Reaction & Review | Sabu

 

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made for TV film from 2002. That movie is "Sabu".

Now, this film has a little bit of an interesting history to it. You see, this movie was originally made for TV to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nagoya Broadcasting Network. Which, for those of you not familiar, is a broadcasting studio over in Japan. And then the film was later released theatrically. Now what's interesting about this is that the made for TV film was only 90 minutes. But when it was released in theaters, it was given an extended runtime of 2 hours. Now I'm going to assume that it was probably 90 minutes on TV thanks to commercials and stuff, but it's interesting to me that they did release it in theaters later on. Whether that was because the film was popular enough to get a theatrical release or they really wanted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nagoya Broadcasting Network in a big way. But regardless of the reasoning, it still ran for 2 hours, which is what I'm gonna be covering tonight.

Now the main reason why I actually did want to check this movie out is because it was directed by a man named Takashi Miike. And despite me only covering 3 of his movies for this series, I've really enjoyed all 3 of them. And I'm hoping tonight's movie will continue that trend. Granted, I don't know much about the plot, aside from the fact that this movie's story takes place in the Edo period of Japan. Beyond that, I didn't really bother to read up on what the plot is because I'd rather go into it as blind as I possibly can.

So yeah, I'm really hoping that this movie will be good. I'm not totally sure if it will be or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I am 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 "Sabu".

8 minutes later

I will say this much, guys. I am really liking the music in this movie. It has that old-style Japanese feeling to it. Which, obviously, makes sense, since this film does take place in the Edo period of Japan and all. But still, I'm really liking the music here so far. I'm hoping the story will produce the same kind of results, but I'll just have to wait and see for now.

19 minutes later

OK, so they finally explained why Eiji was sent to that island workhouse in the first place. Apparently, some golden-colored cloth was in his bag and it is worth a lot of money. How exactly the cloth got into his bag, I don't know yet. But at least it explains how Eiji got there in the first place. So at least that's something.

14 minutes later

So, guys, just based on what I've seen from Eiji-oh my bad, "Bushu"'s behavior, it seems to me that he's suffering an inferiority complex of sorts. I know that's probably not what the film is suppose to be aiming for with his character, but to me, it just kinda feels that way right now with him.

4 minutes later

OK, this is starting to bug me a little bit now. I get what they're trying to say to Sabu about forgetting Eiji, but they've been repeating that same kind of dialogue 4 or 5 different times now, and I'm starting to get tired of it. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

18 minutes later

Wait, how does this woman even know Osue stole the gold cloth? And I want a better answer than "oh, it's a woman's intuition" thing, because that, to me, is just an excuse of 'fuck you, that's why'. I'm hoping the movie will provide a better answer than the one this woman gave out, because I don't buy that whole 'woman's intuition' thing for a moment. I just don't.

17 minutes later

Wait, so this woman, who Sabu just met for all of less than a minute, mind you, asks him that she needed to borrow some money. And Sabu, again, who *just* met this woman, is just gonna lend him all the money that he has, without even asking *why* she wants the money to begin with. Um...no. I'm sorry, but if somebody was asking me to borrow money, I would ask them, first, how much do you need, and what do you need it for. That's just common freakin' sense! But then again, maybe some people in the Edo period hadn't developed common sense yet, so I'm just gonna chalk that one up to Sabu being stupid as hell.

9 minutes later

Well, guys, I am willing to admit that, despite having a bad leg, Eiji can still kick a ton of ass with that crutch of his. That is kinda badass, really.

The Review

OK, well, guys, that was "Sabu". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well...I may as well start off by saying this. I went into this movie with pretty high expectations. And the reason why I set them high is because it's from a director whose films that I really enjoy. So when I went into this one, I was expecting the same kind of results. And well...it's still a pretty good movie. However, if I were to rank this one amongst the 3 other movies that I've seen from him, this one would rank at the bottom of it. In other words, guys, this movie sorta disappointed me. Not entirely, mind you, just a little bit. That being said, however, I'm not entirely certain if it's a movie that I'm gonna be watching again anytime soon.

