Sniper Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 2/10

Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear! Review

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It’s time to look at a retro Yogi Bear film. While I’m fairly familiar with the franchise, I haven’t really watched many of the films at all. I know it by reputation more than anything else. The film makes for a fun watch although the runtime can end up feeling a bit long because there isn’t a whole lot they can do with the concept outside of the initial gags. So you may end up wishing for more of a gimmick by the end.

The story starts with Yogi Bear trying to outsmart the Ranger as always. Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t been very successful this time. The Ranger always catches him in the act and prevents Yogi from really having any food. Yogi is always a step behind and can’t really seem to close the gap. What can he possibly do to change this? It won’t be easy but Yogi will have to leave the state. He volunteers to be taken away and maybe he will have better luck this time. Will the Ranger even end up missing Yogi?

Now the real twist is that Yogi doesn’t actually leave. He tricks another bear and then dons a new persona to keep on messing with people while the Ranger is none the wiser. The Ranger got a little too comfortable with Yogi out of the picture and so he actually starts to lose the war. He can’t stop this mysterious bear from stealing everyone’s food. He may even get fired at this rate because then a lot of other crazy things begin to happen like two other bears going missing. It’s all Yogi’s fault but what can the Ranger do?

What I liked about him is that the Ranger has a certain amount of smugness to him. Maybe you can also just call it adaptability but he always shuts down Yogi’s plan by using it against him. For example Yogi trained some ants to march and take orders like soldiers. So the Ranger made himself a drill sergeant and ordered the ants to betray Yogi. It was a really smart move and you just have to respect plays like that. It’s not as easy as it looks to always be thinking fast. He also gets the last laugh in this film which I wasn’t totally expecting.

There is a really tense face off at the end where the Ranger and Yogi both have to use each other’s fears against the other one. Both sides were not willing to even lose an inch and so it got really close but in the end the Ranger pulled through. He’s easily my favorite character in the series now.

As for Yogi, he’s a fun antagonist. Basically he just wants to eat all of the food that he can and so he’s always trying to rob people just trying to have a nice picnic. Yogi continuously tricks them and the average human isn’t quite as smart as Yogi. If the Ranger wasn’t around, Yogi would be having his way with everybody here. Yogi is hard to overcome but even he eventually starts to feel overwhelmed which is why he considered leaving midway. Breaking his spirit was not an easy act.

Then you’ve got Boo Boo who is basically Yogi’s sidekick. He doesn’t appear as often as I expected him to in this film but he tries to hold it together without Yogi. Ultimately he just needs that guy’s leadership and it’s clear that he is not the same without it. Yogi is the brains of this operation and Boo Boo is a lot more passive in nature. Cindy Bear is the only other main character and she loves Yogi a lot but the guy is always resisting her.

What I like about Cindy is that she makes her intentions plain. She wants Yogi and will do whatever she can in order to make him hers. Cindy will sing songs about this and everything but I guess Yogi doesn’t like her in that way because he’s always trying to run away from her. Of course one of the morals in this film is that he does end up liking her and so he regrets running away. It took him a little too long to learn that lesson though. Yogi better not lose focus again.

We also do have some villains here. There are two bumbling owners of a circus and their crazy dog who go around kidnapping whoever they need in order to make a good show. This is what allows them to kidnap Cindy and then they even manage to get Yogi. They technically end up being rather effective considering that they appear to be comic relief characters for the most part. I guess you can say that there are levels to this.

It was nice to add a little danger to the film. So the movie works as a solid all around title. It’s not the kind of movie you would be taking too seriously or anything like that but it’s fun for what it is. There are a number of songs within the film but they don’t work quite as well. They’re doing their best to sound like retro Hollywood songs and in a way it could work as a parody but they go on a bit too long for that. I’d say we could have done without the songs. The animation is pretty decent though. Nothing amazing but it’s all smooth and very expressive. Probably better than I would have expected going into the movie.

Overall, In general this film could have stood to be a little shorter. It’s got a fun vibe and the experience is good but you could have probably lost about 20 minutes without really losing any part of the movie. Longtime Yogi Bear fans will probably get the biggest kick out of the title though. The banter between the Ranger and Yogi Bear is definitely the best part of the film. How much you enjoy the movie as a whole will likely come down to that. It was nice to finally watch a full length Yogi Bear animated film though. I wonder if it got any good games for the Gamecube. Either way I think the world is ready for a new film in the franchise. Not a live action one, but a true hand drawn animated experience!

