Reaction & Review | The Tower

 

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm covering a Canadian made-for-television movie from 1985. That movie is "The Tower".

Now, the premise for this movie almost sounds promising enough for me to warrant covering for this series. The premise involves a supercomputer that is killing the employees that work at this tower for their energy, and the people that work there have to try to find a way out of this tower that is trapping them. I don't know what the hell their energy entails to this supercomputer, but I am going to find out soon enough.

I can also tell you that this movie marks as the first international made-for-television movie I'm ever going to watch. Now, that it isn't to say that this is the first made-for-television movie I'm ever covering for this series. That honor would go to "The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas". But being that this is my first exposure to a made-for-TV film outside of the U.S., I'm curious to see how this movie's going to fare with me.

I'm not totally sure if this movie from Canada is going to be any good, but I am hoping for this thing to be decent. And the only way I'm gonna know the answer to that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Tower".

6 minutes later

Wait, so that little spark from that switch was enough to injure that woman's hand? Her hand barely touched the switch. And that explosion? Her hand was barely around it to where it wouldn't cause enough damage to showcase an injury. I could understand if her hand was right on the impact of the explosion, but it wasn't. Her hand barely touched it! How the hell was that enough to cause an injury to her hand? I'm really curious, guys, and I'm not sure if this movie's going to attempt to explain that.

16 minutes later

OK, so one of the employees has admitted that Lola, the resident 'Big Brother' as he claims it, runs everything in this building. And for some reason, he doesn't sound the least bit concerned about what he just said. Guys, if I just heard that a supercomputer was running an entire building, I would, honestly, be a little bit freaked out by that. The very fact that this guy doesn't sound concerned by this concept sounds incredibly creepy to me. Just thought I'd mention that.

11 minutes later

Guys, I'm gonna make a comment about this later on in the review, but the special effects in this movie are incredibly cheap. And I mean they are cheap by the standards of 1985. That is just incredibly depressing.

13 minutes later

So Lola has the power to move telephones at will...OK. When the hell did she have this kind of power? I understand that Lola's a supercomputer, and she has the power to run the entire Sandawn building, but I didn't know that it included moving telephones as if she were psychic. I'm kinda curious as to how she got this ability, and I don't think that the movie's going to explain that bit.

15 minutes later

OK...you know, I was going to ask why didn't this guy just break the glass that's around the front door of the building, and get out that way. Well...at least I have my answer as to why. But...wait a minute, all he did was move the rolling chair at the front of the door before it got, I guess, zapped away by the heat signature from Lola. So how come he didn't just throw the chair at the glass? I understand it probably wouldn't have changed anything, but at least it would've made more sense then just rolling it towards the door. But then again, this movie's logic is starting to hurt my mind, and I'm not sure if this movie's going to get any better.

17 minutes later

Guys, I would love to say that this movie is slowly getting interesting again. But unfortunately, that isn't the case. Our story has gone nowhere fast, and we're now watching a music video involving this stripper/dancer, whatever she is, and she's watching it with Watson. I have no idea what purpose this scene is proving, but at this point, I have just stopped caring about what's happening in this movie. And I cannot wait for it to end.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Tower". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. Well, that was...certainly something. What the hell do I even talk about first? Well, when in doubt, start with the writing.

I want to make a correction from earlier. And it was the issue involving the woman at the beginning of the movie, who supposedly gotten her hand injured after a spark caused that injury. Well, that's not necessarily true. What happened was that her hand didn't get injured, it just got shocked. Which does make more sense than getting injured. So, I will admit that I was wrong about that. However, my issue with how that scene played out still stands. Because, as I mentioned before, her hand BARELY touched the switch before it sparked out. Now, it would've made more sense if her hand completely touched the switch, and then the spark from Lola caused it to explode. That would've been more believable if that's how the scene would've played out. But that's not the case, because her hand was about 2 inches away from where the switch was at. And the outcome of the spark was nowhere near to where her hand was at. So, that whole sequence just comes off as being rather lazy. And it would've also been more believable if her hand DID touch the switch as the spark was about to go off, and we would've gotten to see how badly her hand got damaged from that spark. But again, it just comes off as rather lazy, because we don't get to see a close up of any kind on her hand being injured or burnt. Now, I totally understand that you want to work with safe props, but I still think the movie could've done a better job in showing how her hand got damaged from that spark. Really though, that honestly is just a minor issue that most people are not going to notice or care about, but I still think it was worth mentioning, because it bothered the shit out of me.

Now, beyond that issue involving the woman's hand getting damaged, let's talk about the rest of the writing. Our story here is actually really promising. Because we have the supercomputer, Lola, who is gathering energy from the people that work at this building. Now the reason why Lola runs on energy is because it was built on people's heat energy that is making the entire Sandawn building self-sufficient, meaning that it doesn't need any help from fossil fuels and such. And it basically has control on anything electrical, such as lights, elevators, phones, most of the doors in this building, etc. And for whatever reason, Watson, the guy who made Lola, decides to let her run the building because he promised Lola. Well, according to Lola anyway. And because he decides to let her run the entire building after it closes, she traps some of them inside the building, because it obviously needs energy. And most of the people that's trapped in the building need to find a way out, and possibly shut Lola down. Now, that to me sounds rather interesting. And for the first, say...45 minutes or so, it is rather interesting. Because even though some of the story didn't make any sense, I was still interested enough to keep watching. But here's where we run into a problem. After that 45 minutes goes by, the entire story comes to a dead stop, and the movie is just incredibly boring to watch, because all of that interest died after the first half of the movie. The second half of the movie goes absolutely nowhere, to a point where it just didn't know what it wanted to do after that 45 minutes. To prove this theory further, we have a couple of scenes that drag on way too long. And both of those scenes involve Watson, as he's at this strip club, and the person who is dancing on stage joins him after her dance is over. And we get a ton of exposition from him about Lola. Mind you, this would've been interesting, except it's information about Lola that the viewers already know about. We don't get to learn anything new about it, other than how it features and that it needs heat energy. On top of all that, we also have another scene with him and this stripper as they enter his apartment or house, the movie's not totally clear about where they're at. And this scene serves no purpose at all, because most of it is just him and this stripper watching this music video with the stripper in it, and they're making out as the music video plays. And, as I just stated, it serves no purpose at all, other than to pad itself out to it's hour and 43 runtime. It probably would've helped if they cut these scenes out entirely, because nothing of real value happens in these scenes.

