Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a musical from 1980. That movie is "Xanadu".
Now, there's a very specific reason why I wanted to review this movie. And no, it's not because of the slightly recent passing of the film's star, Olivia Newton-John. Though my condolences go out to her and her family, that is not the reason why I wanted to review this movie. In fact, I had put this movie on the schedule long before her passing occurred. So I was gonna review this movie anyways, regardless if she had passed away or not. It was sorta the same situation with another passing of an actress that had happened last year involving Philece Sampler. For those who don't know, Philece Sampler was a voice actress who was mostly known for voicing Mimi Tachikawa in the English dub of Digimon. She had also reprised her role for the "Digimon Adventure tri." series. And last year, about a month or two back when I was about to cover the "Digimon Adventure tri." movies for Reaction & Review, I had heard she suddenly passed away. I didn't mention Philece's passing when I covered those movies back then, because I didn't feel like it was really necessary to bring up at the time. And I didn't really want to exploit someone's death like that by mentioning her name, because it would just feel wrong to me. Now while I have mentioned Olivia Newton-John's passing here, I am not going to make that the sole basis of this review. I wanted to review this movie for my own reasons, and not because of what I just mentioned.
But anyway, speaking of which, there IS a reason why I wanted to review this movie. You see, years and years ago, I saw a clip of this movie on YouTube, and the clip involved one of the songs from the movie. And the scene itself was an entire animation sequence done by Don Bluth. Well, more specifically, his animation company. Yeah, somehow, Don Bluth had a hand in this movie, even if it was just for that sequence alone. And ever since I saw that clip, I wanted to see this movie, mostly just to find out the context behind that scene. I don't know if there IS going to be a context, but I am curious regardless.
Now, I have no idea if this movie is going to be any good, but I have not heard a lot of postive things about this movie. Most people I hear say that the movie is weird, it makes no sense, and that it completely sucks. I'm not totally sure about the songs themselves, but I am hoping that they are, at least, better than the previous musical that I covered, which was "Anna and the Apocalypse". Because that movie really sucked. At least, to me, it did. But anyway, I am hoping for the songs in this movie to be decent. Even if the film itself does indeed suck, I am hoping that the songs are going save this movie from completely sucking. But regardless, I still want to find something good out of this movie. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie, or it's songs, is any good 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 "Xanadu".
6 minutes later
So, we're up to our first song here, and it's...kinda crap. And the way we got to this song doesn't really make a ton of sense either, but I am hoping that the rest of movie is going to make a little bit more sense.
18 minutes later
All right, guys, this movie is not giving me much to work with. But I am going to say this, now that I've gotten plenty of chances to see our main character, Sonny, on screen. The acting from him is ridiculously wooden. Mind you, the acting from Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, and everybody else has been really good so far, but Michael Beck's acting is kinda bringing this movie down a bit. And considering that he plays our main character, I'm probably gonna have to put up with his wooden acting for, almost, the next hour or so. I'm not totally sure if I'm gonna be able to salvage his acting, guys.
7 minutes later
Well, guys, I am able to say that, after over half an hour into the film, we finally got a really good song. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this song here from Gene Kelly and Oliva Newton-John is actually really good. But then again, seeing as how one of the singers is Gene Kelly, it's almost hard not to find a bad song with him in it. But that's just me.
8 minutes later
All right, I have a really stupid question that I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I am curious about something. I will say that this song here is really good and everything, but who the fuck is operating all of this shit? Like, who's operating the fog machine with the model ship nearby our two cast members? What about the rain water that came out of nowhere, along with the umbrellas? I'm only asking this, mainly because you would think that since this place is technically abandoned and not really suppose to be in use, you would have no one else there operating it. I guess, maybe, the only answer I can come up with is that Kira is the one doing this with magic, considering that's how she's been able to get around. I totally understand that this is all fucking trivial, and absolutely nobody would be thinking about this kind of bullshit, but it is something I am a little bit curious about.
11 minutes later
Guys, I'm really digging the mixture of both classical and rock music. Like, these are some REALLY catchy songs here. I didn't think it would actually be possible to combine two completely different genres of music like this, but it totally works here! I'm probably gonna have to download the sountrack at some point, because these songs are really good, so far.
7 minutes later
Well, guys, we're now up to the Don Bluth animated sequence. And now that I've finally gotten a chance to see this movie up to this point, I, kinda, now know the context for this sequence. It's, admittedly, sorta stupid. But I guess it does make some sense in a rather strange, and kinda stupid way. Actually...it doesn't really make much sense now that I'm thinking about it, but regardless, it's still cool that I'm getting to see the Don Bluth animation sequence in it's entirety here, so that's always a plus.
11 minutes later
You know, guys, if a movie ever started talking to me by mentioning my name, I would probably be a little bit freaked out by that. Come to think of it, I don't recall ANY instance of a movie talking to me. So yeah, if a movie ever started doing that to me, I would probably NEVER watch that particular movie again. That's just rather creepy.
9 minutes later
Guys, this will probably sound like I'm slow on the uptake, and I'm not a religious person as is, but no matter the source material, Zeus is a rather judgmental dick. I mean, I guess that IS pretty accurate to Greek Mythology. And hey, at least this thing is more accurate about it than the Disney version. So, I guess that's something.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Xanadu". And, um...gosh, that was "Xanadu". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Good God, where do I even begin? Um...I'm gonna be honest here, guys, this thing is gonna be a very tough movie for me to review. Because, similar to another musical I covered, which was "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure", there is a lot to like here. But there's also quite a number of questionable choices here that this movie makes.
Let's start off by talking about the writing. I think one of the biggest problems with turning a musical, like this one, into a movie is that you're not leaving a lot of story here to tell. In fact, I'm gonna be with you when I say this, there is BARELY any story here that is considered partially interesting. The most story we get out of this is when our main character, Sonny, is down on his luck as an artist and he thinks that there is no inspiration for him to continue. Mind you, it doesn't lead to any suicidal thoughts from him or anything, it's just that he doesn't have any real inspiration. And after he tears up one of his sketches, that somehow leads into a mural, which has a drawing of the 9 muses, coming to life. Yeah, it doesn't really make much sense, but just roll with it. And one of the muses, Kira, ends up skating in the park before bumping into Sonny, who she gives him a kiss. And this leads into him wanting to find out more about her, despite the fact he only just met her for about a few minutes at the time. It later ends up with the two of them getting together, and this leads into a problem that kinda stuck out at me a little late into the film. Well, two technically. First of all, our main character, Sonny, is incredibly bland and shallow. Part of that reason is due to his acting, which I'll get to later on. But the big thing that jumped out at me was when, at one point, Kira admits to Sonny that the only reason why she came to Earth was to make Xanadu a reality. And for those of you wondering about the title, the name comes from the roller-disco that Sonny and Danny open. And Kira was not suppose to fall in love with Sonny. I could go into detail about how this relationship seems to almost come out of nowhere, but I'm not gonna worry about that. So anyway, she was only suppose to let Xanadu happen, and not be in a relationship with a human. But the thing that kinda struck me as odd was that she DID fall in love with Sonny. Wouldn't that mean, then, that she should lose her powers as a muse because she broke the rules about not falling in love? I totally understand that I'm not an expert on Greek Mythology, and there's some kind of stupid explanation for it, but you would assume that if Kira fell in love, then her being a muse would be completely null and void, and that she would have to spend an eternity on Earth for breaking that rule. Again, I totally understand that I'm ignorant in Greek Mythology, but I figured that either she would have to spend eternity on Earth, or go through some sort of trials like Hercules did and find a way back home. But that's probably just me thinking WAY too deep into this story.