Overall 6/10

Star Ocean First Departure R Review

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It’s been a while since I played the last Star Ocean title. With this one we get back to the classic days of the series. It’s a great RPG with a lot of quality of life features scattered throughout. Surprisingly the one thing it is missing is quick travel. I gotta admit that it would have been handy to have that around but I suppose it would have definitely sped the game up a great deal. This game is already fairly short compared to other RPGs so you would probably not want to let it get too out of hand.

The general plot starts with a mysterious plague infecting the people of Roak. Roddick needs to figure out what is going on with this plague quickly because everyone is turning to stone. That’s when mysterious beings from a planet called Earth show up. They explain that they are from the future and will need to join Roddick in the past in order to stop the plague. It will mean going up against a demon lord and an army of high powered fighters. Will Roddick and his friend really be enough to stop them? Well, they have an ace up their sleeve in the form of symbology, a kind of magic that defies even the most advanced sciences.

The game did a good job of balancing both sides pretty well. Sometimes in these things you wonder what the old timers can really do against the future. Well, in this case having your swords amped up by magic helps quite a bit. The future folk can still just wipe out the planet but fortunately that’s not their style. Then you have the demon lord who is immune to conventional weaponry but not against magical attacks. So it’s a rather perfect balance there.

The gameplay is not quite turn based. It’s an auto attack system where you continually attack as you wait for the meter to build up on your specials. The strategy comes down to positioning. You always want to be surrounding the opponents and preventing them from doing the same to you. Even if they are considerably lower leveled, a few good shots from both sides will take you down in a flash. So you want to always be moving and it seems to help with accuracy but that could be placebo.

As you level up you will learn more attacks and have to decide which ones to use in battle. You can also switch between characters at will and use their attacks as well so you want to make sure that all of your characters are in good fighting shape. There will be times where some members of your group are not available so you should keep that in mind. Otherwise you may have a situation where your strongest fighters are all gone and your weak ones are too underleveled.

The game can get rather difficult so this one is definitely not a walk in the park. You will need to get stronger at multiple points so you should go ahead and fight a lot of enemies. There is no way to turn off encounters so you will have plenty of chances for that. At times the spawn rate can feel really high but later on you will learn skills to reduce that a bit. You will also learn skills that reduce your stats in order to get more exp and skill points. I highly recommend using these while training.

Also you should level up the skill that reduces the cost for all other skills as your top priority. It makes it possible for you to learn all skills before reaching level 100 with a lot of room to spare while it would take you way longer to do that otherwise. You will have the opportunity to use all skills but this will save you so much time on it. So the game has a lot of little strategy problems for you to deal with like that. You want to really keep these things in mind before just diving in.

The graphics are pretty impressive within the game. You have some fully animated cutscenes in addition to the normal ones. The game also allows you to swap between the modern character portraits or the more retro styled ones. The game is always very clear visually on what’s going to happen next. Then we have the soundtrack which is also pretty good. It’s a little more limited but there was a danger theme that I enjoyed a lot. So that was a good one to listen to.

In terms of replay value you have the trophies to try and obtain. That should take you a very long time because of all the endings. There is also a post game dungeon to try and complete as well. So you’re getting a good amount of content here. The main campaign is probably around 10-12 hours as well so that’s decent. When you combine all of the content, then you’re definitely in good hands here.

The only improvement I’d like the game to have would be a quick travel. It just feels like that should be a necessity for any RPG nowadays. If not, then you at least need a way to turn the random encounters off. Whether you do that directly by turning them all off or only turning them off when they are a certain number of levels below you, both are solid options. I dare say that would make this game even better, but like I said that’s just a minor quirk. Ultimately it’s not a big enough deal that it would significantly hurt the experience for you. There’s also no excuse or you to be underleveled as a result of it. Make a backup save every now and again just in case though.

Overall, Star Ocean is a great game. In some ways you can call it a very basic RPG but it does the job for me. You have enough time to get used to the characters and the story is good. I liked the gameplay and the technical effects were all good. I have no real complaints with this game and in general I just really enjoy RPGs. You can’t really go wrong with the genre and it tends to churn out a lot of the all time best video games. I look forward to seeing what the next Star Ocean adventure will be like.

Overall 8/10

That Thing You Do! Review

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It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a concert type film. This one does a good job of keeping the music front and center for the experience. You might be worried that the drama will overtake the music but that never happens in this case. You’ve got quite a few characters walking around and while the leads may not be the most likable, for the most part they aren’t terrible people either. Some are definitely better than others though.