It also doesn't help that this movie has no characters that are worth caring about. Nobody here has any real development, outside of Lola. And the only reason why Lola is the exception is because of two things. She's the only character I remembered the most by name, and she's basically just a knock-off of the HAL 9000. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, even though that's what she ultimately is. But honestly, it makes her stand out as the most memorable character in the entire movie. As for the human characters, I could barely tell you most of their names, because they are just that forgetful. I'm gonna try and rundown all of the character depth that I can remember. One of them works in advertising and makes soap. One of them is the wife of Mr. Sandawn, who is the head of this company, hence the name 'Sandawn Inc'. After her husband gets his energy zapped and gets killed, she finds out that her husband has been having an affair behind her back for 20 years. Which is something that she knew about...somehow. But that's really all of the depth that she had. One of them gets his leg zapped by Lola and gets injured in the process. One of them works at the front desk of the building, who I guess is also a security guard. He also happens to have a girlfriend, who spends quite a bit of time in the movie swimming in the pool area. I guess it was just a way for the writer to have some fanservice in this movie. Which is kinda stupid, but oh well. One of them is a douchebag. And another one is our female lead, who has zero personality to her character. And then there's Watson, who is, as I mentioned earlier, the guy who lets Lola run the entire building to herself after it closes. And that's it for characters. Nobody here has any personality or depth, and they all just come off as rather bland and lifeless. And that's what really brings this movie's writing down, is the fact that our characters are just so boring and dull. To a point where you are not going to care about any of them, because the movie decided that giving these characters personality and depth would've probably made this thing more interesting to watch. And it probably would've been, had our characters been more interesting, and the second half of the movie not coming to a dead stop because it didn't know what it wanted to do afterwards with it's premise. So, honestly, writing here is just terrible. And it could've been amazing, had this thing had gotten a better script.

Now let's get to the acting. I'm just gonna come out and say it, the acting here is terrible. However, I might be willing to give some of it a pass, and I'll get to why in a moment. But the acting here ranges from being wooden, hammy, to just being lifeless. It really ranges from those 3 categories. The only one who turns in a showing that is actually decent is whoever is voicing Lola. But that's not saying very much, because the character is just a supercomputer, and you don't really have to go the extra mile into making it sound good, because it mostly speaks for itself. Now, the reason why I'm willing to give the, mostly, terrible acting a pass is because, since this is my first made-for-TV film that I'm watching from another country, I don't know if that's how the actors in this movie naturally sound, or they were just given a bad script that they decided to phone it in for this movie. I have no idea. So, I'm going to give the bad acting a pass here because I haven't really seen a lot of Canadian movies, well Canadian made-for-TV movies anyway.

Now we to get to the special effects...oh boy. Now, I totally get that this movie was made on a really low budget. So naturally, you shouldn't expect miracles when it comes to special effects. However, the special effects in this movie are incredibly cheap. And most of the effects in this movie are video effects. And most of the video effects come when Lola has to gather energy from humans. The first I can think of is when one of the security guard's bosses enter this room, and Lola asks him for his identity clearance. And what comes after is when Lola zaps him with blue energy, and the screen will turn into different colors until the guy disappears permanently. And that's not the only time that it happens. It happens quite a few times in this movie. However, as I stated, all of the effects for it are really cheap. And I mean they're really cheap, even by the standards of 1985. So, even if I were to view the movie by 1985 standards, I would still say the effects are kinda shit. And once again, I get that the movie was filmed on a low budget, but I still think that they could've done something better than just really cheap video effects. But it is what it is, so you just have to take it for what you will.

I do need to make mention of camerawork, because this entire movie was shot on video. Which, I believe, is sort of a rare thing for made-for-TV movies. At least, to me, it's sort of rare to see this. And I will say that the camerawork here is actually not too bad for a movie that was shot on video. Now mind you, it's not great, however, you also have to take into consideration that made-for-TV movies are never going to look amazing. Even if this thing was shot on video, it still looks kinda cheap. However, for the time that this thing came out, it looks rather decent. Now, I don't know if that's how Canada filmed their TV movies back in the day, or if this thing was just entirely an experimental film. Either way, the camerawork stands out the most in this movie. And for me, personally, I will consider it a positive. Lighting here is lit pretty well. Sound-mix could've been mixed better for some scenes, because some scenes in this movie have quite a bit of background noise. However, it's not enough to where you can't hear the movie properly, so I'm not gonna consider it entirely as a negative. Music here is OK. None of it is memorable, but it's certainly not terrible either. So, the score here is passable.

Ultimately, guys, am I able to recommend "The Tower"? Probably not. The only way I could recommend it is if you have a morbid curiosity like I did. If you're wondering how a made-for-TV from Canada would handle this kind of premise, then go ahead and check it out. You can probably find a copy of this movie on YouTube if you type in the movie's title and the year it came out in. For anyone who's into B movies, maybe I could recommend it there too. Other than that, no. This movie was pretty terrible. However, that being said, I wouldn't say it completely wasted my time. Because I was interested for the first 45 minutes or so. But everything after that just falls apart, and it falls apart really quickly. And unfortunately, I just don't see myself watching this thing ever again. But hey, at least I gave it a fair shot. It just didn't hold well for me. Now...I think I'm gonna go watch something else. I think I'll go watch "Escape from New York". Because it has been a little while since I've seen it, and I'm kinda in the mood to watch it again. And maybe I'll pop in "They Live" as well, just to marathon both of John Carpenter's movies.

Anyway, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Santa with Muscles

Welcome, one and all, to the "Reaction & Review Christmas in July Special". Yeah, guys, I'm gonna go ahead and throw my hat into this weird holiday because why not? Anyway, I've decided to cover a Christmas movie for this month, and I have found a movie that is going to be perfect for this special. It is a family film from 1996. That movie is "Santa with Muscles".

Now, I don't really know much about this movie, outside of who stars in it. I know that the movie stars Hulk Hogan. Which sounds pretty cool, because being that I am a fan of wrestling, this movie has already sold me on it because it stars Hulk Hogan. Speaking of which, I haven't really seen any movies where he had a leading role. The only times I've ever seen him in movies was when he made cameo appearances in "Rocky III" and "Gremlins 2". Other than that, I haven't seen stuff like "Suburban Commando", "No Holds Barred", "Mr. Nanny", or any movies that he had a part in. Tonight, I'm going to change that by checking out this film.