I want to go back to something I mentioned earlier, and this is gonna tie into a huge problem with this movie, which would have to be the pacing. Since this is a musical that was turned into a movie, I had a feeling, while watching this, that the pacing was gonna be an issue with this thing. And sure enough, that's exactly what happens here. A lot of the songs here take up quite a bit of time, and like I said, doesn't really leave much room here to tell it's story. One song I can think of, in particular, was the song I mentioned earlier that combined both classical music and rock music. And while that song was great, I did feel like it went on for a little TOO long, and it does slow the movie down quite a bit. I could also say the last 20 minutes or so is just musical number after musical number. And the story that we've been trying to follow just gets tossed to the wayside, because the movie really wanted to focus on it's music. Now there is a way that they could've mixed in both sides of the spectrum. There's a movie that was able to combine both writing and music at the same time, and it did so very well. That movie was called "Repo! The Genetic Opera". It was made by the same studio that also created the "Saw" movies, and the entire movie was, basically, a rock opera. And they were able to combine both the writing and it's songs into one medium and it totally worked. By the way, if you've never seen "Repo! The Genetic Opera", I would highly recommend it. It's a really awesome movie. But anyway, this movie could've taken a page from what "Repo! The Genertic Opera" did, and combine both the dialogue and the music into one medium as well. Now, I totally understand that you would have to go out of your way to write more original songs for an already overloaded musical, but the filmmakers still could've made that work in some way. Because since we have scenes that split the songs from the writing, and considering that there really isn't much writing here to begin with, it leaves a very shallow and, kinda, lifeless script in the process. Our characters are not all that developed really well. But then again, considering that we don't have a lot of story here, it would make sense that our characters are pretty bland to begin with. So yeah, the writing here definitely leaves a LOT to be desired.
That being said, as I mentioned earlier, there is a lot here to really like. Let's go straight into the acting. The acting, for the most part, is really good, with the one lone exception being Michael Beck as Sonny. I mentioned it earlier, but the acting from him is incredibly wooden. And unfortunately, it stays that way throughout the entire movie. But the strange thing about this is that I don't know if that's how he naturally sounds when acting, or if it was because the script he was given was kinda lifeless to begin with. I have no idea, but it was something that really bugged me as I was watching the film. But beyond him, the acting is really good from the entire cast. That includes Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, the background singers and dancers. Everyone else looked like they were having a blast with this movie. And you know what? For a movie that had a really shallow script, everyone else, minus Michael Beck, was definitely giving it their all for this movie. So, big props to most of the cast here for definitely trying to make it work. You guys did an awesome job for what was given to you.
Special effects in this movie are absolutely phenomenal. This is some of the best-looking special effects that I have seen from a movie that came out in the 80's. And considering that I was watching it on DVD, which labels this version of the movie as the "Magical Edition", it looks even better. And I am amazed by how good the special effects were in this movie, especially for something that came out during that time. Costuming here is really good for all of the musical numbers. Makeup effects here are pretty good. Our sets here are really good, also. I may as well mention the animation, mainly for the Don Bluth sequence I brought up earlier. Well...guys, this was made by Don Bluth's studio at the time, and the animation looks absolutely fantastic. If I had to pick any kind of negative from it, though, I would say that Sonny's character design, at least when it comes to his face, looks kinda like shit. But that's honestly just me nitpicking there. And considering that this sequence was made a couple of years before "The Secret of NIMH", you could only imagine that the animation would get better from there.
Camerawork here is great, as is the sound-mix. Lighting here is also lit very well. And since I held off on talking about this until the end, let's finally talk about the music. The songs in this movie are fucking amazing. There were maybe, like, two or three songs here that kinda sucked. One of them I could mention is the first song in the movie, and that one was kinda shit. Another one has to do with the Gene Kelly sequence where he's trying on different outfits. And the song that played during the Don Bluth sequence also kinda sucked. But beyond that, every other song here was great. Special mention has to go the song called "Dancin". Which was the song that combined both classical and rock music. That song, for me, was the best song in the entire movie. Second place would have to go to the song Gene Kelly and Olivia-Newton John sang called "Whenver You're Away From Me". But, as I mentioned earlier, it is, partly, a Gene Kelly song, so it's almost bound to be good to begin with. Every other song, including the "Xanadu" theme, is also really good. In fact, this is what I really wanted from "Anna and the Apocalypse". Because if you'll recall my problem with that movie, the songs there were all incredibly forgetful, and I personally didn't remember ANY of the songs after I finished watching the movie. This movie, however, has a lot of catchy songs, and it's definitely something I'm probably gonna be listening to again at some point. I'm probably gonna have to either download the soundtrack or just find the songs off of YouTube and give them a listen there. But overall, guys, the music in this movie is fucking great for the most part.
So, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Xanadu"? Oh boy, um...how to recommend this one...? Well, if you just want to listen to the music, like I said, go find the soundtrack on YouTube or download it. Because there are a lot of songs in this movie that I'll guarantee you'll find something to like out of. But as for the movie itself...that's a rather tough one to nail down. I suppose, maybe, if you have a morbid curiosity, then sure. You can probably find this movie pretty cheap nowadays. However, I have to warn you that the story here is almost non-existent and doesn't really make much sense. I, personally, wouldn't call this a good movie, but if you want to watch it to see a more visual novel of the music, then go right ahead and check it out. You might actually like the goofy bullshit that goes on in this movie. But if you're just looking for a good story out of your musical, then you can easily skip this. As for myself, I hesitate to say that it completely sucks. It certainly is heavily flawed in the writing department, but I still ended up kinda enjoying it for the, mostly, awesome music. And as such, I'm probably gonna be holding on to this movie. It does have enough charm here to where I can overlook the nonsensical story and somewhat lifeless characters. And I stated earlier that I did want this movie to, at least, be good with it's music, even if the movie did suck. And while the movie does kinda sucks, it surpassed my expectations in the music department. So, I consider that a success. Now...seeing as how I mentioned "Repo! The Genetic Opera" earlier, I'm gonna go and watch that. Because I'm in the mood to watch another musical right now. So, I'm gonna go do that next, after I'm done putting this review together.
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 later. Peace.
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Reaction & Review | Xanadu
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Reaction & Review | Zebraman
Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a Japanese superhero movie from 2004. That movie is "Zebraman".