So now that I've gotten my summarized thoughts out of the way, let's go straight into it here. I'm gonna start with the writing, as I usually do for in a lot of these reviews. And I'm gonna start with the dialogue, because that is one of the biggest problems that this movie has, in terms of writing. Now part of it has to do with repetition. See, for the first 45 minutes or so, the characters in this movie will constantly tell Sabu to "forget him", AKA Eiji, who's been sent to an island workhouse for a crime that he did not commit. Now I do get why they are telling him this. They want Sabu to move on with this life, be independent, start a business, etc. That's all fine and good...except we are told this same kind of dialogue about 5 or 6 different times, and by that point, it gets old really quickly and you're gonna be sick and tired of hearing it. Now admittedly, the movie does eventually move on from that repetitive dialogue after the first 45 minutes or so. It's just a shame that it almost took up the first half of the movie to get there, but regardless, they do move on from it.

That brings me into the next problem with this movie's writing. Almost nothing of interest actually happens here. This movie has lot of scenes where characters are talking and almost nothing of value comes from it. Now, I want to compare this movie with another film that was also directed by Miike, which also came out 3 years prior to this one, called "Audition". That movie also had a lot of characters talking with each other and, similar to "Sabu", it also runs nearly 2 hours long. But the reason why "Audition" worked better is because stuff was actually happening, and it was actually building up to something. Sure, it was kind of a slow build, but they were still building up to the big climax towards the latter half of the movie. And by the time it reaches that moment of the movie, it ends up having a huge payoff.

"Sabu", on the other hand, really doesn't have *anything* related to a payoff of sorts. There's characters talking, but there's not much happening that makes you care about what's going on. The only kind of exception I can think of is when there's a storm going on at the island workhouse, and Eiji and the prisoners all have to work together to try and keep everything on the island stable. But aside from that, there's not really anything else going that I can think of is even worth mentioning. There's just a lot of characters talking and, well, like I said, almost nothing of interest comes from it.

Now, I probably would be OK with all this, if this film was taking it's sweet time developing its characters. But sadly, that's not really the case here. Almost every character in this movie comes off as incredibly flat and boring. Our main character, Sabu, is honestly kind of whiny whenever he has to cry. Although I'll get more into that when I cover acting. Eiji is more focused on, as he tries to survive his time on the island. And again, it probably should've worked, but even he suffers from a boring personality because he doesn't go through any real changes in the movie, aside from towards the end, which comes as a little anti-climatic. Not even the prisoners that he's made friends with are interesting whatsoever because they're not all that important to the overall story. Not even his girlfriend, Osue, who, a bit of a spoiler, is the one who actually put the gold cloth into Eiji's bag and her reasoning for it is really kinda stupid. I won't spoil why, if you're really curious in checking this movie out. Just don't expect a halfway decent explanation out of it.

So...yeah, this one is kinda hard to admit, but the writing here is definitely the weakest thing about this movie. Now again, I will state that the movie itself isn't necessarily bad, it's just nowhere near as strongly written as the other movies that I've seen from Miike up to this point. Now, I will say that, despite all the problems the writing does have, the acting is mostly really solid. The only one I would say that turns in a somewhat flimsy showing is the actor playing Sabu. Now I say somewhat flimsy, because his acting is mostly pretty solid...at least until he has to start crying, and it feels rather flaky. I get that acting while crying is somewhat difficult to pull off, but he doesn't exactly pull that off very well here. The rest of the acting, though, like I said, is pretty solid for the rest of the actors, even if the script that they were given to work with was on the weak side.

I will also say that the sets here, along with the costuming and makeup effects look great. You can tell how much effort was put into it by that aspect, along in trying to nail down on how people looked during the Edo period of Japan. It's really impressive to see. There really isn't much I can say about special effects, aside from blood effects, which are very, very little here to begin with. It's ultimately nothing special.

Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is fine. The sound-mix here is good, too. The score in this movie is also great. Like with the costuming and makeup effects, the music also feels like it came from the Edo period of Japan, and it's great stuff. I actually really like the music here. So yeah, I can say that much when it comes to this movie.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Sabu"? It's kinda difficult to answer that, honestly. I would say that if you are someone who likes the works of Takashi Miike and you want to see something of his that you haven't seen yet, I could maybe recommend this one as a rental. If you can find it on DVD for cheap, or if you can find it somewhere online, I would say it's worth checking out at least once. But to watch it multiple times over...I'm not entirely sure I can say that. Like I said, the writing here is the biggest weak point of this entire movie. And it may not be enough to watch it again on repeat viewings. Now who knows? If you really liked this movie more than I did, then I say go for it. It might totally be worth your time. But as for me, personally speaking, I just don't see myself watching this thing again anytime soon, if ever. Which is really disappointing to say, because I really like Miike's work as a director, but this one didn't exactly win me over as it should. But that's OK, because I do have his other movies that I've covered for this series on my DVD shelf. In fact, I think I'm gonna go watch one of them right now. I think "Audition" will be perfect for this one because it's my personal favorite of his. So I'm gonna go watch that next once I get done typing this one up.

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.

Reaction & Review | The Horror At 37,000 Feet

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made-for-television movie from 1973. That movie is "The Horror At 37,000 Feet".

I'm gonna tell you, guys, the main reason why I wanted to cover this movie in the first place is mainly due to the casting. Before I get more into that, however, I first should let you guys know about the plot to this thing real quick. The plot, from what I've skimmed on the back of the DVD case, is about a group of passengers that have boarded a jet from London to Los Angeles, and they apparently face some kind of horrifying elements from one of the artifacts that, I believe, is cursed. I'm not entirely certain about the whole thing at this time, but I'll find out once I start watching this thing.

Now, again, the main reason why this movie peaked my curiosity is it's casting. Specifically, there's 3 cast members that I recognize immediately. The first one is Chuck Connors, who was the star of a popular Western TV series from the mid to late 50's called "The Rifleman". A show that I watched quite a bit of, and my Mom watches it almost religiously on MeTV everyday. The second cast member is Buddy Ebsen, who was mostly known for playing Jed Clampett from "The Beverly Hillbillies". Again, it was a show that I loved as a child, so I'm kinda interested to see what he'll do here in this film.

And the last cast member I recognize by name is Captain James T. Kirk himself William Shatner. Now I'll admit freely that I didn't really watch a whole lot of the original "Star Trek" series. My Dad was more into it than I was. I was more familiar with it's 2nd series of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and to a lesser extent with "Deep Space 9" and "Voyager". But still, I have grown to appreciate the original series over time and it's cast of characters.

However, I'm getting a little bit off track here. Point is, those 3 cast members sold me on this movie so I'm hoping for it to be good. I don't know if it will be, but I do also know that the film is short. It's only 73 minutes long, so if it somehow ends up sucking, my pain will be short and sweet. But I'm still hoping for it to be good. The only way I'm gonna know for sure, though, 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 Horror At 37,000 Feet".

6 minutes later

OK, I have a question here. Now, I've only been on a plane 3 times before, so my experience on this is gonna be limited. So, as the opening credits are going on, I'm getting to see more of the inside of the jet itself, and it looks to be fucking huge! I mean, there are so many seats on this plane, and the strange thing is, not counting the 2 stewardesses, there's only 9 people that are chartering this flight. Do you really need this big of a plane for only 9 people? My only guess as to why they need a plane this size is to carry this cursed artifact, but still, I'm not sure if it's necessary to use this sort of plane for *only* that purpose. And also only for 9 people as well. Again, I understand that my experience with being on a plane is very little, but I just felt like I needed to point that out is all.

10 minutes later

OK, that noise is seriously starting to get to me. You guys thankfully can't hear it for obvious reasons, but it's starting to aggravate me and I have a feeling that it's not going to stop anytime soon.

8 minutes later

All right, I have another question here. So, the jet is currently caught in some sort of wind stream. Meaning that they're stuck and the plane's not going anywhere, despite it still flying. And they know that they're already on limited fuel the longer that they're in the air. At what point do you announce something to the passengers that there's some sort of problem with what's going on? I get that you don't want them to go into a panic, but there's gonna come a time sooner or later where you *have* to say something. Just thought I'd point that out.