I really haven't really checked out what this movie is about, because I wanted to go into this movie as blind as possible. But from what I can gather, it involves Hulk Hogan beating up bad guys while dressed as Santa. Which sounds like the kinda cheesy, stupid, fun that I actually might enjoy. I'm kinda hoping there's more context to this, but I am going to find out right now. And the only way I'm gonna do that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Santa with Muscles".

2 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this letter that this little girl is writing to Santa. So this guy named Mr. Frost is being mean to the people of the village where this little girl lives, and they all move away because he's been mean to them. Rather than calling the police, so that they can maybe do something about it, this little girl thinks that Santa is going to go help them instead? What sense does that make?! I understand it's a family film, but it seems a little bit stupid to me that you couldn't get the police to help control this guy that's supposedly causing trouble. It just seems a little bit weird to me, you know?

13 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I know now why the village doesn't rely on the police. When your force is led by Clint Howard, then it's just going to lead to nothing but disaster. At least I know now that if I ever visited Lakeville for whatever reason, I'm probably never going to ask Clint Howard to find my cat. That's how useless he is.

20 minutes later

So the title of this movie comes from a newspaper headline? That's...kinda stupid. But it's leagues better than name dropping a main character through someone's dead daughter from "Valentine: The Dark Avenger". So at least there is that.

10 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this little girl's singing is fucking terrible. She sounds almost tone deaf, and if I have to hear her sing again in this movie, then I fear it's going to be incredibly torturous.

18 minutes later

I will say, guys, that was kind of a creative plan from these scientists on getting to trick Blake into thinking that he wasn't wanted by the orphanage anymore. It's kinda stupid that Blake believes it automatically without questions, but still, at least their plan was kinda creative.

8 minutes later

You know, guys, there's something incredibly charming when Blake is doing something rather dickish, such as using his products to out maneuver the police, which are unfortunately led by Clint Howard. I kinda hoped he wouldn't appear again in this movie, but at least it's further proof that the police in this town are incredibly useless.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Santa with Muscles". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. Well, that was certainly an interesting film. Mind you, it has it's problems, but, to be honest, a lot of it is going to be incredibly minor. Now I'm not saying that this is a great movie, but I'll get more into that later on.

Before I get into the review itself, I need to address something first. Because this is something that I feel needs to be known. You see, I try to avoid a lot of family type Christmas films. And the reason being is that most of them are kinda samey. Now, that's not to say I don't hate them, I just don't really see myself watching those films too much. The only real exception to me hating on those films is when I was stupid enough to try and watch any Christmas movies from the Hallmark Channel. Where most of those movies would rehash a ton of the same plots from other Christmas films put out by the Hallmark Channel, and there is no life, or soul, put into any of them whatsoever. Now there are certain movies that I do enjoy watching around Christmas. For example, I will watch the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials anytime that they're airing on TV. And occasionally, I will watch the first "Santa Clause" movie with Tim Allen, because that movie is fantastic. And thanks to this series, I was able to add "The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas" to that list of Christmas films I'll watch every year. But aside from those, I don't really watch a ton of other Christmas movies. You see, my method in watching films around Christmas time has to do with it's season. What I mean by that is I'll watch movies that are related to the winter season. For example, I'll watch movies such as "Pokemon: The Movie 2000", "Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice", "Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero", etc. You can kinda notice a pattern with some of those movies, aside from the fact that they have a wintery feel to them. Which, I totally understand that it sounds fucking stupid, but it's just something that I, personally, like watching around Christmas time. So, you can kinda see where I'm going with this. I don't watch a lot of Christmas-esque films, because I don't find a lot of them to be interesting. Now, if I were to rank in "Santa with Muscles" in all of this, I would say...it's something I might watch every couple of years. Because while the movie is certainly decent, it's not something that I'm gonna go out of my way in watching every year. But I still think what is here works. And it works fine for a Christmas family film.

I suppose that I should get into the writing. The writing here is...OK, at best. Now, one big positive I can give this movie's writing is the pacing. This is, quite possibly, one of the best paced Christmas films I've seen in a long time. And that's saying a lot, because I mentioned earlier that I was stupid enough to watch some Christmas movies from the Hallmark Channel. One other issue that I had with them was the pacing in some of those movies. It ranges from either the writing in some of those films having no fucking plot whatsoever, or it's just crawling at a snail's pace because the movie doesn't know where it wants to go. This movie, however, shows that you can have great pacing, and still tell a decent story while you're at it. Our characters here are kinda shallow. Which includes the kids at this orphanage, our villains being rather cartoony, and the grown-ups who are taking care of the children at the orphanage. Most of them have no real depth to their characters, but it was something that I was kinda expecting going into this movie. And I know that there are those who might have a higher standard when it comes to character development. I, myself, care about that kind of thing, too. However, one other thing that I mentioned before in my reviews is that if a movie is not going to go the extra mile in giving characters a ton of depth, at least give the viewer a reason as to why we should care about any of these characters. And, to a certain extent, it kinda works here. Nobody here is painfully irritating. Well, except for maybe one or two of them, but I'll get to them in a bit. But anyway, nobody here is painfully irritating, to a point where you won't wish for them to just die a sweet and painful death. Not that it was going to happen in this movie, but you get my point. There is one character I'm a little disappointed in, which would have to be the main character, Blake, who is Hulk Hogan's character in this movie. At the start of the film, Blake is shown to be a billionaire who really only cares about himself, and his image. And by image, I'm talking about his products that he sells, which has his face plastered on them. And he's really at his best when he's outrunning the police that are led by Clint Howard. Because before the police chase after him, Blake is seen playing paintball with his servants. And when he and another guy were on the run from the police, Blake would use tactics such as shooting his paintball gun at Clint Howard's squad car. Or much later on in the movie, he would use his own products to outrun the police. And during all this, Blake is just lovably dickish. Especially knowing that, even though he has technically become a better person later on in the movie, he would still find ways to be a dick towards the police that are after him. And that, to me, is when Blake was at his best. But when he becomes "Santa", his personality is about as interesting as dried paint. Now, I totally understand why his character is like that, because he had gotten amnesia after he was trying to hide from Clint Howard and another officer, who were trying to find him, while Blake was barely hiding in a trash chute. Which, I'm kinda curious as to how Clint and the officer didn't see the white gloves that were holding onto the railing while they were trying to find Blake, but that only proves even further how stupid Clint Howard's character in this movie is. But still, Blake's character as "Santa" is not all that interesting. But, then again, it still makes some level of sense as to why Blake is "Santa". I kinda wish his personality was more interesting when he lost his memories, but that's really the only issue I had with this movie's writing. And even then, most people are not going to notice that, or even care. But I still feel like it was worth mentioning.