Now, this movie caught my interest for 2 reasons. The first being that this movie was directed by a man named Takashi Miike. And for those of you who might be familar with that name, I covered one other movie for this series, which he also directed. That movie being "Audition". And in case you never read my review for that movie, I ended up loving "Audition". So much so that I have since bought a few more of his movies that he also directed. And before you ask, yes, all of them will eventually be covered for this series at some point.
So anyway, out of the few movies I bought that were directed by Takashi Miike, this one skyrocketed to the top of my watch list from him. Which is gonna lead into the second reason why this movie caught my interest. And it has to do with the premise. You see, the premise to this movie, from what I read on the back of the DVD case, is about a guy that use to watch a superhero television show that he use to watch as a kid. Which is the title character you see on the front cover. And later on, as an adult, his life starts to grow miserable, and he decides to dress up as his favorite superhero to get away from his mundane, dull life. Well, somehow, someway, the evil creatures from the television show start to appear in real life, and that leads into our main character legitimately becoming the superhero that he saw on TV all those years ago.
I'm gonna tell you, guys, that premise sounds so fucking corny, yet awesome at the same time. This almost has to be good, right?! Well, as has this series proven to me time and again, awesome premises don't make for good movies, and this movie could easily just be a pile of shit. But I still have my hopes in this thing being pretty good. I mean, after all, it is from Takashi Miike. And even though I've only seen one film from this director, I still have hopes that he'll be able to make this premise work. But I won't know that for certain unless I actually sit down and I start watching this thing. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good 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 "Zebraman".
10 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here. This costume that our main character is putting on...was this always his intention to put on this costume whenever things aren't going well for him? I mean the time in which he made that thing isn't quite explained, so I'm going to assume he had that costume in his closet for quite some time. What exactly was he originally going to do with it? Put it on at a convention? Leave it the way it is? Or have his son wear it when he grows up? I totally understand that this is completely trivial, but it is something that I am somewhat curious about.
10 minutes later
O...K, and we're suddenly jumping into a literal TV preview for the Zebraman show. And I will say...it looks sorta cool. I mean, OK, it looks fucking cheesy as shit, but it actually has some bit of charm to it, I will say that much.
13 minutes later
Huh...so the guy that these two agents are looking for, who was also beat up by Zebraman, is also the same guy who wore that goofy-looking crab mask and is made out of green blood. Oh, and he had green eyes, too. Interesting. Admittedly, I'm a little bit lost here, but I'm still curious to see where this is going.
4 minutes later
Holy shit, I didn't think Zebraman was a fucking killer, but apparently, this guy is pretty much proof that he died from him! Especially if that little calling mark on this guy's head is anytihng to go by. OK granted, he DID kill the crab mask guy from earlier, but I gotta say, that was pretty dark. Funny, mind you. But the way that this guy died was kinda fucked up.
6 minutes later
So, let me if I understand this. Shinpei's mother explained to Shinichi that Shinpei's father committed suicide, and that, somehow, leads to Shinpei's current condition in the wheelchair. In a way...it kinda makes sense, but at the same, it honestly doesn't. I mean, I suppose...what the hell is that thing?! Well...anyway, I suppose seeing your Dad's corpse would lead into a very traumatic effect. But I'm not totally sure that it would actually lead you into being in a wheelchair. I'm not a health expert, and I'm probably reading too much into this, but it just seems kinda odd to me.
8 minutes later
OK, guys, this is weird. So this scene I'm seeing right now has these people in containment suits, and I can barely make out what they're saying. It also doesn't help that the subtitles are translating what they're saying in Japanese! Mind you, I'm watching the official English dub, and for whatever reasoning, I'm getting Japanese subtitles, randomly mind you, in an English dub! What the hell is the purpose of doing this? I'm really kinda curious here.
8 minutes later
So apparently, when you're one of these possessed aliens, you can actually give birth to a baby covered in slime. I gotta say, that's kinda nasty. But, at the same time, at least it's more natural here than the shit I watched in "Devil's Due" a couple of weeks ago.
15 minutes later
So one of these agents that we've been seeing this entire movie actually ends up becoming an alien. You know what? Given what we've known about these aliens so far, I can't say that I'm really suprised by any of this. I will say, though, that transformation was kinda nasty.
12 minutes later
And thus, Zebraman is dead after failing to fly...again. The End. Well, that was a shitty way for him to die...oh wait, no, he's still alive. Maybe at this point, the dude should probably just stop trying to fly. Just saying.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Zebraman". And we're closing out with the same song that played from the DVD menu. It's actually a really catchy song, too. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but I'm kinda digging this song. Well, as much as I'd like to continue listening to it, I have a movie to review. So, let me go ahead and shut that off...OK. So...how to explain this movie? Man, um...well, I guess I'll get this question out of the way. Is this movie good? Totally. Like, I really enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Now is it as good as, say, "Audition"? Not quite. I wouldn't say that it's amazing, but it definitely has a lot to stand out on it's own. And that's certainly saying something.
I should probably just stop stalling and actually start reviewing this movie. And I guess I'll start with writing. Now, you may have noticed early on that I stated that I was lost on a few things. For instance, what was the story involving the guy with the crab mask over his head? And what was the deal with the green blood that I kept seeing throughout a majority of the first half of the movie? What exactly were the two agents searching for when it came to these creatures that ended up getting killed by Zebraman? A lot of this didn't really make a ton of sense for a while. And I was sort of curious as to how exactly this movie was going to explain all of this and other things I was curious about. Well, believe it or not, the movie does explain all this...and it actually does make some sense if you stop and think about it. Now, I'm gonna try not to spoil a lot of this, because there would be a lot to unravel, and I don't want to spoil very much about this movie to you guys. But I am gonna go over a little bit of it. So, there was a UFO ship that crashed landed on a very specific spot on Earth 34 years. And the school assistant that we see for a good portion of the film was a former writer of the Zebraman TV show that Shinichi, our main character, use to watch as a kid. But the show got cancelled after 7 episodes due to low ratings. So shortly afterwards, the spot where the UFO landed got covered up by a school that was built on top of it. And the guy who wrote the Zebraman TV show ended up becoming a school assistant to find proof of some kind about the UFO. And as you might've guessed, it involves aliens, and the school assistant was, basically, trying to warn people about an alien invasion that was about to happen in the year 2010 through the Zebraman show, which is the current year in the movie, and that Zebraman was their only hope and savior. I understand it sounds like it doesn't make ANY sense, but, believe me, it really does. And most of that, like I said, ties into heavy spoilers that I'm not going to reveal, because I really don't want to spoil this movie for you guys. The movie does explain all of this, and it actually does make sense, if you're willing to accept the movie's explanation. And like I said, I left out a LOT of details that would result in me spoiling the entire movie. But the gist of is this: There's an alien invasion that's about to happen, and Zebraman is the one to prevent this from happening. That's all you need to know. And it's pretty straightforward for the most part.