5 minutes later

Wait, so this stewardess heard the dog growling inside the cargo hold. We, the viewer, already know what's going on inside of the cargo hold, and she doesn't. But instead of checking the cargo hold to see what's agitating the dog, she decides to go back to her business the moment the dog stops growling. How stupid is this bitch?! If I was one of them, I would at least open the door a little bit to check what's going on *before* I went back to my duties! I'm sorry, guys, but that is just stupid on a whole host of levels.

8 minutes later

Well, guys, I think it's safe to say that, whatever's in that cargo hold, it has the power to freeze people and dogs in it's tracks. So how exactly anyone's gonna combat against this is anyone's guess, really. I will say, though, it does leave me curious enough to keep watching, so at least it's something.

9 minutes later

What the fuck...? So.....part of the carpeting has come off and there's smoke coming from it, too. And then it just fades to black, before cutting back from a non-existent commercial. I'm gonna be honest with you, guys, I have no idea what's going on right now. This is kinda weird and confusing, really.

7 minutes later

So they're really gonna go all out on dressing up this child's doll as Sheryl by giving her some of Sheryl's hair, some of her fingernails, and putting makeup on for it to become a replacement sacrifice for the real Sheryl. That, to me, guys, just seems kinda stupid and yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it actually works. Just saying.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Horror At 37,000 Feet". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well, first, I have to make a correction on something. A little while ago, I sorta snarked at the idea that the doll replacement for Sheryl's potential sacrifice, while stupid, would somehow still work. Well, slight spoiler here, it doesn't. So that was a mistake on my part. But anyway, as for the rest of the movie, well...it was OK, I guess. I mean, it wasn't really horrible, but it's not exactly good either. It's somewhat of an average movie at best.

So, let's go ahead and dive right into this by first talking about the writing. Now, strangely enough, I've seen this sort of plot where people are trapped on an airplane in which haunting things are suppose to happen. One of those instances I saw was in a segment of the "Twilight Zone" movie I reviewed last year, which was also a remake from one of the episodes of the old black and white TV show. I really liked it then, so I was curious to see how well they would try it here with an all star cast such as this. And well, like I already said, it's not exactly great, and part of the reason, which I'll get to in a second, has to do with it's characters.

But as for the writing itself, it's something very similar in which there's some remains of an abbey that haunts the jet in which holds our 9 passengers, and it's revealed later that one of them says that there's a sacred druids jewel that somehow ties one of the passengers onto a plane, in which their ancestor was sacrificed to some God, and that they're back again on some set time period to try and seek another sacrifice for her, that being Sheryl, of course. Now since I mentioned the doll didn't actually work, what actually works involves another theory of mine that I thought up of way early on in the movie, though I didn't say anything about it at the time, because there was a possibility that I could've been wrong. Well, it turns out that it was actually correct. I won't spoil it for you guys on the off chance you want to go see this movie for yourself, but it actually makes a lot more sense now the moment that shit starts to go wrong for our passengers.

Speaking of which, I think now is a perfectly opportunity to talk about the characters. Most of them aren't exactly well developed. The ones who I can think of at the top of my mind are the cowboy star, the little girl, Paul's wife, and Buddy Ebsen. What's interesting about Buddy Ebsen in this movie is that he's basically playing as Jed Clampett, only in this film, he's not a hillbilly and he has much less money than the Clampett family has. He's still a millionaire, but like I said, he doesn't have much money as he did when he was on "The Beverly Hillbillies". But anyway, his character in this movie really doesn't have much to work with, other than the fact that he's just a millionaire. Chuck Connors is playing the heroic flight captain, which I'm totally OK with, even if he really doesn't do a whole lot here either.

The one character who does stand out the most is Paul Kovalik, who is played by William Shatner. Paul is essentially a former priest, and the way he comes off in this movie is rather cynical, but strangely enough, he still has enough charm to where he comes across as being likable. When compared to someone like Sheila, who somehow has the knowledge of the abbey and it's secrets, and is also kinda creepy at times too, Paul easily comes off as the most likable of the cast. That, and the doctor, who's played by Paul Winfield. But again, I'll get to that when I cover acting. The only other character I can mention is Alan, who is the guy responsible for transporting the cursed artifact on the plane in the first place. I would say that it instantly makes him the most dis-likable character in the entire movie, though admittedly, his character is also really kinda bland, so make of that what you will, I suppose.