Beyond that one issue, the writing here is still OK. It's just that the characters are rather shallow. However, you kinda have to go in this movie with some low expectations. Because if you go into this movie and thinking that you're going to get mountains of character depth, you're not going to find any of that here. Now let's get to the acting. And the acting here is an incredibly mixed bag. I'm gonna start with Hulk Hogan, because that makes the most sense. Hogan's acting in this movie is incredibly cheesy, especially in the moments where he acts incredibly dickish, such as when he's outrunning the cops. And his acting is just lovably cheesy, that you're probably going to get a smile out of it, because I can tell you that Hogan was having a blast with this role just by sheer body language. And if he were playing more straight up and serious, then his acting would've suffered, and it would've made the movie incredibly shit. Now, I totally understand that there are those who can't stand cheesy acting. And if you're one of those people, then you're probably going find Hulk Hogan's acting in this movie to be wooden, and kinda shit. But me, personally, I got use to this kinda cheesy acting really quickly. Partially because, I do like cheesy acting, as long as it's not trying too hard to be so bad it's funny. Now, there a couple of actors I did recognize in this movie, and both of them are related, in a way. One of them is a young Mila Kunis, who is one of the child actors in this movie. Most people will recognize her as Jackie from "That 70's Show", and as the voice of Meg from "Family Guy". And I will say that her acting is pretty good, especially when you consider the standards when it comes to child acting. The other actor is Don Stark, who is Blake's elf friend, I guess. He's also from "That 70's Show", because he plays the character of Bob, who was Donna's father in that show. Now, I didn't recognize him, up until very late in the film, and that's when I recognized him as Bob from "That 70's Show". And his acting is also fairly decent. So to have both actors who would later go on to be on "That 70's Show" is actually kinda cool.

If there was any bad acting I had to pick from this movie, it would have to go to two of them. One of them is Clint Howard. For those who don't know, he is the brother of Ron Howard. And when compared to his brother, Clint is just absolutely terrible in this movie. Not just himself, but his character in this movie was completely shit. He really doesn't put in that much effort in this movie, which wasn't really too surprising, because I had no hopes for him in this movie when I first saw him on screen. So, his acting was shit, even if it was to be expected from him. The other actor who was terrible in this movie was the child actress who played Elizabeth. She was absolutely horrible in this movie. And I'm not saying that just because she is a child actor, but her acting was just terrible in general. And when you compare it with the other child actors in this film, it really stands out. Because the other main kids in this movie, including the background child actors at the mall, were pretty good. But when you listen to her speak, it almost sounds like she has no idea what she's doing in this movie. Not only is her acting terrible, but her singing is also shit, too. But that's more attributed to the fact this child actress sounded almost tone deaf when she was asked to sing. So, she was the worst child actor in this entire movie. But everyone other child actor at least tried. So, it's kind of a trade off. You'll mostly get fairly decent acting from the children in this movie, but the actress playing Elizabeth was just fucking terrible all around. So overall, the acting is a rather mixed bag. But it's not enough to ruin the entire movie for you, unless you have higher expectations when it comes to the acting.

The only real special effect that I came across in this movie was anything involving electricity. It's especially noticeable on one of our villains, because she has these gloves that spark electricity. And the special effects involving electricity are OK. Like, it's nothing to be amazed by, but it's certainly decent, especially for the standards of special effects from 1996. There's also a couple of shots involving CG, and it's just kinda there. You might notice it, or you won't. Either way, special effects are average at best.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Again, it's nothing amazing, but it's certainly filmed well enough. Lighting here is really good. Sound-mix is mixed properly. I do want to touch upon music, because this is something that I noticed when I was watching this movie. This might sound like a weird thing to complain about, but for a movie involving Christmas, there really isn't a lot of Christmas music being played in this movie. Which is rather surprising, because I was expecting this movie to have a ton of Christmas music. But strangely, you don't hear a lot of it in this movie. The score here is a rather generic score you would hear in family comedies and children's films. And while none of it is remotely horrible, it's nothing that you're going to remember this movie by. The only real time you would hear Christmas music is when the movie has to be at this mall, where Blake starts to become Santa. Other than that, there is a surprisingly lack of Christmas music in this movie. Again, I totally understand that it's a strange thing to be bitching about, but it was something that I noticed, so you have to take it for what you will. Other than the lack of Christmas music, the music here is incredibly forgetful.

Overall, guys, can I recommend "Santa with Muscles"? I can recommend it to children, because children will probably adore this thing. Because if they're fans of wrestling, and they know who Hulk Hogan is, then they're going to love this thing. And if you, yourself, are a fan of Hulk Hogan, you're probably going to find something out of this thing, too. Also, if you're a fan of cheesy, stupid Christmas films like "Jingle All the Way", by all means, check it out. It certainly has enough charm to where you can overlook most of the flaws that this movie has. However, if you have higher expectations when it comes to Christmas movies, and you don't like cheesy acting, then there's no way I can recommend this thing. Especially knowing that this movie was only in theaters for about two weeks, before being pulled out of them for how poorly this movie did. But I still think it's worth watching, at least, once. And like I said, if you enjoy these sorts of stupid, cheesy family films, you're probably going to end up loving it. I, myself, enjoyed watching this thing quite a bit. I still don't think it's worth watching every year for Christmas, but I still might watch it again every couple of years or so. Now, as for myself, I think I'm gonna go and watch another family film. And I see my copy of "Babe" on my DVD shelf. I'm gonna go watch that. In fact, I have both "Babe" and "Babe: Pig in the City" as part of a 2-pack. I'm gonna just marathon both of those, because I'm kinda in the mood to watch another family film.

And with that, we come to the close of the first "Christmas in July Special" for Reaction & Review. I don't know if I will do this kind of special again, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Tamara

 

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm covering a horror movie from 2005. That movie is "Tamara".

Now, I don't know a whole lot about this movie. I can tell you that it's from the creator of the "Final Destination" movies. And I wouldn't have known that, had the blurb on the top of the cover didn't announce it. I should mention that I tried to watch the "Final Destination" films, and I just could not get into them. Mainly because, most of them lacked logic and the only thing that people even cared about those movies were the kills. So already, I'm not entirely sold on this movie because of it's creator's track record. But who knows? Maybe he'll do something good here with this movie since it's not tied with the "Final Destination" films.