That being said, there is also some stuff here that could be seen as questionable. Now again, this mostly ties into the spoilers that I'm not going to go over, but I will say that the biggest potential negative about this movie's writing is that a lot of this happens by sheer coincidence. For example, I mentioned it earlier, but the Zebraman costume that Shinichi first makes is something that he's had in his closet for an undetermined amount of time. The movie doesn't really explain WHEN he first made this, but he's had it in his closet. And when he decides to wear the costume for fun, he then suddenly becomes Zebraman for real. So, what would've happened if he never made that costume? Was the alien invasion gonna happen anyways? Was he gonna become a victim of the aliens when they eventually conquered Earth? I don't know. But honestly, it's a very trivial point in the long run. However, what I am sorta curious about is that when he does his nightly routine of becoming Zebraman, he starts to do the moves that Zebraman was able to do in the TV show with no problems. How exactly was he able to do this, despite the fact that we first see him not being very good at being stealthy, or the fact that he's not entirely surprised that he's able to perform the Zebraman moves flawlessly isn't entirely explained either. Another thing that could be seen as coincidential is something involving another character named Shinpei Asano, the kid who we see in a wheelchair throughout the entire movie. He apparently plays a part in this movie that also ties into the spoilers that I'm not gonna go too deep into, but it's mostly just him in a supporting role. He also ends up becoming friends with Shinichi, and they both have an interest in Zebraman. And I will say that our characters are very well developed. Not all of them, mind you. Most of the bland characters come from Shinichi's own family. I'm talking about his wife, teenage daughter, and young son. All of them are pretty bland and rather unlikable, but I do believe that was intentional. Most of them don't like Shinichi for reasons that I'm not totally sure why. In fact, I was trying to figure out why exactly was Shinichi considered unlikable? You could make the argument that he's just not a very good husband/father and teacher, but I never really found his personality to be unlikable. It's honestly a nitpick, but it is something that kinda bugged me a bit as I was watching the movie.
Honestly, guys, I could be here nitpicking a lot of scenes in this movie that might not make too much sense, but none of it here is gonna be a real dealbreaker. Basically, if you sit there and really think about the minor problems for too long, or how this movie likes to rely on coincidences, then it could be a seen as a bit of a problem. But again, none of this is really gonna be a major problem for you, unless you really don't like the plot twist that the movie tries to give out involving the spoilers that I keep mentioning. However, like I said, it does make sense and I really liked this twist, so it's something that you just have to take for what it's worth. I will say, though, that there are a couple of moments in which the movie's pacing is a bit slow, and it's anytime that Shinichi is interacting with kids. And by kids, I'm only talking about scenes involving Shinpei and his own son. With Shinpei, it's not AS bad, but with his son, it's pretty noticeable. Anytime that he is trying to talk to his son, there are lengthy moments where there's gonna be long pauses every time that Shinichi finishes his dialogue. The son doesn't say anything in return for about 3 or 4 sentences after his father finishes his dialogue, and these pauses are pretty damn long. The movie could've definitely trimmed these scenes down a bit, seeing as how this movie was almost pushing for 2 hours. But other than that, the pacing on this movie is pretty good, for the most part. And the writing here is not too bad, as long as, again, you're willing to accept what I just mentioned involving spoilers.
Now with that being said, let's get into the acting. I went ahead and watched the English dub, and, admittedly, I wasn't that big on this acting's dub at first, but as the movie went on, I was quickly able to get into it with no problems. The acting here is pretty good. Admittedly, it's not great, but, then again, I've seen far better AND far worst when it comes to live-action English dubs. So, the acting here is pretty good. But, of course, if you're not into English dubs, there is an option in which you can watch the Japanese version with the subtitles. Speaking of which, there is something else that kinda bothered me, and it's gonna tie into subtitles. There's only one scene in this movie where subtitles are used, and it's the scene involving our agents in containment suits. As they're talking, I could barely hear what they were trying to say. And I would've not minded that, if the subtitles that was used here was in English....but they're not. Instead, the subtitles were all in Japanese. And I STILL don't know why that is. Did Media Blasters, the company that put this movie out on DVD, fuck up and put the subtitles in by accident? Was it intentional as a joke that we couldn't hear what they were saying, so you just had to guess based on the subtitles? Or were they expecting Japanese viewers to watch this movie with the English dub and they had to throw subtitles in there for their viewing pleasure? I don't know. And I still can't figure out why there were Japanese subtitles for this official English dub. But other than that, there are no other subtitles in this movie, aside from the occasional Japanese to English writing that we did get translated for this dub. So, at least, we have that.
Special effects are actually pretty good for 2004 standards. A lot of the CG that's used here involves the aliens that you see in this movie. And there's quite a lot of them, too. Admittedly, some of the CG is a bit dated, especially by today's standards. But honestly, I didn't mind that, because I actually think that the CG still looks pretty good, especially for the time that this thing came out. Mind you, it's not, like, on the level of something from the Star Wars prequels, but it still looks good for what it is. So, I can honestly give most of the dated CG a pass here. Costuming on Zebraman looks pretty good. When you first see it, it looks pretty homely. However, it was intentional because Shinichi had made that costume. And when you get to see the final costume towards the big climax of the movie...well, I want you to imagine if Batman had more white stripes on his costume. That much I'll say about Zebraman's final costume. Overall, guys, special effects here are decent, even if some of it is a bit dated for it's time. But, like I said, I really the CG that was used here, so make of that what you will.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is done very well. Sound-mix, minus the bit involving the containment suits and the mis-hap involving the Japanese subtitles, is mixed very well. The music is very good, both in our score and soundtrack. I mentioned it at the start of this review, but there's a song in this movie that, I believe, is suppose to be Zebraman's theme song. And it's a pretty catch song, too. If you're curious at any point, look up the song on YouTube. It actually is a pretty catchy song to listen to.
Ultimately, guys, am I able to recommend "Zebraman"? For the most part, yes. If you're able to look past the, somewhat, questionable coincidences that this movie tries to tie in with it's spoilers, then what you have is, essentially, a really solid superhero film. If you're looking for a different kind of superhero movie that you don't regularly see from DC or Marvel, then go ahead and check this thing out. It definitely is a rather unique movie. Now again, when it comes to the only other Takashi Miike film that I've seen, it's not as good as that one was, but it certainly is a fun cheesy movie that I really did enjoy watching. Fun fact: I actually bought this movie at a convention last year, along with a plethora of other movies that I picked up from there, and I'm quite happy to say that this one didn't disappoint me. So yeah, this sucker is definitely gonna have a spot on my DVD shelf. And as for myself, I'm gonna go watch another superhero film. Preferably a superhero comedy. I think I'm gonna go watch my copy of "Batman and Harley Quinn". That one, to me, is definitely a funny movie, and it has been a little while since I last saw it. So, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.
And 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 later. Peace.