The film starts out by introducing us to Guy who works at his father’s appliance store. His real passion is in music but he has to make ends meet. One day, a local band loses a member when he breaks his arm so they go to recruit Guy. Guy can’t pass up this opportunity and the group performs better than usual. This is actually due to Guy messing up the song and playing a lot quicker than the normal tempo. It was a fortunate mistake because the group become local celebrities over night. Their fame continues to grow as they are even signed by a big time company. Will this fame end up corrupting the group? Sometimes when fame hits this quickly, it has a tendency to tear folks apart.

For most of the movie the group is actually fine though. What you see are the cracks that begin to form. Jimmy is a little reluctant about all of these opportunities from the start after all. He feels like this is not following his artistic vision and does a lot of complaining. Even when they are filming a commercial for a big budget movie, he is still upset the whole time. There is no real pleasing him as he only wants to create records.

Jimmy is big on being a musician so it’s fine that he wants to make more music but it does feel like he’s taking the other opportunities for granted. Even nowadays it feels like musicians have to do a lot of things beyond just making music if they want to remain relevant for long. He needed to play ball more but things really escalate when his romance plot doesn’t go well. He was dating Faye for over 2 years but was apparently not planning on taking things further.

That always feels like a waste of time though. Why date someone for a long period of time when you’re not planning to get married in the end? I don’t think you should even date anyone if you’ve crossed off the idea of marriage. Obviously you can’t really know how things will end when you first start dating but the door should be open to the possibility. Then if that door closes at any point, you’ve gotta end things as quickly as possible. In this film it may have been one way but even if you have a relationship where both people are just in it for kicks, it’s going to be a bad idea. It just makes the whole thing futile and pointless.

Meanwhile for Faye, it was definitely a tough situation for her. She thought that things were going well the whole time and didn’t notice that Jimmy had withdrawn. I wouldn’t really put any fault on her there because it’s incredibly hard to discern that. In a way you never truly know another person so those kinds of twists and changes will usually be unexpected. I will say that I do judge her a bit on the rebound though. After a big relationship like that, you really need to just wait for a while before getting right back into the hunt. Rebounds in general are never a good idea because you’re running on pure emotion by that point.

As for our lead Guy, well he doesn’t do too well at the romance game either. He seems distracted by girls initially but his main passion is music. So he naturally needs to be with someone who is really interested in the business. Otherwise those relationships aren’t going to work. If he has fully picked music, then there’s nothing wrong with that, but he should know his limits and not pursue other things. He was always a good sport about tackling all of the musical gigs and leading the group though. When it comes to the band, he was second to none.

Then we have Lenny who mainly serves as the goofball of the group. He is always running around and causing a stir. He’s really good at being in the band but he really wants a girlfriend already. He spends his off hours always looking for one and flirting with everybody. That’s not usually a good sign for a long term relationship so how his plot ends is not really going to be a surprise to anybody. He worked well for the dynamic and seems like a decent friend but he’s not going to be the guy you can count on.

Finally we have Mr. White who was a really good manager. He clearly knew his stuff and pushed the group to succeed. He deserves a lot of credit because he kept it real with each of the members the whole time. Mr. White was cordial and treated them all like professionals while keeping up his boundaries. When Jimmy crashes out, White calmly reminds him of the contract and pushes forward from there. I was glad that he didn’t retreat at all. He’s seen this many times after all so this is just business as usual. You always want to have a boss like that.

The main song gets played a lot so you definitely hope that it’s a good one. I thought that it was reasonably catchy. It’s not exactly the kind of tune that I would be listening to but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to turn it off if it happened to be on the radio. The song is basically passable is what I’d say and that’s not a bad position to be in.

This film mainly excels with the good dynamic between the main characters. They all get along well and it’s nice to see them succeed even if I may not love any of them as individual characters. You do end up feeling bad for the original member who broke his arm though. We see that he got a job at the appliance store but he really missed out on what would have been a fun adventure all because of a little accident. That’s about as tragic as it gets.

Overall, This film shows that the life of a band can be really glorious but also incredibly short lived. It’s not the kind of gig that tends to go on forever after all. You have to enjoy it while you can and then go from there. You hope that the characters saved up enough money to be set for the rest of their lives although we do get epilogue notes for each of the characters. If you like a classic story about bands and enjoy the atmosphere then you’ll certainly enjoy the film. It does a good job of exploring that environment.