But anyway, guys, the writing in this movie isn't all that great. Now I will say that the pacing here is really good. But then again, considering the movie's only 73 minutes long, I kinda expected the pacing to be as such. So with that said, what about the acting? Well, I will say that the acting here is actually pretty good. The one who stands out the most, again, is William Shatner. And that's mainly because Shatner is doing what he does best, which is hamming it up as much as he can. And when you let him do that, he makes your movie look that much better. Granted, the movie is still average, but average is still a positive. And that's better than nothing if you ask me. But anyway, the acting from the rest of the cast is, like I said, also pretty good too. Not just from the cast members I mentioned earlier, but also Paul Winfield, as he also turns in a great showing. I would say the weakest actor is easily the little girl, but then again, you can only expect so much from child actors, and she only has a few lines of dialogue in this movie to begin with anyways. So yeah, acting in general here is pretty good.

Special effects are...kinda shit. Now being that this is both a low budget movie, and made for TV, we're not exactly shooting for the stars here. That said, the effects in this movie aren't really good. They're very minimal, but still. There's one particular effect that I want to talk about, and that involves the scene I mentioned about the carpet on the floor opening itself up. Now the first time you see this, it actually looks kinda cool and a little bit creepy. However, what sorta ruins it a bit is the second near the end of the movie where the carpeting opens up even more. Because on the second time, you can actually see a couple of the wires that are attached to the carpeting pulling it apart. Now on the first time from way early on, you don't see it because the scene was mostly shot in the dark, which gave the illusion of the carpeting opening itself up magically. But on the second time, you can physically see the wires that are pulling the carpet apart. Now while the effect for it is indeed crap, I'm also gonna put part of the blame on the lighting for that scene because they didn't bother to try and hide the wiring at all. And because of that, it makes the effect look really cheap, even for the standards of 1973.

But setting that aside, the camerawork here is good. The lighting, minus the one shot I already talked about a second ago, is mostly decent. Sound-mixing here is fine. The score here is really kinda forgettable. There's nothing about the music that makes it stand out in anyway, so I'll just chalk that up to being really forgettable.

So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "The Horror At 37,000 Feet"? Kinda, sorta yes. Like I said, it's not a great film, and it's one that I'm probably not gonna get around to watching second time, but if you are curious, the movie should be up on YouTube. So before you decide on whether or not you should buy this movie on DVD, it's best to check it out on YouTube first, if it's still available anyways. And if you like it enough, go for a physical copy of it. It certainly is an interesting movie, and I would say that it's worth watching once. Though whether or not you want to watch it again and again is something I can't say. As for myself, well, like I said, I don't believe it's worth watching a second time, but the movie's still average. And like I said, average is still a positive, and that's far more credit than I've given a lot of movies I've seen for this series. So anyway, I'm gonna go and watch something else. And I think I'm gonna go and rewatch my copy of "Christine". I haven't seen that one in a little while, so I'll go and do that next when I get done with this one.

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.

Reaction & Review | Max Cloud

 

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a sci-fi flick from 2020. That movie is "Max Cloud".

I'm gonna tell you, guys, part of the reason why I bought this movie in the first place was because of the cover. It just looks incredibly 80's to me and I'm sort of a sucker for those sorts of covers. That said, there is another reason why I wanted to check this movie out, which would be it's premise. The premise is basically a gamer somehow opens a portal to her favorite video game and ends up trapped in the video game world. And to escape, she has to beat the game or she'll either remain a prisoner there or end up dead. I'm not totally sure which is accurate, but regardless, that premise alone intrigued me enough to warrant covering for this series.

