Ghostbusters (2016)

So recently the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot came out and I went to go see it. There's been a lot of talk about the movie before it released. I wasn't too excited about it at first. I really thought Ghostbusters was best left as a standalone movie. Ghostbusters 2 wasn't that good and at first I wasn't sure if this movie was supposed to be a sequel or a reboot. Speaking of reboots I am not a fan of them (Sequels as well) which is why I was a bit nervous about this movie. Especially with the influx of mediocre reboots and sequels of 80's and 90's movies recently such as Jurassic World, Independence Day: Resurrection, Terminator Genesis, and the Poltregeist remake. But I decided to see it in order to review it.  Was it good or bad? Let's find out.












Main Characters: The main character of the movie is Erin Gilbert played by Kristen Wiig. As main characters go she's okay but is a bit boring at times. Then there's Erin's best friend Abby Yates played by Melissa McCarthy. I actually do like her a lot and I think she plays off Wiig well in a few scenes There's the third member of the team Jillian Holtzmann played by Kate McKinnon. She's okay. But at certain points I do feel that the writers were trying too hard to make her "Quirky" and "Weird". Especially in the second act of the movie. It just felt forced. She's my least favourite out of the main Ghostbusters. Then there's Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan. I like her because of the way she plays her character. Her screaming gets a bit repetitive but other than that it's okay. She doesn't get as much screen time the rest of the cast which is disappointing. I will admit that her character is a bit stereotypical but I don't really have much more to say about that one. So overall it has a pretty funny main cast with a few problems here and there.





Side Characters: Of course we need to have a supporting cast so let's take a look at it. First there's the Ghostbusters' receptionist Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth. He's the most one note character in the movie. But he does get a few funny lines here and there. Then there's the mayor and his assistant. They're kind of just jerks with not much else as personality. I don't have much else to say about them. And finally there's the villain of the movie: Rowan North. I didn't really know what to think of him. His plan is kind of unclear and he's never given much motivation for what he's doing. We're told he was bullied as a kid and that's it. To be fair Gozer in the original wasn't given too much backstory or motivation but at least they were intimidating. Rowan isn't intimidating. He's too serious to be a joke villain but too jokey to be a serious villain. He's kind of just forgettable. Honestly, I thought his name was Ronald until I checked IMDB. Oh yeah, and Ozzy Osbourne is briefly in this for some reason... I don't know why. I didn't even think he was still relevant. I just felt like bringing it up. So overall not a very good supporting cast. But at least Kevin is funny.






Humour: The humour in this movie varies a lot. A lot of the slapstick ends up falling flat and it has some immature/gross out jokes that I personally didn't find funny. But there were a lot of funny lines. Especially from Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones' characters. Something that kind of bugged me is that they really focused more on humour than actually being scary. I mean, the original Ghostbusters was still a comedy but it still had plenty of scary moments that still frighten me. I think the scene where the hands reach out of the chair in the original is terrifying. But I guess this movie is in a different style but that is okay. But at the same time focusing too much on jokes was one of the reasons I didn't like Ghostbusters 2. But I do remember there being one really scary scene involving a mannequin in this movie. Overall, the pattern of humour in the movie goes: Good jokes followed up by bad jokes.






Special Effects: As movies go the effects in this movie are average. It's better than some of the terrible effects in the original Ghostbusters but at the same time it isn't anything special. Some of the CGI ghosts are kind of generic looking. Especially the big monster that comes in at the end. It reminds me of Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion or the live action Scooby Doo, It all just ended up looking kind of fake. I know the effects in the original Ghostbusters are dated in some parts but for the most part it had its own style. Here, the style kind of just looks really generic.










Plot: The first half of the movie is pretty similar. The Ghostbusters see a ghost and decide to open up their ghost hunting business. Then they soon discover a plot to release ghosts on New York City. It's a pretty similar plot to the original but there are some pretty big differences. I feel like it's kind of trying to be the same movie but kind of not. I don't want to spoil to much but I can say that, to me at least, the first half of the movie is better than the last. I felt like the last half of the movie was a bit predictable. Something else I want to address is that there were a few very forced call backs to the original such as a cab driver (Played by Dan Aykryod) saying "I ain't afraid of no ghost". It reminded me of the painfully forced call backs to Jurassic Park in Jurassic World. But overall the plot is pretty good with a few bumps in the road.