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Reaction & Review | Brannigan
So...I've been having some trouble trying to review this movie. You see, I actually wanted to review this movie a couple of years ago in November, back when I was still getting use to reviewing movies every week for this series. And I found a copy of this movie on YouTube, and I figured I'd watch it off there since I didn't have a physical copy of the movie at that time. But unfortunately, it got taken down before I could get to it, so I had to replace it with something else. And then last year, it was back on YouTube, so I tested the movie out, just to make sure that the movie played, and it did. So I put it back on the schedule, and I was gonna review it in November. But when I was about ready to type up the Reaction & Review for it, the video player for it wasn't working. I tried many times to get it to work, but the video player wasn't letting the movie play. So I had to take the movie off the schedule AGAIN, and replace it with something else that I had lined up. And I was about ready to just give up on reviewing this movie entirely. Thankfully though, I was able to find a copy of this movie at a local mini-mall that I go to every other week for about a dollar and I bought it. And I decided that I wasn't gonna bother trying it on YouTube again, because I don't want this movie to be put on the back burner again for something else.
So, now that I got all that bullshit out of the way, let's get into what I know about tonight's movie. Now, as some of you may happen to remember, a couple of years ago, I reviewed a movie called "McQ". A movie that not only starred John Wayne, but was also trying to cash in on the success of the "Dirty Harry" franchise. And, for the most part, I really enjoyed "McQ". But then again, I usually enjoy almost any movie with John Wayne in it. Well, 1 year later, after "McQ" was released, United Artists decided to try their hand at cashing in on Dirty Harry's success by releasing a similar movie starring John Wayne. But since they couldn't do a sequel to "McQ", seeing as how it was put it out by Warner Bros., they decided to title their character under a different name, thus is how we got "Brannigan".
Now, the one thing I can tell you about this movie is that unlike "McQ", where that entire movie took place in Seattle, Washington, this movie takes place overseas in London. Because John Wayne is being sent there, from America to the U.K., to extradite a criminal. So basically, it's premise is very similar to another movie that I covered a while back, which was "Coogan's Bluff". Where that movie involved Clint Eastwood's character being sent from the Arizona P.D. to extradite a criminal from New York. Which I'm totally fine with, because I do sorta enjoy these kinds of movies. And I'm hoping that John Wayne will be able to make this simple premise work.
On the other hand, I am a little bit sceptical here. Not because this is a completely different field for John Wayne to work with, because he's usually known for his Westerns and war movies, but it's mostly thanks to my repeat viewings of "Coogan's Bluff" that the movie has gotten steadily worse with each viewing. I'm hoping that "Brannigan" is not gonna fall into the same pitfall that "Coogan's Bluff" has, but there is that possibility. But then again, I have more of an attachment to John Wayne than I do Clint Eastwood. But still, I'm hoping for this movie to be decent. And the only way I'm gonna find 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 "Brannigan".
2 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm really liking this opening song here. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but I'm really digging this opening song. It's actually kinda catchy.
20 minuies later
So, that big package that was delivered to Larkin was really only used to carry his unconscious body around? All right...I was sorta expecting, maybe, a bomb or what have you. But still, I wasn't really expecting them to use it as a body bag of sorts.
11 minutes later
Well, guys, I think I can now say that I'm really liking John Wayne's character in this movie. There's just something very charming about it that I can't quite explain. I might have an answer for it when I get to review this thing, but, like I said, it's just very charming to watch.
20 minutes later
Well, guys, if I was Brannigan right now, and he asked a guy to get something that he tossed in the water, I would probably do the same thing and push the guy in the water to go get it for me. At least I can say that Brannigan sure knows how to take the direct approach.
6 minutes later
O...K, I'm actually kinda surprised that whoever was targeting Brannigan not only set up a shotgun trap in his apartment, but also a bomb in the toilet! I never thought I would actually get to say something like that, but shit, that actually happened. I'm somewhat curious as to how the hell they were able to break into Brannigan's apartment, but I gotta give them credit for going the extra mile in making sure they took out Brannigan. And it was a little bit creative, too.
13 minutes later
You know, guys, if there's one pattern that I picked up from watching a lot of John Wayne movies over the years is that there's always some sort of a brawl, whether it's inside a pub, or a clay slide, or anything that involves fighting in general. It's just some sort of trait that has followed a lot of John Wayne's movies that just has that sort of familiar charm to them that I always seem to enjoy. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.
10 minutes later
All right, you know what? Even though that car chase ended in failure, it was actually a pretty cool chase. I mean, yeah, it sucks that the guy Brannigan was after got away, but the way that scene ended was pretty cool. So, gotta take the good with the bad in this case.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Brannigan". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, what to start with first? Well, before I do get into this movie, I'm gonna state right here that I'm gonna be much more lenient when it comes to John Wayne. Because I'm someone who usually lets a lot of things involving John Wayne slide with me. I'm still gonna try to give this movie a fair review, but I just wanted to let you guys know firsthand that I'm gonna be a little bit biased here because I am that much of a John Wayne fan.
So anyway, let's actually get into the review itself. And I'm gonna start with writing. Our story, on it's own standards, is a very basic cop movie. Where Brannigan is being sent from Chicago to London to find a criminal named Larkin, who disappeared from the U.S. to London. And very early on in the movie, Larkin gets kidnapped, and he's being held ransom for about 50,000 pounds. So Brannigan is working with the British police force to track down Larkin's kidnappers so that they can find them before the money is sent to them. And that, pretty much, is our entire plot. Which, again, for a premise this basic and standard, it works pretty well. In fact, I mentioned earlier that this movie's premise is very similar, if not, almost, the exact same plot that was in "Coogan's Bluff". However, I do feel like this movie handled it better here than how "Coogan's Bluff" handled it. And one of the biggest advantages that this movie has over Coogan is our characters. Just about every character here is very likable. Nobody here sounds like an unlikable douchebag, unlike in "Coogan's Bluff". Where in that movie, almost every character sounded like an unlikable twat towards Coogan. In this movie, everybody here has some sort of a personality and character that you can sorta care about. Brannigan is a somewhat sarcastic version of Dirty Harry, but John Wayne was able to give it enough of a spin where it's not a complete ripoff of Harry Callahan. However, that's just me delving into acting, which I'll get to later. And while this movie did sorta go into the methods between how America and the U.K. handles the way they do police work, it's not something that they bang you over the head with. It's brought about 2 or 3 times, and that's about it. For the most part, it focuses on our characters trying to find a way to get to Larkin before they decide to handover the ransom money to the kidnappers. And I feel like they did a pretty good job of handling it very well, where in "Coogan's Bluff" the main plot of that movie was mostly seen as an afterthought, and it just felt like it was a story that was somewhat haphhazardly written. But for the most part, the story here is perfectly fine, and our characters are, once more, very likable. I really couldn't pick out an unlikable character in this movie. I could, maybe, say that the villains kinda suck, in terms of personality, but that's pretty much it. And admittedly, it is something that was also from "Coogan's Bluff" that pretty much stays the same. But I would certainly take the positives of this movie more than what was shown in "Coogan's Bluff".