Now of course, I am aware that just because a movie has a really cool premise doesn't always translate to a good movie. I have been let down by certain movies that have had awesome premises and most of them just wind up being either really disappointing or complete shit. Now I'm hoping that this movie is not gonna end up like that. I'm hoping for it to be really interesting, or perhaps even really good. I don't know. The only way I'm gonna know for sure 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 "Max Cloud".

7 minutes later

Well, guys, I can say so far that the soundtrack is already awesome. Why? Well, you can't hear it for obvious reasons, but the song that's playing right now is "Dare" from "Transformers: The Movie". I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come.

14 minutes later

OK, that's something new. I've never seen the remains of a ninja's dead body being used to cover up the patches of a hole before. I'm not totally sure how that works, but I feel like it would be a pointless question if I delved further into that. So, I may as well just accept it...for now, anyway.

1 minute later

OK, hold up a second here! So it's been established that our main character, Sarah, is in the video game world as another character in the game. And yet, she's also being seen right now as herself, physically, playing as...another character. Um...I'm sorry, but I find this a little bit hard to believe, considering the circumstances that are going on right now. I'm hoping, maybe, that I'll get use to this as the film goes on. But right now, it's just throwing me off slightly.

4 minutes later

So, you guys remembered earlier when I was praising the soundtrack of this movie? Well, I'm gonna have to rescind that a bit. Because right now, we're stuck with shitty techno music. I mean, granted, most techno music is shit in general, but this is only further proving why I despise it in the first place.

8 minutes later

OK, guys, I'm just gonna say this right now. The acting, at least coming from our villains anyway, is fucking terrible. I'm gonna get more into this later when I talk about the movie itself, but I just wanted to let you guys know now in advance. This kind of acting that they're spewing out is absolutely horrible.

7 minutes later

I believe I've found a problem with this movie, guys. The whole idea of being trapped in a video game as a video game character sounds sorta cool...until you actually watch it and realize that it's not. Again, I'll get more into this later when I eventually get to reviewing it, but I'll say this in more simplistic terms. The humor in this movie really kinda sucks.

7 minutes later

So...our main villain watches fitness videos on his CRT TV while working out. Well...at least that's kinda something. Mind you, it's really fucking stupid, but at least he keeps his health in check, I guess.

6 minutes later

OK, I have a question here, and I know it's a really stupid one, but I'm really curious about this. So we're being dumped with exposition about Revengor's backstory. Revengor, for those of you wondering, is the name of the our main villain. And we know about his backstory, because Sarah's friend, Cowboy, is reading off what's written in the strategy guide for the game, and Sarah's character is reciting it word for word to our game characters. Now setting aside the obvious video game character shtick and the strategy guide, how does Jake know all about this? I'm asking this because Jake, from what I've seen up to this point, is mostly a somewhat goofball character, and yet, somehow, he knows all about Revengor's backstory. Again, I know this will mostly be seen as trivial and stupid, but it's just something that I'm rather curious about, you know what I mean?

11 minutes later

Wait, wait, wait a fucking minute here...so, Sarah's father, despite scolding her for playing too much video games, is actually a gamer himself...? And he's not even the slightest bit freaked out that his daughter is trapped in a video game at all? I'm gonna be honest with you, guys, this is probably one of the stupidest fucking twists I have seen throughout this entire movie. But then again, this whole movie has been fucking stupid, so why should I ask for it to make sense at this point?

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Max Cloud". And we're closing out with the same awesome song "Dare". Actually...listening to more of it, it actually sounds like a remix of the song. A really cool remix, I should add. Again, I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this remix of "Dare" is actually really good. Well...as much I'd like to listen to it more, I have to review the movie eventually. So I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well...what to say about this movie?

I may as well start by saying this. I stated earlier that there are movies that I've seen before, both for this series and on my own time, that had really cool premises, but unfortunately wound up being really disappointing. And unfortunately, this movie is another one of those that falls right smack dab into that genre. This movie is really disappointing. Now I will clarify and state that this movie isn't truly awful or anything. At least, in terms of the disappointing movies I've seen beforehand. This one isn't nearly as bad as it could've been. But, just because it's not as bad doesn't mean that it isn't a bad movie. It's still a bad movie overall. And normally, when it comes to B movies, I have a huge fondness for those sort of films. This one, however, doesn't really have the same kind of charm as those movies do.