While I'm on the subject of tonight's movie, I need to tell you how I came across this thing. You see, when I reviewed "Drive Thru" several weeks ago, it didn't come with just that movie by itself. It came as part of a horror collection DVD 4-pack. Which featured "Drive Thru", two other movies that I'm not really sure I even want to cover for this series, because I was reading the premises on what they were and they didn't really sound like they would be worth watching. And then the other movie was "Tamara." And I chose to cover this movie because the premise is that Tamara ends up being killed after a terrible prank goes horribly wrong. And she comes back from the dead to exact revenge against the people that ended up getting her killed. Which sounds like an amazing premise, because, as has been established before in this series, I really like revenge movies. So this is already sounding promising.

That being said, there are a couple of things that I am a little concerned about. The first thing is that this movie bombed badly at the box office. How badly? Well, the budget was about 3 and half million dollars, and it only made back around $207,000. That is already a bad sign. Now admittedly, that's more of a baseless worry, because I have seen movies that didn't do well financially and I still ended up enjoying them. A real good example of that would be "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure", which I covered for this series. It wasn't great, but I still ended up, kinda, liking it. Now the other thing that I am concerned about is that even though this movie is a revenge film, that doesn't mean it's going to be any good. Mainly because, I have been let down by revenge films in the past, especially for this series. A couple of good examples would be "Samurai Princess" and "Drive Angry". Hopefully, "Tamara" will be able to break that mold. I kinda doubt it, but I'm gonna hold out hope for this one.

I really want this movie to be decent. Again, it's doubtful, but I'm just gonna see if this thing is even worth watching. And the only way I'm gonna find that out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Tamara".

5 minutes later

Well, that's...something different. I'm going to assume that this is suppose to be our main character, who seems to be making out with her teacher, I think? And they're making out in the classroom. I have no idea what point this scene serves, but at least it's something different. Oh...I think this is suppose to be a dream sequence. Still, at least we're starting off with something different.

8 minutes later

You know, guys, this story, so far, is looking promising. Do you know what would make it better? If the acting was actually halfway decent. But it's not. And if this is the kind of acting that I have to get use to for the next hour and a half, then I fear I might be in for a torturous hour and a half.

15 minutes later

Wait a second here. So these douchebag high school bullies are secretly filming Tamara, as she's going into this one hotel room where she thinks she's going to meet her high school teacher. One of these high school students that's watching this is someone who cares about Tamara and doesn't want to see her getting bullied. How the fuck does she not know that's Tamara? She's SEEN Tamara at school and should know what her face looks like. I'm sorry, guys, but this is really starting to bug me slightly.

11 minutes later

Hold on a fucking second here. So Chloe admitted that they tried to bury Tamara alive. Even though in the previous scene where it showed that they tried to bury her, she came back alive and killed two of these jerk-offs, and then it ended when Chloe woke up from her dream. So...does that mean what they're experiencing now is a...dream, too? Because if she said that they tried to bury her alive, even though it was nothing more than a nightmare of Chloe's, does that mean that them seeing Tamara is nothing more than a dream, too? Guys, this movie's writing is starting hurt my head, and I am fucking lost here.

9 minutes later

OK, I have another question. It's rather stupid at this point, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So they DID bury Tamara at the woods. That much is confirmed. All right. So why is Chloe seeing stuff that the other high school bullies can't? She saw a head pop up from where Tamara is supposedly buried at. But the others didn't. Are we going to get an explanation as to how Chloe is able to see this shit that others can't? I hope we get an answer within the next 50 minutes. Otherwise, I'm just gonna be left with mountains of questions that are never going to get answered.

15 minutes later

So Tamara literally has the power to brainwash the people she touches against their will to do what she says. If that is the case, then why didn't she brainwash her teacher to make her fall in love with her earlier on in the movie? If she has that power, why then go through all this bullshit? I understand that I'm putting logic into a movie that seems allergic to it, but, at this point, I just have to ask it because I know that the movie is not knowing to give me a straight answer.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand that this scene is suppose to be tense and dramatic. And I probably would care, if any of these characters had some level of depth. But guess what? I don't. This movie has become boring as shit, and I still got another 18 minutes left of this crap to go. This is gonna suck, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Tamara". Good lord, that movie was terrible. I'm gonna shut this garbage off...OK. Well, I guess it shows my hand early on what I thought about this movie. Then again, it was kinda obvious throughout this Reaction & Review, but still...what the fuck to even start with?

Let's just start with the writing. You probably noticed throughout my reactions that I was asking a ton of questions. Most of them didn't get answered. And even the ones that did get answered still don't make any fucking sense. But the ones that don't make sense still bother the shit out of me. The biggest instance involves the character of Chloe. Chloe is the one character who doesn't want to see Tamara getting bullied and wants the other bullies to stop. So, these bullies that always bully Tamara set up this prank, where they try to get her to this cheap hotel, because Tamara thinks that her high school teacher called her and wants to be together with her. I could go into great detail about how weird and creepy a student/teacher relationship sounds, but I'm not going to get into that here. So, she ends up going because she thinks that her magic ritual worked. I'll get into that when I talk about the character of Tamara later on. So she ends up getting into the hotel room that the bullies set up, and they begin to film this prank. And it ends up with Tamara getting embarrassed and humiliated as they continue filming her. She ends up getting into the hotel room that they are at, and it winds up with a struggle that ends up getting her killed, because her head gets smashed on the side of a wooden table. Because of what they did, they decide to bury her out in the woods. Now, here's where this whole thing starts to get confusing. So, they end up trying to bury her, but, somehow, Tamara ends up being alive and winds up killing two of the male bullies. And then, for no apparent reason, it ends up with Chloe waking up from her bed because it was a dream. Why does this scene exist? Why is it that we had to have Chloe wake up from her dream, after Tamara ends up killing two of the bullies? Guys, I'm gonna tell you, that entire scene took me out of the movie, because I had so many questions on whether or not this movie was just an entire dream. And guess what? It wasn't a dream. So again, what was the point of having this scene of Chloe waking up from this dream? It makes no fucking sense. If this movie didn't have that scene of Chloe waking up from her dream, then I probably would've given this movie a lot less shit. But because that one scene does exist, it will ruin the entire movie for you, because you'll probably end up asking a ton of questions about this movie yourself. Now, whether or not it was similar to the questions I had for this movie, I can't really say. But that one scene will, ultimately, kill this entire movie for you, and then there's gonna be no reason for you to continue watching this movie. Especially considering that there was no indication or hint of this dream ever happening, because it comes the fuck out of nowhere.