However, I am gonna jump ship into a negative that could potentially be seen as a dealbreaker. And that would have to go to the pacing. Because this movie for, like, almost the first hour doesn't really have much happening. And there's a scene in this movie that definitely could be seen as a pacebreaker. Now in order for me to talk about this, I have to bring up something that I mentioned earlier. I mentioned that this movie was trying to cash in on the success of the "Dirty Harry" franchise, and you can totally tell that this movie was captilizing on it in spades. And there's one scene, in particular, that really sold me that they were doing so. Because this scene is almost identical to what I saw in the first "Dirty Harry" movie. So, if haven't seen "Dirty Harry", there's a scene in that movie where Harry had to deliver ransom money to a serial killer known as Scorpio. And Harry had a set of instructions from Scorpio that he had to find a payphone within a certain amount of time, otherwise Scorpio would kill his hostage. I'm not gonna go into any more details than that, because I don't want to spoil what happens there. Now, the scene in Branngian is identical to a degree, but there is a difference. So this movie had a scene where they first had to make a ransom drop. And from there, we're watching as this unfolds where the police are hidden from sight while they wait for the ransom drop to happen. Now, while of all this is unfolding, you feel like this movie is trying to build itself up to something big, and you feel like there's gonna be some sort of payoff to all this. Because one thing leads to another with the mailman picking up the envelopes that first get dropped, then they deliver it to the post office, then a guy in a yellow helmet picks up the envelopes from the post office, takes them with him on his motorcycle, and he takes it out to the docks. So naturally, you might think that something is going to happen in all of this. Well, unfortunately, not much really happens. Because the payoff is incredibly underwhelming. Now that may have been intentional, because there is a scene afterwards which explains why that is, which I won't go into spoilers here. However, you do feel like you have been watching a pointless goose chase that leads up to a red herring. And that entire sequence goes on for quite a while, and it could be seen as the movie dragging itself a bit. Which, compared to "Dirty Harry", pales in comparison. Because with that scene I described in "Dirty Harry", you could actually feel a lot of tension going on and you would question whether or not Harry was going to succeed. Here though, there's not much tension involving this sequence. Again, it might've been intentional, but it still feels kinda underwhelming.
Honsetly though, there's not much here in terms of negatives. And even with my comparison of "Dirty Harry", it's not really going to be seen by those who haven't seen any of the "Dirty Harry" movies. Everything else I'm gonna mention is mostly going to be positives. Speaking of which, let's get into the acting. The acting here is really good. Everybody turns in a showing that is believable and sounds natural. There are two actors I want to make mention of. One of them is our main star, John Wayne. Like I mentioned earlier, he plays a more laid back sarcastic version of Harry Callahan. Now yes, Harry was also sarcastic, but it also depended on the movie that he was in. In, say, "Magnum Force" for example, his sarcastic character was pretty much gone in that movie, and wasn't brought back until "The Enforcer". Brannigan is pretty much a lite version of that character, but he has more of a charming and slightly rough personality that John Wayne was able to make work with, and he becomes very likable and influencial as well, because it kinda rubs off on Sir Charles, the police chief that Brannigan works with, later on in the movie. So from John Wayne, it's pretty damn good, even if it's not one of his best roles. The other actor I want to make mention of is John Vernon. For those who don't know, John Vernon played the character of Officer Mooney from "Killer Klowns From Outer Space". And he was great in that. He also played the Mayor from the first "Dirty Harry" movie, and he was pretty good in that one, too. However, I am disappointed with his performance in this movie. It's not that his acting was bad or anything. It's the amount of time that he was given that I'm more disappointed with. He plays our kidnapped villain Larkin. And unfortunately, Larkin is not seen for most of the movie after he gets kidnapped for ransom. And, to me, it's really disappointing, because I really thought he was going to have more of a role in this movie, other than just being used for ransom. You hear him, at least, a couple of more times through a radio, but that's about it. Anything else is not seen from him until towards the end of the movie. Which is, once again, very simliar to what I saw from "Coogan's Bluff", where the villain in that movie was also incredibly shitty. However, I'm still gonna give the edge to Vernon, mainly due to the acting. It may not be much, but I've always enjoyed his acting, no matter what movie he's in. So, at least, we have that. And like I said, the acting from everyone is pretty good throughout the entire movie. So that's definitely a postive from me.
There's not really much I can talk about in terms of special effects, outside of blood effects and explosions. The blood effects, what few there are in this movie, are pretty good. The pyrotechnics are done pretty well. The stunt work is also done pretty well, too. And I'm kinda surprised that John Wayne was able to pull off a couple of stunts on his own, especially when you consider that this was very late into his film career. In fact, I think this was about a year before his final movie, which was "The Shootist". So what little he was able to pull off in this movie was pretty good, overall. So really, I don't have much to say involving special effects outside of it being pretty decent.
Camerawork here is really good. The sound-mix is mixed fine. Lighting here is lit very well. The music here, at least for the score, is pretty good. A lot of it is orchestral music that sounds pretty good, even for the standards of 1975. So honestly, again, I don't have much to say in terms of music, outside of it being pretty good throughout the entire movie.
So, with all this in mind, am I able to recommend "Brannigan"? If you are a fan of John Wayne, and you haven't had a chance to see any of his movies that don't involve him on a horse or any of his war films, then yes, I can totally recommend it. If you're a fan of action movies, and you want to see how these kinds of movies were made back then that didn't involve buttloads of CG and special effects, then you'll probably find sometihng out of this thing, too. Well, unless if you're someone that just prefers plotless action movies, then this movie is not for you. As for myself, I really enjoyed watching this thing. But then again, as I have made mentioned at the start of this review, I am a very big fan of John Wayne, and I have to thank my Dad for that. Because he's the one who got me into watching John Wayne movies. And it's a bit of a somber moment too, because it was around this time of month, probably about 8 years ago, that he had unfortunately passed away. And I wanted to put this movie on the schedule around that time because it was something that I couldn't pass up on doing, mainly because it was a movie that I hadn't seen yet up until I started doing this Reaction & Review. And it's become sort of a tradition around this time of month that I watch more John Wayne movies. Speaking of John Wayne, I'm gonna go watch another one of his movies right now. And seeing as how I mentioned "McQ", I'm gonna go back and watch that one, because it has been almost 2 years since I last watched it for this series. And I'm somewhat curious as to see which of these two movies is better. So, I'm gonna go do that, and this movie is going to have a very nice spot on my DVD shelf, next to a bunch of other John Wayne films that I currently own.
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 later. Peace.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Reaction & Review | Devil's Due
Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a found footage film from 2014. That movie is "Devil's Due".
Now, I understand that a lot of people have said a lot of mixed things about the found footage genre. They either say it's a groundbreaking work of art, and they absolutely love this style of filmmaking. Others will say that it's a stupid gimmick that has outworn it's welcome and should just die off completely. As for myself, well, I really can't gauge an opinion there, because I've only seen about 3 found footage movies in my time. Those movies being "The Blair Witch Project", "Chronicle", and "Grave Encounters". The first two movies weren't as amazing as everyone made it out to be, but they were still pretty good. And as for "Grave Encounters"...well honestly, I don't remember what the fuck happened in that movie, because I saw it through someone's livestream of it years ago. I, vaguely, remember it being kinda boring, but that's about it.