Overall 6/10

Dragonheart Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 3/10

The Valley of Gwangi Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 3/10

To Be Hero X Review

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This show really took the world by storm with how big it got. Right away you could see that the animation was really top notch here. It was also going to take the interesting approach of airing backwards. Each story arc would take place before the one that just happened. Each of the top 10 heroes got their own animated short early on to introduce them and then you’d get to see them within the story. Each character got something to do and there was also live voting for the top 10 heroes which would possibly determine seeding in the tournament. The whole thing was really bold and I dare say that it was a complete success.

In this world, heroes gain their power directly from their fans. If the fans believe something then it will happen. As a result the hero industry has become huge in the entertainment field with companies sponsoring heroes and also manufacturing different crisis events for them to solve. As long as a hero has supporters, he will continue to be powerful. However, this also means that the hero will lose their freedom right away. If the fans don’t want you to get together with someone or to move way then you physically can’t. In a way it’s a very scary thing but you won’t find out about it until you become a hero. We follow different heroes as they encounter this reality and have to decide how to move forward.

This is a show that is really all about setting up season 2 so hopefully they are able to make it that far. If not, well it was still a real blast to see how this one played out. To say it is elite is not an overstatement. This is a show with a ton of replay value and I’ve seen lots of the fights several times. It’s crazy how much budget went into it and it’s one of the few shows that could pull off 3D and 2D. It was also fun to really be involved in the predictions and theories online like the in universe reason for the 3D.

This show being marketed as a multi media franchise with things happening in universe and out of it was rather brilliant. Also the soundtrack is top tier. A lot of the heroes have their own themes and they really work out well. Ther is a lot of variety here and the themes all have a lot of power to them. The lyrics make sense and they just make you more excited for what’s going to happen. The opening and ending were both really good as well. I could go on, the point is that everything about this show is really top notch. Season 2 will have a hard time matching up to this but with a tournament coming up, that is already a promising start.

The first episodes are about Lin Ling. Lin was just an average citizen who would write about the top heroes when he witnesses one of the most popular heroes jump off the building to his death. The PR agency grabs Lin and tells him that he must act as Nice. By tricking the fans into thinking that he is the real deal, Lin will gradually be changed into Nice. He slowly starts to gain abilities and even his appearance but what are the limits to this? Will Lin in effect become Nice mentally as well? Will he still be his own person? Lin isn’t sure about this but for now he will play ball with the group. Things get dangerous with Nice’s girlfriend Moon is kidnapped. Saving her won’t be easy.

This story arc sets up a lot of the subtle elements of the show like how the fans having this level of power may not purely be a good thing. It sounds really good on paper of course but if they have total control of your life, then things can get really dangerous. One example is when they prevent Lin from going to save Moon because they fear that it is the wrong move. Lin’s only possible escape there is to separate from his identity as Nice. It’s easier said than done to do this though.

Lin is a great main character and this was a good story arc to begin the series with. Even by the end it may be the best one of the bunch. It’s not necessarily the flashiest or anything like that but it’s a clear character arc for the lead and the fights are great. It is also the source of all the intrigue here since almost every other episode after this is a flashback. That really changes how you look at the first arc afterwards from all the other angles.

Moon is also a solid heroine and she had a tough draw so you do feel bad for her. Having to play the role of girlfriend for a while to a jerk is tough. Also because of the fan influence it’s not easy to get away from him which is why she needs to fake her own death. Her ability is more of a support one as well so she’s not going to be getting in there and landing a lot of powerful blows either. In this world, being doomed to be a supporting character is a tough fate as well.

Wreck is a character who hasn’t appeared much yet but he was solid. He’s a great fighter and was a friend to the original Nice. So you figure that’ll come into play more in future episodes. He will probably be a powerful ally that Lin can rely on. I liked his design and he was a good contrast. We also can’t forget about Enlighter who is a crazy good investigator. Lin may end up making him look crazy for a while there but the guy was absolutely right on his hunches. Ultimately he succumbed to the dark powers too quickly as a shortcut and that was his biggest problem. He was still a lot of fun to have around though.

We also meet Firm-Man who really suffers due to the fans. They believe him to always be up-right and firm to the point where he physically cannot bend down. It is his ultimate curse. Now by this point you’re wondering why he doesn’t just tell people about this in a speech. Let them know that justice can bend or something. Perhaps he isn’t fully aware of it being the public’s fault but it’s implied that he knows about it. Maybe there would be a severe punishment for this? Either way I would have liked a more concrete answer because changing public perception should just be the way to go in situations like this.