On top of that, we don't get an explanation as to how Chloe sees things that the bullies can't. For instance, why was she the only one that was able to see a head pop out of the grave that they buried Tamara in? Was that too just part of a dream she had? Does she have visions or something? I was really curious about this, and the movie didn't explain shit about that. Now earlier, I had mentioned that this movie was from the creator of the "Final Destination" movies. And it definitely shows, because this movie has the same problems that the "Final Destination" movies had. They are full of inconsistencies and logic issues that make no fucking sense. I could barely get through the 3rd "Final Destination" movie because it was just so poorly written, that I did not want to watch any more of them after that. But there is one difference that separates "Tamara" from the "Final Destination" movies. For all of the crappy writing that the "Final Destination" movies had, at least the ones I've seen, the one thing that made that series unique were the kills. Some people could overlook the crappy writing for those movies and watch the, mostly, cool looking kills. And it made those movies a little bit charming to watch. Mind you, they're not good movies, at least to me they aren't, but the kills is what made those movies kinda worth watching. This movie, on the other hand, has so many logic issues and inconsistencies that it's not something you're going to be able to overlook, unless if you're a horror movie junkie that doesn't care about plot or characters. But since I have more of a tolerance when it comes to characters and story, this movie doesn't have anything that I would consider good in any of those elements. It's just really poorly written, that it's really going to make this movie incredibly hard to watch.

Now, setting aside all the questions that I had for this movie's writing, because I could be here for an entire day talking about all of the inconsistencies that this movie has, let's talk about the characters. Most of them are either unlikable or just don't have any personality to speak of. Most of the unlikable characters are the high school bullies. Which makes sense, because you're not suppose to like bullies, so at least they got that much right. We then have Tamara's high school teacher, who she tries to end up being with, because fuck you, that's why. No seriously, we never get a background as to why she likes her high school teacher, so much so that she ends up trying to make him fall in love with her through a ritual. I'm also wondering as to why when Tamara shows up inside his house, that he never ends up asking how did she get in his house? Or how Tamara knows that he and the high school counselor are going to have a baby. Well, technically, she knows that they've had issues in conceiving a baby. But that's just me adding onto the pile of questions that I have for this movie. Speaking of Tamara, let's finally talk about our main character. Now, I do kinda like the idea of Tamara, as a character. Because she's a timid high school girl who's into witchcraft. And if this character were written better, and was in a better movie, then I think that I would end up really liking this character. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. Now, before she ends up getting killed, she actually is a likable character...minus the attraction she has for her high school teacher. Anyway, before she ends up coming back from the dead, you can actually sympathize with her, because a lot of people could relate to the idea of being bullied at school. Hell, even I was at a few points. So, on that end, it totally works for the character. What doesn't is when AFTER she ends up becoming this weirdo with magic. And I'm gonna be honest with you, guys, when I say this, everything involving her powers as to how she's able to control people with one touch, or how she's able to have all these weird powers involving people ending up killing themselves, can be summarized by saying fuck you, it's magic. Why? Because magic. Now, I could totally see that this movie wanted to take this character and make it into a psychological horror movie, rather than just being a straight up revenge film. And, as I stated, if this character were in a better movie, or if she was written better by someone who knew what they were doing, then this movie would be amazing. Unfortunately, everything that comes after Tamara's death is just gonna leave you confused and dumbfounded, because this movie was trying desperately hard to fuck with your mind. It does, but not in the good way.

So, writing here is the biggest sin that this movie commits. And to make a terrible movie worse, we also have horrible acting. Now, naturally, when you're given a script that is this poorly written, you can't expect the actors to give out a performance that is going to make this terrible script work. And, for the most part, that is what ends up happening here. Most of these actors are horrible on camera, to a point that some of them haven't even taken acting lessons in their life. The worse instance comes from the actor who plays Tamara's high school teacher. He was awful in this movie. His acting is wooden, if nothing else. And it makes his performance in this movie almost stand out. Now shockingly, the one actress who does turn in a really good showing is the actress who plays Tamara. I believe her name was Jenna Dewan. She was able to polish this turd of a script and make it kinda work. And you know what? I really have to give Jenna Dewan a lot of praise, because she was able to take something this horrible and stupid, and make it work well enough for her. Everyone else was shit, but Jenna Dewan was able to be herself and make her character work. It's just kind of a pity that she had to star in something this terrible, but hey, she tried, and she ended up being the only shining spot in the acting.

Special effects are pretty damn good. And for a movie that had a 3 and half million dollar budget, this has some really good special effects. There is one shot that might've looked fake, which was when this black chick was forced to throw up, and she ends up throwing up her own blood and guts. The problem with the guts is that they look like really cheap cranberries. But then again, that's really only if you were looking for them, and I ended up kinda noticing it, so take it for what you will. My favorite has to go to the kill involving the nerd, who ends up killing himself on camera for the school. It was slow, methodical, and it was one of the few kills that I could say was really cool and memorable. Now, mind you, when I say it's memorable, I don't mean it's something I'm going to remember in, like, a month, but it was still the only really cool kill in this movie. The practical blood here is utilized really well, and the CG is pretty good. Makeup effects are also done really well. So overall, special effects are probably the biggest highlight in this entire movie.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting is well lit. The sound-mix is mixed well. Our score here is decent. It's nothing memorable, but it's still something that is serviceable for this movie. Really, guys, all of the technical stuff works fine. But that's kind of a problem, because you can have all of this really good camerawork, lighting, and sound-mix. But there's one thing that you REALLY need for a good movie to work, which is the writing. And unfortunately, this movies suffers from really bad writing.

So, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Tamara"? No, I can't. There is no way in hell I can recommend this thing, unless, as I've stated before, you're a horror movie junkie who doesn't care about plot, characters, or anything that makes a good horror movie. If you really want to watch something better from Jeremy Haft, the person who wrote the "Final Destination" movies, then go watch the "Final Destination" movies. I, personally, don't give a shit about them, but I know that franchise has some sort of fanbase. As for this thing, avoid it at all costs. This movie was almost a chore to sit through, what with all of the inconsistencies and logic issues that this movie had. But hey, I guess that's par for the course when it comes to Jeremy Haft's writing. So, I'm probably gonna avoid anything else this man has written, because he has proven to me that he can't write for shit. And speaking about this movie being part of a DVD 4-pack earlier, I can already say that half of this 4-pack is not worth the purchase. Because the two movies that I had wanted to watch were both shit, and I have no interest in ever watching any of the other movies in that 4 pack, because I fear they're just as bad as the other two movies I watched for this series. Now, I think I'm gonna go watch a better psychological horror movie. And the first one that comes to mind is "Audition". I'm gonna go watch that, so I can forget that this pile of shit ever happened. And considering that it failed miserably in the box office, it totally deserves to be forgotten.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Operation Kid Brother

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a film from 1967. That movie is "Operation Kid Brother".