And to prove this, I'm first gonna start with the biggest problem that this movie has: the writing. The writing in this movie is kinda shit. And I first have to start off by talking about it's premise. As I mentioned earlier, the premise is that our main character, Sarah, gets trapped in her favorite video game as a character from the game itself. And the main gimmick of the whole movie is that she can't control herself. She can only be controlled by someone else playing as her, in which case it's her best friend, Cowboy, who's using a spare controller he brought with him after her Dad took hers away. So OK, that concept is sorta weird, but it could still be sorta interesting as we get to see itself play out, right? Well...no. Not really.

That brings me into talking about the film's humor. Now, I can see that this film is trying to be a sci-fi comedy. And bless it, it's really trying. In fact, this movie almost feels like it's trying to be a throwback to those family comedies from the 80's and 90's. But unfortunately, it just doesn't really work here. The dialogue here feels really corny, which I'm normally fine with that, but the problem here is that it just feels a little bit too forceful. At a couple of points, mostly towards the end of the film, they even try to do the whole "meta humor" angle, where they'll reference something about them feeling like they're in a video game. And I'm just gonna be straight-up with you guys, I mostly despise meta humor. Because, like I said, it feels really forced and unnecessary. The only ones I know that are able to get away with it is "Looney Tunes". And that's mainly because "Looney Tunes" has been doing it for decades and they're smart enough when to admit it without having it feeling forced. This movie, while, again, only does it at a couple of points, is still rather forced and cringy at best.

Speaking of which, I want to mention the gimmick about Sarah being controlled as a video game character again. Because, first off, they don't really do much with this sort of gimmick, in terms of humor. There's only one point I can think of that came off as incredibly cringy and somewhat forced. So, Sarah as Jake, is stuck walking into a wall. Why is that? Well, that's because she's stuck in her walking animation on the TV screen from the game. And the reason why she's even like that to begin with is because Cowboy was away from the controller at one point to take a whiz. And when he's away, that's when she's stuck in her walking animation. And the characters, in game, ask if he's alright or if there's something wrong with him. And that may sound funny, in concept, but like I mentioned way earlier, when you see it play itself out like that, the humor of the joke just doesn't work. Mainly because, her character in the game isn't even matching how she's walking on the TV screen as her pixel character. It would've been more funnier if she was actually matching that, but instead, her character Jake just runs his head into a pole and it just doesn't come as funny as it should.

So, on the humor side, it definitely misses more than it hits. And as for our characters, well, most of them aren't really that well developed. Sarah is a gamer who likes video games (duh). Cowboy is her best friend and doesn't have much of any personality to begin with. Same goes for her Dad, even with that stupid twist about him. Speaking of twists, there is one character that I'm going to mention briefly, and she comes from the "Max Cloud" game, who goes by the name of Rexy. Now, I was originally thinking about spoiling this, but for the sake of anyone having any interesting in watching this movie, I'm not gonna entirely spoil it here. I will say that there is a twist involving her character. However, by the time that it's resolved towards the end of the movie, it comes off as incredibly underwhelming. Because it's mentioned once throughout the film, and it doesn't get mentioned again until the very end. And like I already said, it's a very underwhelming result in regards to her character.

As for our main titled character, Max Cloud, he actually does have something resembling a backstory. You see, even though he likes to play the heroic space hero, it's not really what he wanted to be when he grew up. As a child, he wanted to become a pastry chef, much like his mother. And he would mention that he always wanted to help his mother out in the kitchen as much as he could. But by the time his mother died, his father forced him to become a space commander and, well, the rest is sort of history with him. I could also mention Revengor's backstory, but since his story was told through exposition, while Max Cloud actually got a scene of his backstory played out, Revengor just comes across as somewhat of a lame space alien that would honestly make the villains from the beginning seasons of "Power Rangers" feel ashamed to be around him.

