Warm Bodies and Venom: The Last Dance

A pair of corny movies.

Warm Bodies

This zombie comedy romance flick stars Nicholas Hoult as the protagonist zombie who falls for a very much alive girl.  This alternate view point is pretty original as its quirky nonsensical power of love plot. Might be a good pick for those of you who like the three C's in movies: cheesy, campy and corny but otherwise stay away.

Venom: The Last Dance

Closing out Tom Hardy's trilogy of Venom movies, this one has him on the run from both law enforcement and new alien scum sent by a bad guy who loves narration. It  certainly feels that they just wanted to get this over and done with many ridiculous scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor but I guess they really just wanted one last crazy ride with the anti-hero symbiote, so much so that they just whacked in a whole bunch of them in here to give them possibly their last chance of screen time. Definitely turn your brains off if watching this one. Not recommended.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Season 1) and Strong Girl Nam-soon (Season 1)

Featuring female protagonists that make you laugh and cry. In a good way.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Season 1)

 
This anime is a strange masterpiece. It takes place in a Dungeons and Dragons like fantasy world focusing on Frieren the long lived elf mage, and the story begins with her and the party of heroes having saved the world from a demon king - usually the end of a campaign but that's ok, because this is a mostly a melancholic drama about characters growing as people. As a bonus there just happens to be a good portion of awesome action sequences on top of the excellent art, music and story. I'm sorry Blue Lock, this is now my favorite anime as it regularly hits me in the feels. Highly recommended!

Strong Girl Nam-soon (Season 1)

This continuation in the world of Strong Girl Bong-soon gives us a new cute protagonist but unlike Bong-soon, Nam-soon (and her family) has no problems making use of her superhuman strength in public. While yes, there are bad guys who just happen to be idiots despite their good looks, this is mainly a love story with a heavy focus on humor. This works for the most part but in the few episodes where Nam-soon is taking a back seat in the plot it can get quite taxing... Ultimately if you enjoyed Bong-soon you'll probably like this too, but just don't expect it to be as good.

Gyeongseong Creature (Season 1) and The Dry

Investigations into monsters.

Gyeongseong Creature (Season 1)

In this Korean made series set during the Japanese occupation of Korea 1945, a well connected pawn shop owner and a pair of sleuths tasked with locating missing people find clues that lead them to the local hospital where it just so happens the Japanese are conducting some monstrous experiments. While there are horror/monster aspects to the plot it isn't the bulk of the story, with heavy focus on the drama / love segment of it instead with some really colorful segments. That's not a bad thing but it certainly slows the pace down a bit, and I'm not sure I would have made it if we weren't watching at 1.5x speed. Entertaining enough to watch but I'm only going to be recommending it to K-drama lovers. Season 2 is already confirmed.

The Dry

This Australian made movie focuses on a Federal Agent (played by Eric Bana) who returns to his home town for the funeral of his childhood friend thought to be involved in a murder/suicide. Obviously he is asked to investigate but to complicate matters his history with the little town is spotty at best from a murder that took place in his youth. These two events really drive the two timelines that this story follows which nicely depicts rural Australian life. Basically, it's an Aussie whodunit and it is bloody good mate - she'll be right! Recommended!

Cagaster of an Insect Cage and The Lost City

Shows about love?

Cagaster of an Insect Cage

In this one season anime, nothing makes sense. That's a great start isn't it? There's a virus that causes people to randomly transform into zombies giant man-eating dragonfly type bugs and we are told in the introduction that these critters are impervious to bullets, blades and tank shells with the only opportune time of slaying a person undergoing the change (so still mostly humanoid) to be in the first 20 minutes, via decapitation.

In the very next scene, we see a lone soldier take down a giant dragonfly with a sword and shotgun, and soon after learn there are entire tank brigades dedicated to fighting the bugs. What? Interesting take on having the protagonist being a potential child rapist too, but its ok because the 14 year old says "yes" at the end of the series. Love always wins! Yay? So um, yeah. Sorry for the spoiler but its not a great story and only OK art and action means I'm going to not recommend this one.