So really, my experience with this sort of genre is very limited. So I figured that I would break new grounds for this series by covering my first found footage movie for "Reaction & Review". And I chose this movie. Now as for the film itself, I don't really know much about it, outside of a couple of things. I know that the plot has something to do with a couple going through an early pregnancy. And the woman, apparently, might be giving birth to an evil baby or something. It sounds kinda stupid, but I am a little bit intrigued to see where this movie might go with this premise.
The only other thing I know about this movie is that it was made by a couple of filmmakers known as Radio Silence. And I've only seen one other movie that they've made, which I ended up covering for this series. That movie being "Ready or Not". And if you read my review for it earlier this year, you will know that I really enjoyed "Ready or Not". So, I'm having hopes that these guys will be able to strike gold twice with this movie.
However, my hopes of this thing being good are a little bit dwindled. Because I haven't heard a single positive about this movie from anyone. So, I am gonna be a little bit cautious with this one. However, I've also gone into movies before with negative reputations and they actually turned out to be OK. So, who knows? Maybe this movie will wind up being decent, or actually pretty damn good. Or, it could totally suck. I will not know, unless I quit stalling and I actually watch this thing. So the only thing left for me to do at this point, 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 "Devil's Due".
3 minutes later
OK, I know this is supposed to be a found footage movie, but was it really necessary for him to film himself climbing, what looked to be very unsteady pipes, while trying to sneak into his girlfriend's house? I mean, it looked really unsafe, and, for all we know, he could've dropped the camera while he was climbing that. Which would, pretty much, kill the purpose of this entire movie. I totally understand that this is all trivial and stupid, but it was something that kinda bugged me a bit, you know?
3 minutes later
OK, I have a really stupid question here that I'm probably not going to get an answer to. So, Zach and his now wife are having their wedding ceremony. Who the hell is filming all this? Furthermore, I'm seeing multiple angles from different perspectives from the gallery, which begs the question on how many people are filming this ceremony? I understand that I'm probably thinking way too hard on this one, but I'm really sorta curious here.
8 minutes later
Whoa, wait a second here! So this cab driver is gonna take them somewhere that they're gonna 'really like'. Mind you, he doesn't say WHERE he's taking them, and our married couple decides that they're gonna accept his offer without even asking what this really cool place is. I'm sorry, but any retard with common sense would ask him where he's taking them. Or, they would just get out of the car while they try to find their way back to their motel room. But I guess these two weren't born with common sense, now were they?
11 minutes later
You know, guys, I was just thinking about something. So earlier, when Zach and his wife were unconscious, Zach's wife was put in the middle of this strange circle and, I guess, magic just happened to impregnate her. We saw that, because Zach's camera was still on while that was all taking place. What exactly happened to that camera that got the footage? Unless if it was destroyed, then don't you think Zach and his wife would've overlooked the footage to see what exactly happened to them? I'm really curious about this now, and I hope this movie attempts to explain that at some point. Otherwise, I'm gonna be left with a huge plot hole that's, possibly, never gonna get answered.
6 minutes later
Wait, so Sam was at the grocery store just a moment ago, and she was eating uncooked meat. And NOBODY at the store bothers to report her for essentially stealing food? She was caught on the security footage while doing this, and now, suddenly, she's at home! So basically, she gets away scot-free. Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with this movie?!
14 minutes later
OK, I have a really stupid question, which, again, I'm probably not going to get an answer to, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, if Sam, which is Zach's wife, thinks that there's something wrong with the baby, then why doesn't she consider getting an abortion? I get that this is her first baby and all, but if she REALLY think's that there's something wrong with the baby, then she should just get an abortion, and that would solve, pretty much, everything! I swear to God, guys, the people who wrote this don't know ANYTHING about writing intelligent characters. And I got another...fuck, less than 45 minutes of this crap to go!
7 minutes later
So hold on a fucking second here! Zach is ACTUALLY viewing the stuff he taped during the recent wedding ceremony on his laptop. If that's the case, then where the fuck is the rest of the footage he took during his vacation with Sam and the passed 8 months that he was filming?! Jesus Christ, why the fuck did he not do this shit earlier when his girlfriend was acting all weird and shit? Jesus Christ...I'm not even gonna question this anymore. This movie is clinically fucking retarded, and I am just waiting until this stupid thing ends!
12 minutes later
You know, guys, I totally understand that this scene is suppose to be all 'tense' and 'scary'. But at this point, I have just stopped caring about what's going on in this movie. Thankfully, there's about 25 minutes to go, and I cannot wait to rip this stupid thing to shreds.
The Review
Oh...thank fucking god it's over. Well, guys that was "Devil's Due". And we're closing out with some...really inappropriate music. You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this music does not fit the tone of this movie whatsoever. Doesn't matter, I see ending credits, so I'm just gonna shut this shit off...OK. Holy shit, where do I even begin?
Well...let's start with the biggest sin that this movie commits, which is the writing. Now, as the movie trudged on, because it's honestly that boring, I looked at the writing credit on the back of the DVD case, and I noticed that there was one person who was credited for writing this turd. And this person goes by the name of Lindsay Devlin. I'm going to assume Lindsay is a female. And if I'm wrong on that, then so be it. But anyway, I'm going to assume that Lindsay Devlin does not know ANYTHING about writing characters. Or correction, she doesn't know how to write intelligent characters. Because everybody in this movie is stupid as shit. Especially our two main characters, who I'm going to go over right now. Let's start with Sam, since she's pretty much the star of this thing. She is the one who gets kidnapped, along with Zach, as she gets taken to some underground dark area involving a bunch of satanic bullshit where they put her unconscious body in the middle of this symbolic circle. And through the power of fuck you it's magic, she gets impregnated and starts going through some dark, weird bullshit. Where she starts going through some changes in her life and is slowly descending into madness the closer she gets to having this baby. By the way, the buildup to where we see this baby, gets taken away by these satanic fuckheads. And what they plan to do with the baby is never properly explained. I'm going to assume it has to do with some religious bullshit that I'm not an expert on. But anyway, that reveal is completely squandered. So, going back to talking about Sam. As I just stated, Sam starts going through some weird changes, and she, at one point, thinks that it has something to do with her baby. So, I brought this up earlier, but why didn't she consider getting an abortion? If she thought that this baby was giving her problems, then why not just go to an abortion clinic and solve this problem really quickly? Now, I don't know if it would've actually worked, but it would've made some sense to actually try it. But no, that never happens, because neither she or Zach ever thought about that.