Conclusion: Overall, Ghostbusters (2016) is.... Average. It's not good, but it isn't terrible either. Honestly, if it wasn't for all the hype around it wouldn't be half as popular. And something I forgot to mention is that there is a lot of product placement in the movie. It gets annoying but I guess that's not too big of a deal. So do I recommend Ghostbusters? I guess so. I honestly am not sure. Me personally I'd take the original Ghostbusters over this one. If this movie seems like something you'd be interested in go see it. I'm not stopping you. I'm  just some guy on the internet.

Little Door Gods

Hello, everybody, I am reviewing another movie for TIFF Kids. This time, it's a movie from China called Little Door Gods. It comes from a studio called Light Chaser animation and to be honest just from pictures I saw of it I can say I am intrigued. So, I am going to go over the movie and tell you what I thought of it. This  is my review of Little Door Gods.

Characters: The main characters of this movie are two brothers who are also Gods. Shen Tu and Yu Lei. Shen Tu is the main character and I do like him. He's very caring and nice. Yu Lei starts out as one of the two main heroes but eventually turns into the main villain which I thought was interesting. It's also one of the reasons I like him. Then there is Raindrop. She is a little girl from earth who works with her mother at their family's restaurant. Raindrop does fall into some of the cute little kid character cliches but other than that she's fine. There's Raindrops mother and owner of the restaurant Ying. She seems to care a lot about Raindrop and I like that a lot. Then there's the owner of the restaurant across the street from Ying and Raindrop (I can not remember his name. I apologize for that). He's not that interesting. He is basically every other cliched evil businessman character. And lastly, there's Nian the great evil beast. He's sort of every giant evil overlord ever. So not too interesting. There are some other characters like Colossus and the Earth God but I don't have too much to say about them.












Animation: The animation in this movie is pretty good. I like the character designs as each character looks unique. The background designs are a bit generic but I can overlook that. All the action sequences are actually done very well. So overall the animation in this movie is very good and much better than some other animated movies from America that I've seen.

Plot: The story of this movie is that the Door Gods Shen Tu and Yu Lei are facing unemployment as Gods. After hearing the story of a beast called the Nian Yu Lei decides to release it so that he can defeat it and the humans will remember the Gods. Yu Lei leaves to the human world where he has to destroy three seals in order to release the Nian. Shen Tu follows him into the human world. Along the way, Shen Tu befriends Raindrop and even helps out at the restaurant. I don't want to get too far into the plot because of spoilers. Overall I like the plot some bits I had trouble following. Although that probably has something to do with me not being able to read subtitles fast enough rather the plot itself. So overall the plot is pretty solid.


Conclusion: Little Door Gods is a great movie filled with memorable characters, an interesting plot, and great animation. I really don't have too many major complaints about this other than the subtitles go by a bit too fast. But that might just be me. So I do recommend this movie. So, if are in Toronto go see Little Door Gods. Remember, I will be reviewing more of these TIFF movies for the rest of the month. See you all next time.

Oddball

Hi, everyone. So once again I have been contacted to review movies for TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids. And so for the next few weeks, I'm reviewing several of their films. First up is the movie Oddball. A movie about dogs and penguins that takes place in Australia. Sounds pretty good. Let's get started












Main Characters: The two main characters of the movie are a chicken farmer named Swampy and his granddaughter Olivia. Swampy is a good protagonist, he's ambitious, loyal, and he is a good father figure for his granddaughter. Speaking of which let's talk about Olivia. Well, first off it turns out that Austrailian child actors aren't much better than American ones. But looking past that I do like Olivia. She seems to care a lot and is also written like a realistic kid. We also have single parent, penguin researcher, and Olivia's mother: Emily Marsh. I like Emily, she cares a lot about her daughter. And the last of the main characters is Bradley Slater, Emily's new boyfriend. At first, he looks like a bumbling dad type character but as the movie goes on he turns into a sort-of-villain. I like him and despite being a villain he's still likeable. Lastly, there's Oddball. He's a dog who really likes penguins. He's pretty adorable. Overall we have got  a great main cast of characters. But how do the side characters hold up?