Then we have the E-Soul arc. In this one, a kid named Yang starts out as an actor who portrays E-Soul in a play. He gradually gets close to a girl he has a crush with. After stopping some thugs, people even start to believe in him. His fake E-Soul suit becomes the real deal and his power really starts to grow. The thing is, there should only be one of each hero. His power is directly draining from the actual E-Soul’s. Finally a match is set up to determine who will continue the legacy of that hero. Yang doesn’t intend to lose here but is he perhaps a little too desperate for power?

Yang is a good main character here but right away you can tell that the show is letting him be a bit more sinister than Lin. This guy is determined to be the strongest no matter what and has a huge chip on his shoulder. The end of Lin Ling’s arc also means that you’re going to be on edge as well. So you don’t trust him for a lot of reasons but I do like the E-Soul design and his powers are certainly really cool. Super speed and electricity is a deadly combination.

The old E-Soul doesn’t get a whole lot to do in comparison. He doesn’t really want to change his ways or even acknowledge a lot of what’s happening. I’d argue that he looks really complacent at best and that comes back to haunt him here. He’s not a bad guy but you aren’t really given much to root for with his character.

Then we have Lucky Cyan’s arc. She started out as a survivor from a big airplane crash. She was the soul survivor and now lives at an orphanage. The orphanage is a bit strange though and she has dreamed of leaving to become an idol. In the meantime people have started to treat her as a prophet of sorts. Her luck has made the news and people feel like she can spread it around to them. Perhaps she can…but perhaps it is simply the will of the people that is doing this. However the power worked, she is incredibly powerful now even though she has never fought a battle before.

Lucky knows that this isn’t healthy and that she has to go but it won’t be easy. She’ll have to fight her way out and may have a rift with her best friend over this. That’s because another train of thought suggests that she gets this good luck by stealing it from others. If so, that puts a much darker spin on things. Lucky can’t control this, all she can do is try to be the best hero that she can be. So she continues to move forward and doesn’t let these events get her down. Ultimately I would say that it’s a much happier arc than the first two in tone. It’s fitting for a girl who is known as being lucky. The arc also sets up several supporting characters who will grow to have bigger and bigger roles as the series goes on.

After that we focus on Queen who is one of the highest ranking heroes in the world. She was really close to claiming 1st but got destroyed by X, the number 1 hero. This messes with her confidence but she keeps on fighting. Unfortunately, a former champ known as Bowa does not take this well at all and latches onto fear in order to gain more power. Trust is the term for the power that ignites the heroes and fear is what the dark power that fuels villains is called. the contrast makes a lot of sense.

Bowa is super petty the whole time but makes for a good villain. The fight itself was definitely real intense. Meanwhile Queen is a really good heroine. She is actually trying to change the whole system and is trying to grow in her political movement. Of course to make a real difference she will need to become the #1 hero and that’s going to be incredibly difficult to manage. Right now X appears to be completely invincible. How you even begin to fight such a guy seems impossible to think about.

Then we have the story arc about Loli. She wants to fight crime and use her robot suit but everyone sees her as a cute little girl which prevents her from building up a ton of muscle. Gradually at least she gets people to respect her abilities while in the suit even if her father is rather over protective the whole time. That’s at least something that she can really deal with here. She looks out for her friend and makes for a solid character. I do think she tends to get overshadowed by most of the other top heroes though. She is really good, but just doesn’t stand out. Additionally you feel like a robot suit is not enough for her to hold her own against most of the top heroes.

We also get to see another former #1 hero in DJ. DJ continues to show us why the previous top heroes were not all that impressive. This guy has fallen off into tough times and easily lets himself get taken into the dark side. The musical attacks are pretty interesting and I do see a lot of potential there. I think he could have been a more powerful villain if he was given more time to really get set up. Having a tough time with Loli doesn’t really help his case.

Ghostblade also shows up here briefly but gets his own arc afterwards. We see that he has a hard time communicating with others. He actually still managed to get married and have a daughter but things quickly become tense and he is written out of their lives. From that point forward he is even more isolated but watches over his daughter in secret. As a contract killer it’s not like he is a good person though. This even puts him in a tough position since he murders the father of a current top 10 hero.

He’s an interesting character though because it was nice to see a top hero who isn’t actually a “hero” all the way. That’s something that you figure would be happening from time to time with how the system works. People don’t always look up to the nicest of folk after all. He also gets to crush DJ in this battle. That guy can’t catch a break but Ghostblade also does seem to be one of the more powerful heroes.