The Lost City (2022)

When a burnt out romance writer (Sandra Bullock) winds up being kidnapped it is up to her slow-witted cover model (Channing Tatum) to mount a rescue attempt. For an action adventure comedy this movie certainly hits all of those themes pretty well, and while the plot is mostly predictable it was still quite entertaining and ultimately much better than I was anticipating as I got invested in multiple characters right away, even the bad guy (there are some duds though)! Turned out to be a decent watch. Good choice wifey. :)

Definitely, Maybe

Who's your mommy?

When a young girl asks her dad (Ryan Reynolds) how her parents met, he indulges her in a tale of romance and broken hearts but replaces the names of the women to see if his daughter can correctly guess which one her mom is.

Answers: should you watch it?

This proves to be an entertaining mechanic for this rom-com as it does leave both her and the audience wanting to find out the answer to the question. It's a decent plot with interesting characters played by competent actors, the kid included.

It's a bit strange that they don't age through out the telling though, as the story spans years, but that's ok. Not a bad movie at all, but probably not one I'd watch again. I give it two and a half rehearsals out of five.

Stardust

Falling stars are pretty.

In a world where England is separated from the magical world by a simple five foot tall stone wall, Tristan (a young Charlie Cox) goes on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for love - encountering murderous princes, evil witches, and even lightning pirates on the way.

Daredevil looks strange with long hair...

While the plot is not entirely unpredictable, it is full of memorable scenes and ticks the boxes for both fantasy and romance which kept both my wife and I very entertained. I especially liked the magic system used and was quite amused with the decent body count. I definitely recommend this one and give it three and a half  voodoo dolls out of five. Would I watch it again? Certainly!

Siberia

The bear never escapes.

Through bad luck and a sequence of bad decisions a shady diamond trader (Keanu Reeves) gets into trouble while trying to make money off a Russian mobster, mainly due to the fact that the product he promised to sell has gone missing.

Nope, no diamonds here.

First things first - there's very little fighting in this romantic crime thriller, instead putting in a lot of emphasis on "romantic" through copious use of sex scenes which I suppose is meant to help the slow pace of the "investigation" part of the film.

My wife hated it saying it's a "terrible movie". With that in mind, I can only give it 1.5 candles out of 5 and probably won't watch it again.

The Princess Bride

Review this movie? As you wish!

The majority of this movie is a tale told by a grandfather to his grandson, which is a nice blend of fantasy romance comedy. It tells a tale of true love and more importantly, is highly entertaining to watch!

Especially this fantastic duel!

This is in the era before computer generated effects, so it resorts to the more relatable stunt and prop methods which really work for it. A good story, good acting, good comedy bits, good cinematography... this film a complete package. Yes, there are some parts that make no sense but just enjoy the ride. The low body count makes it suitable for kids too!

Highly recommended and one I'd definitely watch again. I give the Princess Bride 4.5 fencing duels out of 5.

Strong Girl Bong-soon

A surprisingly enjoyable show!

I'd never thought I'd blog about a TV show, much less a Korean Romantic Comedy but here we are. At it's heart, despite being about a girl who is desperately trying to hide her super strength from the world, this show is definitely a romance with many minutes spent on gazing. Yes you heard that right. She looks at him, he looks at her. Sometimes, it's even in slow motion. There are also many obvious sponsor shots and blurred out tags post production and some of the humor is very stupid.

Yet despite all of that, this 16 episode series got us hooked easily with the catchy music, great casting (Park Bo-young is  a very cute protagonist), good plot (though episode 10 drags a little) and high quality production. There's also a surprising amount of eating in each episode, each of which are over an hour long.

She doesn't need a super hero outfit.

Best of all, there's a decent villain who keeps things interesting which was a very good surprise given theme of the show. I give this 4 noodles out of 5 and can easily recommend it to anyone who likes rom-coms or simply want to try something different, as long as you keep the expectation that this is a drama rather than an action show.