Side Characters: There are a lot of side characters so let's get through them. First is Jack Jones. One of Emily's research partners. I like this character and think he's funny. He also looks like Chris Pratt so that's a plus. There's Mayor Lake. She is the Mayor of the town and I also like her. She's a good friend to Swampy. There's the dog catcher. He's sort of a parody of the old "Evil dog catcher" trope and it's pretty funny. And lastly, there's Zoe. Emily's other research partner. She isn't really given much character development. I can't tell you too much else about her.  So overall we got so pretty good side characters that are a pretty good comic relief. With the exception of  Zoe who is a tad boring. Now let's look at the plot











Plot: In the town of Warrnambool Australia the population of Fairy Penguins has gone down recently at a sanctuary because of fox attacks. If the penguin count falls below ten the sanctuary will be closed down. Once Swampy realizes Oddball is great at protecting penguins he and Olivia secretly put Oddball at the sanctuary at night. But Bradley accidentally ends up agreeing to put a whale watching centre on the island. So Oddball needs to keep at least ten penguins on the island before the next count in order to keep the sanctuary from becoming a whale watching centre. I only really have two major complaints. The first complaint is that at the beginning of the film there is this over the top chase scene. Now the scene was funny and all but it felt super cliche. Right down to having an incompetent cop and an apple cart getting knocked over. My second complaint is that there's sort of a twist ending that wasn't set up too well. But other than that it's a pretty solid plot.





Conclusion: Oddball is a great movie. It has characters that seem like real people, it is really funny, and it makes me want to go to Australia. Despite having a twist ending that doesn't have too much set up to it I still recommend this movie. Don't worry folks this is just the first TIFF film I'm reviewing and there'll be more all throughout the month of April. See you next time.

National Treasure

Let's talk about Nicolas Cage. I haven't seen many of his movies but he is known for being over the top and crazy with his performances. One of his movies I have seen is a Disney movie known as National Treasure. In the movie Cage plays a conspiracy theorist. It sounds fun so let's take a look at Nicolas Cage's National Treasure. Also, sorry that this review is shorter than others. There's less to talk about in a movie than a TV show.












Characters: The main character of the movie is a conspiracy theorist named Benjamin Gates. Cage plays him crazy enough so that he seem genuinely insane but just enough so that you think he could be right. Ben's assistant Riley is also a good comic relief character. There's Ben's love interest Abigail Chase. She's a bit boring but she's okay. Ian is the main villain of the movie. He's an entertaining villain and I actually like him. Ben's father Patrick is there to contrast Ben. And he's a good foil to him, And lastly, there's Sadusky, the detecting trying to track down Ben. I actually find his mission rather interesting. So overall a good cast of characters.







Plot: The plot goes that the Founding Fathers of America hid a treasure somewhere and left clues to find it. Ben is one of the only people who believes it exists. Ben finally finds out that there's a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But Ian wants to steal it. So Ben decides to steal it before he does. And after that, the mystery keeps building from there. There are a lot of good action sequences in the movie. I like the build up and execution of the Declaration of Independence heist. It's sort of like Indiana Jones or the Goonies with the treasure hunting adventure aspect. I just love a good adventure movie. One of the only complaints I have is that they really don't explain enough.




Conclusion: Nation Treasure is a great adventure movie. Nicolas Cage does a great job of acting like a crazy person (Although I'm not sure how much is acting) and the other characters aren't too bad either. The real best part of the movie is the action sequences and the sense of danger and adventure. So I do recommend National Treasure.

A New Hope vs The Force Awakens

So there's a new Star Wars movie out. Well instead of reviewing it like I would normally I've decided to compare it to the original. Because it actually has some similarities. Sort of like when I compared Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. So without further ado here is A New Hope vs The Force Awakens. Also before I start I would to announce that this review has a lot spoilers in it. So if you've seen the movie or just don't care take a look. If you haven't seen the movie.... Sorry.


