intents and purposes so now isn’t the time to be having a one night stand. For the most part she didn’t panic and make many bad moves during the film so this one really stood out. The only other moment was randomly attacking Matt in a fit of rage.

Sure he was complicit in knowing what Alejandro was doing but suddenly attacking him like that could have easily gotten her shot. She’s lucky that things didn’t get worse there. Meanwhile Matt does a pretty good job here. He is sort of like a less personally invested version of Alejandro. The guy is a capable field leader and knows how to fight but to him it’s still a job while to Alejandro it’s really his life. That’s a world of difference when going up against enemies in Mexico because you’re going to take less risks. Matt basically plays things by the (underworld) book and it all works out pretty well for him as a result.

As for Alejandro, he does well here. The guy definitely does have a big revenge motive but considering what the cartel did to his family you can definitely understand where he is coming from. It certainly doesn’t make him a hero and is why he can so ruthlessly torture anyone in his way but it does give him drive. You don’t want to mess with this guy because he does not mind collateral damage. The whole final scene is basically about how he has become the very kind of guy he has spent his life destroying. At this point he’s completely gone down the rabbit hole. It makes him an interesting Punisher type of main character to follow but certainly someone that you would consider to be another villain in the grand scheme of things. His crimes against humanity would be guilty under any court which is why he needs fake reports and such saying he is innocent. Not that the government is likely to openly mess with him either way but he doesn’t want to be vanished either.

Finally you have Kate’s partner Reggie who does a good job here. He basically pushed himself back into the mix to watch Kate’s back and he also makes sure that they get some answers. He’s not someone that you can just push around and I thought that he did a good job of backing her up. SO he fulfilled his objectives but ultimately he can only go so far here and a lot of the time Kate does have to be on her own

Ultimately I would believe this to be a very fair depiction of events in many war torn areas. It just make sense that you would see both sides breaking all sorts of unspoken rules of engagement and framing each other constantly. In any sort of battle with a gang, cartel, or some kind of corrupt government where you can’t count on a system to back you up then naturally you are going to turn to less desirable ways of completing your objectives. That’s just how it is but on the other hand the film could have definitely toned down some of it and made the movie more enjoyable. Remove the torture, more of the close up violence/aftermath, etc. At the end of the day you don’t get to be entertained here for very long before something drastic happens again and so it’s a fairly painful cycle of events. It’s definitely not a movie that has a whole lot of replay value.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend checking out Sicario. It’s certainly a movie about perpetuating the cycle of violence to keep everyone busy which means while there are some winners there will always be losers as well. In a fight like this there will always be a lot of casualties and so it’s the innocent people in the middle who really end up getting squashed. Complex global issues like this will never have a clean solution where everyone triumphs but you always hope to try and minimize the casualties as best you can. The very last scene is definitely depressing when you think about it.

Overall 2/10