So not only is she an idiot, but she gets away with all of her crimes scot-free. She is guilty of stealing uncooked meat from the grocery store by eating it, she is guilty of destroying public property when she destroys the glass off a van at one point, and she is also guilty of murder, because she kills Zach's sister off-screen. And she kills a few other people that, I'm going to assume, are friends of Zach and her. So...yeah, she gets away with ALL of her crimes until her death when she eventually has her stupid baby. Now before you suggest that I'm spoiling this movie, they actually do admit at the beginning of all this that she's dead, because we see Zack in an interrogation room while being interrogated by the police. I'm gonna talk more about that in a moment, but first, I want to mention a couple of other things about Sam. I brought this up earlier, but when she was eating the uncooked meat at the grocery store, NOBODY bothers to report her. Because not only was she caught on a security camera, there were at least several people who saw her doing this. One of them bypassed her as she was opening the meat, and then we see a mother and her child watching Sam eating the meat. But they don't bother reporting her ass! Instead, the mother just covers the child's eyes and they begin to walk away from this. I guess the people who were in charge of the security cameras at this grocery store don't fucking care that their product is being consumed without pay. And guess what? It's NEVER brought up again in this movie. Nobody bothers to inform her husband about this, because then he would've asked what the hell she was doing eating uncooked meat, despite the fact that she is a vegetarian. But again, that plot point never gets brought up again, and Sam gets away with theft. She also never has to pay the damages she made when she smashed the glass off a van. Which I didn't think would be possible for a woman of her stature to do, but what the hell do I know? Anyway, one other thing I want to mention is when Zach, her, and a couple of friends are at a river, and they notice that a couple of animals had been skinned alive. And when they notice Sam eating the raw meat from a buck, I believe, she starts having psychic powers as a couple of people start flying away at will. And after she either injures, or, most likely, kills the friends, Zach never bothers to go to a police station to report any of this, because he's too worried about his wife and, basically, she gets away with murder as well, because Zach is just as much of an idiot as Sam is.
Speaking of which, let's actually talk about Zach, shall we? And I'm gonna have to spoil this movie because of how ungodly bad this thing actually is. So, if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading right now and click away. Because there's no way I can get around this if I don't talk about the big problem with this movie's writing. So...anyway, for those that are still reading, let me talk about Zach, our main character. So, he's the guy who's been filming this entire movie...well, sort of, but I'll talk a bit about that when I get to camerawork. So, at the beginning of the film, he's seen being interrogated by the police, because they think he's the one who killed his wife. And near the end of the movie, when they show Zach again, the police state that the house that Zach investigated towards the end of the movie has been abandoned for many years. Basically, Zach stumbles upon this house that was being controlled by these satanic people that have been watching Zach and his girlfriend at home during the time that they've been living together. But somehow, the police discovered that it was abandoned for many years. Not only that, but the second doctor that they went to see, the one that Zach and Sam went to have their baby checked up on, was all made up in Zach's mind and that he never existed. Really? So...then why didn't the police bother to go and check any security cameras that were at the hospital during that time? I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to run a make on the guy that was at the hospital. I mean, this is basic fucking police work that any cop should know right from the word go! Better yet, why didn't they check all of the cameras that Zach and Sam set up around their house? That's also never brought up at any point. Now, I would've said that they should go check the footage that Zach had taped, but this movie gives the most copped-out excuse I have EVER seen. So earlier, I bitched about Zach not actually checking all of the footage he took during their vacation together while viewing what had happened during the second time that we see him and Sam at church. Well, the moment that I complained about that, Zach actually DOES go and recheck all of the footage that he took from his vacation up until recently. And when he finally sees for himself what had happened, he calls a friend over to go look at the footage with him. And when his friend gets there, Zach goes to show him the footage, but, out of ALL the coincidences that should happen, the footage is gone. It's missing, and we NEVER find out what happened to it. And that is bullshit!
Guys, this movie has some of the most illogical, retarded writing I have ever seen in a LONG time. And I had just finished watching the "Killjoy" films last month, but even they didn't make me feel this fucking stupid. Holy shit...now, I'm gonna try to move past the writing, because I could be her for another day talking about all of the illogical bullshit that went on in this movie. However, I've said plenty about it as is. The writing is just that fucking terrible. Now, what about the acting? Well, being that is a found footage movie, a lot of this acting was probably improvised. So honestly, I can't really say much about the acting, but most of it was decent. I will say, though, on a few occasions, Zach's actor sounds pretty wooden. But honestly, for the most part, he did OK, even if his acting could've improved on a few more takes. So overall, the acting is decent, but it's nothing amazing.
I will say, though, that the special effects are great. But then again, this is from the same team that made "Ready or Not", so I guess I was expecting really good special effects from them. And sure enough, that is most certainly the case. There isn't much CG involved, outside of a couple of shots involving this bright orange light, and that looked fine. Stuff involving blood effects are really good, and this movie definitely doesn't shy away from the blood effects. There is a lot of it here, especially towards the end of the movie. So, I can honestly say that the blood effects are definitely a positive for me.
I want to talk about camerawork for just a moment. For the most part, the found footage camerawork is really fucking good, but I do have a question about something that bugged the shit out of me. So, when Zach and Sam are getting married and are having their wedding party afterwards, who exactly was filming their wedding? Better yet, how many people were filming that wedding? Because if this is suppose to be a found footage movie, then how the hell did Zach obtain this footage? Because it definitely looked like there was more than one person filming their wedding, so who exactly was filming it? Was it someone from Zach's family? I can't say it was Sam's family, because the movie stated at one point that her parents were killed in a car crash, and, as far as most people know, she has no other family. So was it someone from Zach's family that filmed the wedding? And furthermore, the wedding itself looked like it was being filmed at several different angles, which sorta kills the idea that this movie was suppose to be found footage. I mean, with films such as "Chronicle" and "The Blair Witch Project", there was, at least, one camera that they had to work with. In "Devil's Due", I had a feeling that there was more than one camera being used during the wedding scene. And again, I know this may sound trivial, but it's something that really did bother me, and it sorta made me question on whether or not this movie was made to be a found footage film? But whatever, camerawork here, for found footage standards, is really good. So, at least, we have that. Lighting here is decent for found footage standards, though admittedly, there is a bit of darkness in a few scenes that is hard to make out. But overall, it's not too bad. Sound-mix here is fine. There really isn't a whole lot of music, outside of some bullshit party music that generally sucks to begin with, and then there was that oddball song that played at the end that sounded REALLY out of place for a movie like this. It sounded really upbeat and comical, which, as I just stated, doesn't fit the tone of the movie itself. So that song was totally out of place here.
So...with all this in mind, am I able to recommend "Devil's Due"? Hell no! This movie sucked ass from top to bottom. It is filled with logic issues and plot holes that never get resolved. The characters are all stupid as shit. And this movie is, quite honestly, the WORST found footage movie I have ever seen. I know that's not saying very much coming from me, seeing as how I have only seen a handful of found footage movies, but this shit is so fucking bad that it pretty much stands as the lowest point for any found footage movie ever made. If you ever see this movie anywhere, do not waste your time picking up a copy. I'm pretty sure that this movie is also running on Disney+, seeing as how they own FOX and all, and if you ever find this movie on there, do not give it any kind of viewing, even if it's out of sheer curiosity. Just avoid this movie as best you can. Not only is it horribly written, but the movie's also boring as shit, too. So much so that I need to watch a better movie to make me forget that I ever watched this stupid thing. And seeing as how this was directed by the same people that directed "Ready or Not", I'm gonna go watch my copy of "Ready or Not" right now, because I need to feel happy after watching...this pile of turd that I had to sit through for 89 minutes. Seriously, don't bother watching this movie. It is 89 minutes that you will NEVER get back.
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 later. Peace.