Protagonists: The main character in A New Hope is Luke Skywalker. He's a lot more whiny in the first movie than he is than he is in the sequels.  And that's really kind of distracting. The other main characters are Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2D2, and C3PO. Han is my favourite character in the first movie. Probably due to how cool he plays it. Chebacca doesn't have any actual lines but he's somehow still pretty interesting. Obi Wan is basically every other old mentor character ever. Princess Leia is also a pretty strong character. R2D2 really doesn't have much personality do to only being able to talk through beeping noises. But they're harmless. C3PO is kind of annoying but it's not too noticeable. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in the Force Awakens. They mostly remain unchanged. Han is still overly confident, C3PO worries a lot and so on. The main characters introduced in this movie are Finn, Rey, BB8, and Poe. Finn and Rey are actually pretty likeable and have interesting characters with Finn being and ex-Stormtrooper and Rey being a down on her luck scavenger. BB8 is a droid and he doesn't talk. They're not interesting but harmless. Poe is kind of boring. He's just the generic good looking, talented, nice guy. But he's barely in the movie. There's actually a fake out in the beginning that I thought was pretty funny where they made you think he'd be the main character. Both the movies have a pretty solid cast. But due to Luke whining in the first half of the movie in the original I'll give the point to the Force Awakens.




Antagonists: The main antagonist in A New Hope is Darth Vader. He's a classic antagonist. He's threatening and an interesting character..... He's also Luke's father. It's not a spoiler everyone knows it! Anyway that about does it for the antagonists in the first movie. Emperor Palpatine wasn't introduced until the Empre Strikes back. Don't worry there are many more antagonists in the Force Awakens. First off is Kylo Ren, he's Han Solo's son (Spoiler) and actually a pretty good antagonist. Probably the only complaint I have is that without his helmet on he isn't very intimidating. The other antagonists are General Hux, Captain Phasma, and Supreme Leader Snoke. The only thing I remember about General Hux is that he speaks with a British accent. Not just any British accent an evil British accent.... Trust me there's a difference. The only things I remember about Captain Phasma is that she's a girl and wears a really shiny outfit. Snoke is sort of like..... Um.... He's not very interesting. But he may get more interesting in the next movie. But a New Hope has the  more interesting villain and the Force Awakens has the uninteresting villains weighing it down.





Special Effects: The original was made in the 70's. But surprisingly the effects hold up. A lot of the puppets and models are pretty good. Sometimes you get a really dated effect but for the most part it's pretty good. The second movie came out recently so the effects are of course improved. It integrates the CGI and practical effects like puppets really well. So yeah, I'm going to give the point to the Force Awakens.








Plot: Both these movies have similarities. It starts with a character hiding something inside a droid, a poor character on a desert planet finds the droid, and it ends with a giant evil base blowing up. The main difference is the pacing of the plots. The original movie has a much slower pace than the new one. On one hand a New Hope was better at explaining things but too much explaining started to get tedious at times. On the other hand if the plot moves too fast you might not be able to explain things. But personally I prefer the Force Awakens.





Conclusion: I think the Force Awakens is better. Being made now gives it better effects, and less dated acting. But a New Hope is of course still a classic and is the movie that started it all. But in the end I think the Force Awakens did a better job. I'm glad to have compared these movies and let me know what you think.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Well the new Star Wars movie came out. But I'm not reviewing it yet. That review needs some more time. But for now I'm going to review a show I liked when I was a kid and see if it still holds up. That show is Yu-Gi-Oh. The show was based around a line of merchandise sort of like G.I. Joe or Pokemon. Just a side note I'm reviewing the version of the show that was dubbed into English instead of the Japanese version because I hate reading subtitles and it's the one I grew up with. Let's get started.

Protagonists: The main character of the series is Yugi Muto. He's your basic nice guy protagonist character. He isn't the most interesting but there isn't anything bad about him. One of the other important characters is his alter ego Yami who possess him to play card games (It'll makes sense later). Yami is some sort of all powerful entity and he's a bit less bland than Yugi but not all that interesting. There is also his best friends Joey, Tristan, and Tèa. Joey is the most interesting, Tristan doesn't have much of a reason to be there (Seriously you could cut him out after season one and almost nothing would change) and Tèa is the generic love interest character for Yugi. As you could have guessed by the way I described them they aren't all that interesting.