That thing called Tadhana (Fate)

Since every one else is doing The Force Awakens reviews, I thought I'd do something very left of field. :P

This is basically the story of two people - an angry woman who just got burnt at the end of a long term relationship and a guy who happens to run into her at the airport and henceforth acts like a creepy stalker-leech.

While there are other people around, they only get a handful of lines and are never really focused on - instead relying on Angry and the Leech to carry the whole thing, which is hard to do when there's not much chemistry going on between the two. I should also mention Angry swears a ton.

This is especially evident in the long shots where nothing happens. No dialogue, no exciting action. Just Angry and the Leech staring out at space or leaning ones head on anothers shoulder... for five minutes. WTF.

Fitting reaction to watching this very film.

There is a pretty interesting and simply animated sub story of the Arrow with a Heart pierced through it that runs parallel to what's going on and just like it, the movies ending just leaves you hanging with no real clear resolution.

With very few positive points I can't recommend this to anyone, and give it just one and a half pierced hearts out of five. Watch it again? Nope.

The Proposal

Sandra Bullock plays an abrasive and much disliked boss who blackmails her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) into marrying her to get around being deported. Of course this lie doesn't go smoothly when real feelings become involved. Yep, another pic by my wife - I found myself laughing quite a lot during this romantic comedy and found it very entertaining. Since there are no explosions or a high CGI requirement they collected decent actors to fill up the cast.

Good leads for this sort of thing.

Betty White is always entertaining for me (fan of Golden Girls, eep) but is outdone by Oscar Nunez's "Ramone". It also helps that the setting quickly changes from that of a busy city to the picturesque Alaska. Bonus points for having an adorable puppy! There are some odd bits such as the Indian chanting segment and why in the world would Ryan Reynolds undress entirely on a balcony IN ALASKA? Is it not cold there? Well, I guess if I looked like Ryan Reynolds maybe it would be different but I digress. :P

If you dislike rom-coms but are forced to see one, this isn't such a bad choice. For everyone else, I give it three and a half Samoyeds out of five. That's three full grown ones and one puppy by the way, don't go chopping dogs up. Surprisingly, I also wouldn't mind watching this again.

Double the Romance: A Walk in the Clouds & Cinderella

A Walk in the Clouds

What's a romance movie doing here?

Keanu Reaves is soldier returned from war to what looks like a not so good marriage. While trying to reintegrate into society he meets a random girl (over and over again) and due to his sense of duty ends up pretending to be her husband when she returns home, just to save her from getting yelled at by her dad. Yes. He tries to help her with lies. Good plan! Obviously things get complicated when the rest of the household quite likes him and he starts falling in love with the girl he tells lies for.

Fly Neo... Fly!

I have to admit, the acting, setting and story here are all decent enough. I especially liked the dad and grand dad of the "fated" girl. While I'm not sure -I- would have done the same thing Keanu's character did I'm pretty sure the only thing I don't like about it is that it's a romance flick. No guesses on who chose this movie (thanks wifey). :P Ultimately I give it two and a half clouds out of five, but isn't something I'd watch again.

~~~

Cinderella

Disney proves it has a lot of money.

A live action remake of the cartoon classic, Disney really outdid themselves in recreating Cinderella. From the sets, to the CGI, to the costumes, everything is of fantastic production value. Obviously there's great music too but if you are looking for the sung songs they are scarcely used during the actual film and were plonked at the end credits instead, much like in the footsteps of Maleficent.

Count the number of different dresses.

While all the actors play their parts well, for me Cate Blanchett really stands out as the cruel step mom. Unlike Maleficent there are no real "dark" bits here that parents might shield their kids from though and if you remember the original film then you basically have the whole story repeated here for you. This is both a plus and a minus in that there's nothing new, but you know what to expect. All up I give this movie four glass slippers out of five, and can recommend it to pretty much anyone (unless you absolutely hate all things Disney - you monster! :P). Would I watch it again? Hrm... I'd have to say no. Maleficent is more my thing.