Now, I do know a couple of things about this movie. I know that this movie is suppose to be a spoof of the James Bond films. Which sounds pretty cool, and I'm curious to see how that's going to fare out. Speaking of James Bond, I also know that the movie stars Neil Connery, who is Sean Connery's real brother. So that's also going to be interesting.

The only other thing I do know about this movie is that it was featured on an episode of "Mystery Science Theater". Now, I should mention that, I do enjoy watching "Mystery Science Theater". I didn't watch it back in the day when it was still airing on TV and I didn't watch the reboot, which I heard wasn't all that good, anyways. But thanks to the internet, I was able to watch some episodes of "Mystery Science Theater", and I really enjoyed what I watch. And I discovered tonight's movie through "Mystery Science Theater". Now, when I say that, I didn't watch the episode that featured "Operation Kid Brother", I discovered it when I was watching a random episode of "Mystery Science Theater". I saw the title, and I wanted to look up what this movie was. And when I saw the cover, and what little information I looked up on this movie, I wanted to cover this movie for Reaction & Review. And tonight, I finally get my chance to see this movie.

I'm certainly hoping for it to be interesting. I kinda have my doubts about this thing being good, considering that this movie was featured on "Mystery Science Theater". But who knows? This movie could surprise me and wind up being really decent. But the only way I'm gonna know if this thing is worth watching at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Operation Kid Brother".

3 minutes later

Well, guys, I can say that this opening song here is pretty good. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come. Then again, I said that about "Vegas in Space", and we all know how that turned out. Still though, I have hopes.

5 minutes later

O...K. Well, I didn't know that when a remote controlled vehicle makes contact with a plane, they automatically explode. Personally, I don't think a car should be able to explode on contact with a moving a plane, but, then again, I'm trying to put real world logic into a spy movie, so maybe I should drop the subject and see where this movie goes.

19 minutes later

Wait, so according to Neil's explanation, the pilot from earlier was able to use hypnosis to send information to his girlfriend by using her as an electronic brain. I'm not gonna even begin to question how stupid that fucking sounds, I'm just gonna pretend that makes some level of sense and see if this movie gets any better.

3 minutes later

OK, guys, I'm just gonna tell you this now. The actor who is playing as Alpha is just laughably bad, and it's making this movie a little bit charming to watch. I wasn't expecting that.

13 minutes later

Wait a second here. So, Neil's going to let the woman he just hypnotized a moment ago leave, after getting some important information out of her. Mind you, he let her out of his trance before she left. But just a minute ago, when he had her in his hypnosis, he said that she was in his control and had to do whatever he wanted. Why not just keep her in his hypnosis? There's no hint as to how long Neil's hypnosis lasts, so why bother letting her go? I understand that I might reading too much into this, but it just seems really odd to me, you know?

9 minutes later

You know, I'm kinda surprised that they were able to take an army jeep and turn it into a showgirl car with all of the equipment that they had with them. That is certainly kinda impressive.

19 minutes later

Sorry, guys, if I haven't been saying a whole lot. This movie hasn't really given me much to work with within the last, almost, 20 minutes now. Right now, I'm just kinda curious to see how this movie's going to end.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Operation Kid Brother". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. Well, I think I know what I'm gonna do after I'm done putting this review together. I'm curious to see how "Mystery Science Theater" riffed on this thing. Now, mind you, when I say that, I'm not saying that the movie is terrible, but I could totally see how this movie got featured on an episode of "Mystery Science Theater". There is a lot here to just riff on.

But rather than me talking about how funny of an episode this would make for "Mystery Science Theater", let's talk about the movie itself. I'm gonna start with writing. As I was watching the movie, a thought occurred to me. It was something that kinda popped into my mind during the second half of the movie, and I feel the need to address that. My thought was what would happen if this had gotten a TV show? What I mean by that is that this movie could've been turned into a pilot for a TV series spinoff that featured the brother of James Bond. I should mention that Bond's name doesn't get name dropped in this movie at all. The closest we come to that is when one of the characters refers to Neil being the brother of 007. Beyond that, though, the references to Bond himself are kept to a minimum. Back to my earlier point, this movie has a ton of potential for it to have a TV show, if they had wanted to capitalize on it. I could totally see this airing on something like CBS, or maybe FOX, or some other channel that would pick up this kind of show. Maybe give it about 2 or 3 seasons tops. Because the idea of James Bond's brother using his skills in plastic surgery, lip reading, or even use his hypnosis to save the world does sound like an interesting premise. I will talk about Neil's ability to use hypnosis later on. But again, there is enough here to where someone could've turned this into a TV show, and give it at least 2 seasons to work with. On the other hand, I could totally see it backfiring, mainly because of how this movie was received. So, maybe it's just an idea that probably would've flopped, anyways. But if a studio wanted to take that chance, and give it to someone in the right hands, then this could've been a mildly successful TV show. But that's just me theorizing about something that never happened, or is even going to happen anyway. So giving this movie the "Mystery Science Theater" treatment was probably the best idea.