So yeah, the writing here is not very good. And you're bound to ask a multitude of questions about it the moment you start to think about all of the logic issues the movie has, along with it's cringe-worthy humor being not very funny. However, there *is* one way that I could recommend this movie, but I'll get into that later once I reach my final verdict. For now, let's get into the acting. And, oh boy, the acting here is mostly terrible. The only one I can say that actually turns in a halfway decent showing is Scott Adkins as our main titled character. Even though he is stuck with a lot of cringe-worthy, corny dialogue, he does try to make it sound lovably bad, almost to a point where it's a little charming. So, I do have to give him some praise for actually trying in this thing.

As for the rest of the cast, well...they really sucked. I mentioned the acting from our space aliens sounding really horrible, and it didn't change whatsoever. Most of the acting from them sounds really gravelly, with the actor playing Revengor sounding the most terrible. He really tries to range his gravelly voice, but it just comes off as really off-putting. And since I referenced "Power Rangers" a moment ago, I'm gonna compare him to a villain that also had a gravelly voice. The one I'm referring to is Lord Zedd. The reason why Lord Zedd's voice worked was because he was voiced by the late Robert Axelrod. And Axelrod actually had a good range on when to either sound really menacing or silly, depending on the writing in those episodes that he was in. The actor playing Revengor almost tries to go for that kind of range, but it doesn't work because his gravelly voice almost makes him seems like he's just overacting. And it's not the good kind of overacting when he's trying to sound campy. It just sounds like he has a complicated case of throat cancer instead.

But surprisingly, as bad as his acting was, he's not the worst actor in this film. The worst actor, by far, would have to go to the guy playing Brock, the cowboy bounty hunter. His acting in this movie, I would say, ranges on sounding incredibly wooden and subdued. And the reason why I say it's subdued is because he has an accent that I *think* is suppose to be Scottish, but I can't tell because his acting is really quiet most of the time. And I have no idea if that's how he naturally sounds like when asked to act, or if it's the script he was given, or if he's just a really shitty actor that has either has a really thick Scottish accent or is he's just putting up an accent. Either way, his acting in this thing is just horrible across the board.

Special effects are probably where I'm gonna give the most praise here, because the special effects in this movie are great. For a low budget flick from a few years ago, this looks amazing. Everything involving the CG alien world looks really cool. You do feel like you're in another world here as it looks dark and barren, which is great to see. Our sets involving the ships also look really cool, too. Costuming here is great, as is the makeup effects on our aliens. The fight choreography here is decent as well. So, just about everything involving the special effects is great here.

Same thing goes for most of the technical stuff. Camerawork, lighting, and sound-mix are all perfectly fine. The music, however, is something that I'm really disappointed with. It starts off great with the inclusion of "Dare" from the animated Transformers movie, but then it starts to go downhill when they started to include techno music. Guys, techno music, at least to me, is mostly garbage, and this movie is no exception. All of the techno music that they include here is shit. And anything that's not garbage techno music is nothing memorable whatsoever. So yeah, outside of one good song and it's remix, the music here is mostly shit.

And when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "Max Cloud"? Well, like I mentioned earlier, the only way I can actually recommend this movie to you guys is if you have your brain completely turned off and you try to enjoy it as a mindless popcorn flick. If you go into it with those standards set, then chances are that you'll really like it. However, if you're someone who has a bit of a higher standard when it comes to sci-fi films, then you're most likely gonna want to avoid this thing. This movie tries to be campy and cheesy as all hell. Which again, I would normally enjoy those sorts of movies, but this one is not exactly something I'm gonna be watching multiple times over, let alone a second time. This movie is just too disappointing for me to even enjoy watching, even if I did try to watch it with my brain completely shut off. It's not worth the effort, and I'm kinda sorry that I pissed away $13 bucks to get this movie on DVD. It's certainly not worth *that* much. If you seriously want to buy this movie on a physical format, wait for a price drop around $7 or $8. But other than that, I just can't find myself to fully recommend this movie to you guys, other than what I already stated. So now, I'm gonna go and watch a better sci-fi movie. And you know what? Seeing as this movie wanted to include my favorite song from the Transformers movie from the 80's, I'm gonna go and watch that next, because that song inspired me to go back and rewatch that awesome movie again.

So 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.