Then we have Little Johnny. Right now he has to be one of the blandest characters but part of it may be by design. He is trying to figure out who murdered his father. As the viewer you know that it is Ghostblade but he doesn’t know that. He tries to always keep a positive mindset about things but you can feel the rage behind that. So what I’m banking on is that this will be what makes him a more compelling character. For now though, he’s essentially a kid who is out of his league right now. His pet monster is certainly powerful but Johnny himself isn’t very impressive.

In his arc we also meet Vortex who is another former #1. This guy actually seems really powerful so you can get why he was a full on legend. Power over the weather is always a good ability and it didn’t seem like he got really corrupted the way that a lot of the others were. So he gets props on having a strong will as well which is something that a lot of ex heroes were missing.

As we approach the end, Dragon Boy gets the next slot. We’ve got another villainous figure this time. He was raised by one of the corporate sponsors to be the next big villain so it was going to be tough for him to get on the right road from the start. His ability is about tanking damage long enough for him to copy his aggressor’s abilities. It’s a cool ability so long as you can stay in the fight that long. It’s a big if though and that’s where things get pretty tricky. He does well against both Smile and Nice so right now his abilities have a high limit to them.

I’m a bit skeptical if this will continue to be the case but for now he has to be a contender as one of the strongest fighters. He makes for a good villain so I’m excited about that. Then we have Smile who feels like a Superman type of figure. How much he has to force himself to smile is an interesting topic. Is it the fans or Smile himself trying to keep up an image? I tend to think it’s more the latter which makes this another scary curse. Imagine having to constantly be smiling no matter what’s going on? That’s not a fun fate for anyone to have. Things really got rough for Smile here and I’d have liked to have seen more of him.

Nice also gets a big role here and I should talk about him separate from Lin Ling. Nice is a much pettier character and he doesn’t have the mental fortitude that Lin Ling has. Nice constantly lets the pressure get to him and doesn’t stand up for himself. Even when he makes the right decision it’s not until he has hesitated for quite a while. I can’t say that I ever liked him here. He doesn’t even work as a cool villain because he’s too whiny. Unless we get some twists about the first episode, he ultimately wasn’t able to stay strong in the end either.

After that we wind down with quick episodes for the last heroes. The first is Ahu who is a dog but gained the ability to talk and everything as he became a legend. It shows that the power of the fans can even affect animals. It’s a pretty interesting effect. I can’t say that I can take him too seriously though. He doesn’t seem nearly as powerful as the other heroes. He also seems to be easily manipulated like when he went after X at the end. A nice enough pup but I don’t see him winning a single match against a named opponent in season 2.

Finally we have X, the ultimate hero. He has reality warping abilities where he can switch the world from 2D to 3D by snapping his fingers. Which world is the real one? Well we don’t even know. In addition to this he has very quick reflexes and basically never gets hit. He can end most matches in an instant and is virtually unbeatable. It’ll be curious to see how someone gets the jump on him eventually but for now it’s hard to picture that happening without some serious plot convenience. This guy is just too broken and powerful. There is a reason why he is known as being unbeatable after all.

This guy is also super likable so that’s another added bonus. He’s easy to root for Generally I like the overpowered characters so I’m not too surprised. X has unbelievable confidence and just says it like it is. He clearly has some kind of a plan as the season ends so it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. There are so many ways that the next season can play out. Almost half of the heroes are evil at this point and everyone has an agenda. Some range from being dangerous to flat out world ending threats.

The final episode has a new ending which also shows a bunch of new villains. So there might be some kind of outer space invasion that forces everyone to team up. That would be an interesting angle to pursue but I admit I’ll be a little sad if we just completely skip the tournament. I would not want to do that! At least let me have a few small fights to rank the heroes. I also really need Lin Ling to confront E-Soul. I don’t even know how E-Soul is still alive right now. Lin should have put him 6 feet under as soon as they met so the show is going to need to give me some really good explanations for this. It’s going to be a hard plot to write around.

Overall, To Be Hero X is a really intense series. It took a lot of bold approaches like airing all of the arcs backwards and the shifting animation styles. Even releasing the exact order of the arcs and who the leads would be before the series even started airing. It spoke to the confidence of the show and I hope it was well founded so we get the second season soon. If you haven’t watched the show yet then you should definitely check this one out. It’s an elite action show and has the daunting task of trying to create a whole universe about heroes like Marvel and DC. It is definitely on the right track though. It also set the bar extremely high for animation so season 2 has an insane amount of pressure on it.

Overall 9/10

The Town Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 4/10