Now, the reason why I brought up the idea of turning this movie into a TV show has to do with the main character, Neil. So, as I mentioned before, Neil is the younger brother of James Bond, who so happens to be a master of plastic surgery, lip reading, and hypnosis abilities. I want to touch upon his hypnosis, because this kinda bothered me throughout the entire film. Now, I can let a lot of things here slide. I can accept the idea of him being able to read lips, even if he can't hear what they are saying. I can even accept the idea of him being a plastic surgeon, even though he really doesn't do very much of that in this movie, if ever. But, oh well, I'm not going to harp on that one too much. However, the idea of him using hypnotic abilities kinda bothers me. Now, it isn't so much that he has these abilities to begin, but more so of his limitations of how long they work. And the movie never really goes into detail about this. It seems as though that Neil can just use them at any time when he needs to, and not worry about anyone under his hypnotic trance being able to break it. If that's the case, then why didn't he just use these abilities when Beta was activating the Nucleus? Or even, somehow, destroying it? I ask this, because the villains don't seem to know about Neil's hypnotic abilities, or even his lip reading. They know about his skills as a plastic surgeon. Especially Beta, because he needs Neil to perform plastic surgery on this guy and make him look like Alpha, the other villain that Beta has a grudge against for...reasons that are not quite clear. But did any of them not know about him being a lip reader, or even his ability to use hypnosis? It just seems very weird to me, because Neil can almost do this at anytime, provided that the person is in front of him, of course. And it seems like there's no way for the person who's under his trance to break it off, unless Neil himself does it. Which is why I brought up the idea of Neil Connery having his own TV show. Because we could've gotten a chance to see a bit of background on how he became a plastic surgeon, or how he has the ability to read lips, or even how he's able to use his hypnotic abilities so well, that nobody is able to break them no matter who you are. Point is, this movie could've done something like this, but it decided not to. And because of it, Neil comes off as kinda...bland. But, then again, almost every character in this movie is rather bland, too. Now, I could totally see that he has some of his brother's traits, such as the ability to attract beautiful women. Of course, not in the hypnotic way. Otherwise, it would end up being kinda creepy. Now earlier, I mentioned that this movie was a spoof of the James Bond films. And it certainly does have a couple of elements brought up, such as the opening song mentioning getting any girl that he wants. Or, at one point, Neil warns Maya that she's in danger, and she tells him that he's been reading too many Ian Fleming novels. And it does kinda work here. I will also say that this movie, when it wants to be funny, it is incredibly funny. Such as one point where Neil is about to perform surgery on the guy that Beta wants him to do the surgery on. What comes after that comes off as unintentionally hilarious, that it almost took me by surprise.

Speaking of being funny, I'm gonna go straight into acting. Well, before that, I'm just gonna say that writing here is kinda weak, but, at the same time, it's something that I'm not going to rail on this movie too much for. But what makes this movie worth watching is the acting. The acting is the weirdest thing I ever have to talk about for this movie, because it varies all over the place. You'll have a couple of actors who were trying to put on good performances, you'll have some actors who sound wooden and robotic, and then you'll have actors who are trying to ham it up, to a point that it makes the movie really funny to watch. There are several actors that I do want to make mention of. The first is the actor who plays Beta. He sounds the most wooden, because he tries to sound like he's hamming up his lines, but it just doesn't work, because it doesn't really work much for his character. Then you'll have the actor playing Alpha, and he is the one who hams it up so much, that it makes the character of Dr. Evil from the "Austin Powers" movies look like a complete amateur. It's so lovably cheesy, that it makes his acting stand out amongst the entire cast. And then we have our main star, Neil Connery. Now, when I went into this movie, I was fearing that Neil Connery was going to sound exactly like his brother, Sean Connery. And the reason why I thought that was because I had never heard Neil Connery act before, and, probably, after this. So that's why I went into this movie with a little bit of caution. And I will say that while Neil doesn't sound anything like his brother, he also comes off as the one actor in this movie who turns in the worst showing. I say this, because he sounds incredibly stilted for, like, about 85% of the movie. And it just sounds so weird hearing this, because I really couldn't tell you if it was because the script he was given wasn't good enough for him to make it work, or that's just how he naturally sounds when he's asked to act. I have no idea. So, even though I just said that Neil's acting is stilted and kinda sucks, I'm gonna give his acting a pass, because, as I just stated, I have no idea if that's just how he naturally sounds. But I will say that, overall, the acting is just cheesy and stupid enough, to where you can totally get a laugh out of it. So, in that sense, at least the movie accomplishes that much.

As for special effects, we have a few shots of blood, we have explosions, and a lot of is very similar to what you would see in a James Bond movie. Well, for a James Bond movie that came out during the late 60's. Because I believe that "You Only Live Twice" came out the same year that this movie did. So, I don't know if this movie took notes from "You Only Live Twice", because I haven't seen that movie. But regardless, the special effects are passable for the standards of the late 60's.

Camerawork here is OK, until we get to anything involving fight scenes. Now, when I say that, I'm referring to anytime that the camera is up close between two people that need to fight each other. For whatever reason, the camera will stay very close to the fight, to a point where you don't get to see them battling it out properly. Now, I will say that when it comes to a much wider range, it looks fine. And I'm referring to the scene on the boat, where we have a lot of fights going on, and you can see just about everything fine. But, like I said, anything involving two people fighting each other, and the camera will zoom on them, and I don't know why that is. I will say, however, that the fight scenes in this movie are a hell of a lot better than the bullshit I watched in "Valentine: The Dark Avenger". Mostly because, they don't rely so heavily on jump cuts. But anyway, aside from the zoomed in fights, the camerawork is here OK. Lighting here is lit well. Sound-mix is decent. I will say that the sound could've been fixed better, but that might be an issue with the version of it I watched on YouTube. I don't know if this was an issue on VHS or DVD, but the sound on this version of the movie sounds a little bit choppy. However, it's not enough to ruin the movie for you, so you just have to take it for what you will. The music is pretty good. In fact, one of the two composers for this movie was the legendary Ennio Morricone. If you don't know who he is, to me, he was mostly known for his amazing scores in the Dollars Trilogy. I'm talking about films like "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". Those kinds of movies. And while the score in this movie is pretty good, it's certainly the weakest out of the few films from him that I've heard. Part of that has to do with the fact that some of the music will be repeated about two or three times during a few scenes, and it comes off as a bit lazy. Now, mind you, none of it is overly bad, but it's certainly nowhere near Morricone's best work. So, I can, at least, say the music here is decent. But again, it's not great.

Overall, guys, am I able to recommend "Operation Kid Brother"? Only if you watch it through "Mystery Science Theater". While the movie is OK by it's own standards, I personally think it would be better if you watch it with the "Mystery Science Theater" commentary. I don't know if the commentary is any good, but I can hazard a guess and say that it's better than watching it by yourself. But setting aside that, the movie is OK. It's just kinda there. If you're a fan of James Bond, and you're curious about what a movie involving his brother would be like, then go ahead and check it out. Personally, for me, I don't think it's worth buying on DVD, but I will say that it wasn't a complete waste of my time, either. So, at least the movie wasn't awful. But I still wouldn't add this to my DVD collection, because it was kinda dull towards the latter half of the movie. But hey, now that I've finished watching this thing, I'm kinda in the mood to watch a James Bond movie. As much as I would like to watch this movie again with the "Mystery Science Theater" commentary, I want to watch a good James Bond film to fill in that gap first. I think I'm gonna watch..."The World Is Not Enough". I haven't seen that movie in ages, so I think I'm gonna go do that. And after that, I'll come back and watch this movie again through "Mystery Science Theater".

Anyway, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.