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Antagonists: Each season has their own separate antagonist. I'll go over each of them. Season one's antagonist is Maximilian Pegasus. He was actually pretty threatening what with his ability to steal people's souls. But the more I watch him the more comically over the top he becomes and the harder it is to take him seriously. Season two's main antagonists is Marik Ishtar and Bakura. They were less silly than Pegasus and actually managed to do some evil things. On a side note Bakura comes back in season five. They were the most interesting antagonists. The main antagonist of the season is Noah and his henchmen Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nesbitt, and Leichter. He's actually pretty creepy and not as silly as Pegasus. His henchmen are kind of just forgettable and gimmicky. The one downside to them is that their entire story arc is just filler. Seriously they are never brought up again. You could cut them out and almost nothing would change. Season four's main villains are Dartz and his minions Alistair, Raphael, and Valon. Dartz is kind of bland; he sort of comes out of nowhere. On the bright side he's a lot more threatening than some of the other villains. The main antagonist for the first half of season five is Zigfried von Schrouder. He was basically a more campy German version of Pegasus. And like Noah and Dartz he is never mentioned again after he is defeated. So overall the show has a good rogues gallery. Too bad most of them are inconsequential.






Minor Characters: Here are some of the characters that aren't as prominent as the rest but still pretty important. First off is Kaiba; he is Yugi's main rival. He's actually quite enjoyable. There's also Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba who is kind of just there to get kidnapped by whatever the season's main antagonist is. There's Not-Evil- Bakura. He isn't very interesting in his non evil form. Another minor character is Mai Valentine...... Get it.... It's a pun. She's kind of just a generic love interest for Joey. Marik also has a brother and sister named Odion and Ishizu. They are both pretty bland. There's also Joey's sister Serenity; she's only in the first season to give Joey a reason to be there and in the second and third seasons to wrap up her plot. There's also Yugi's grandpa Solomon Muto. He's only in the first season as a damsel (Or duke?) in distress before becoming a background character. There's also Rebecca Hawkins who at first is a one off character before becoming a main character in season four. There's Duke Devlin who invented some sort of dice based game. He could have been cut out and not much would have change. And last but not least there's Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood.... They kind of just show up from time to time and follow the protagonists. They're annoying end of story. The supporting cast is mostly okay with the best part being Kaiba.







Story: Okay so the story is as follows: Many years ago ancient Egyptians played a game involving monsters. The Egyptian Pharaohs sealed their spirits inside mystical items which have recently been found. The main story involves Yugi and Yami trying to find out the secrets of the items known as the Millennium Items. Before I start talking about each season I should address that every time there's a conflict it's always resolved in a duel. Not a duel with weapons but with playing cards. This is where the commercial tie in comes in. The game they play is Duel Monsters. Don't ask me to explain the rules I'm not exactly sure myself. And yes it is pretty silly that a children's card game is what resolves everything. Each season has a different story arc. I'll talk about each of them.
Season one features Pegasus trying to steal Yugi's Millennium Item by stealing his grandpa's soul to get him to sign up for his card game tournament..... It's kind of a stupid plan.
Season two has Kaiba starting his own tournament and Marik trying to win it and steal Yugi's Millennium Item. It's basically the first season's plot re-hashed.
Season three has Noah and his henchmen trapping the main cast in a virtual world and trying to possess their bodies. It's actually a pretty creative plot.... Too bad it's mostly filler and ends up sidelining the main plot of Marik.
Season four has Dartz and his weird motorcycle riding cult trying to summon the Leviathan. It's actually pretty dramatic..... But just like with Noah's plot it's mostly filler and is never brought up again. Not to mention Dartz himself is never foreshadowed.
The first half of season five is Kaiba hosting another tournament and Zigfried trying to win and expose Kaiba as a fraud (Long story). However, like the last two plots it's all filler.
The the second half of season five has the cast travelling back to ancient Egypt and trying to stop Bakura from destroying everything with a beast named Zorc. It's the most action packed season due to it probably having the least card games in it. Overall it has some pretty decent stories but way too much filler.




Conclusion: Yu-Gi-Oh is not a good show by any means. The leads aren't really very interesting and it has literally entire seasons of filler plot. But the strange thing is despite it not being great I still remember it years later. It's sort of like my generation's version of Transformers or the Adam West Batman. A show that's silly and not all that well written but very memorable with it's silliness. Let's be honest, if you watch the 60's Batman these days it's probably not for the story or characters it's for the campiness. In addition to the silliness some characters like Kaiba, Marik, and Noah are pretty entertaining. So whether you're in it for the silliness or just like card games I recommend this show. Keep in mind this review is for the English dub. I haven't seen the Japanese version and I'm not sure if that version is better or worse.