Max Turgidson

It fools you into thinking it’s a dark drama in the beginning. But it turns out that at the climax it simply switches to a “man with a past” trope. Seems given it was written with Brody that he had a good time playing a thug in Peaky Blinders and wants to change his career to “action guy” similar to how Liam Neeson did with the Taken series. The movie has a nice backdrop and acting till the switch to the “man with a past” action sequences. The preparation montage and final battle scene could have been taken from any 80s/90s straight to video film of the same genre. It’s underwhelming and derivative. The final scenes are filmed in almost complete darkness. No imagination. Final dialogue voice over is hokey. I enjoyed it, or rather looked forward to a better ending, right up until the preparation montage, when it was clear where it was going. Otherwise maybe a 2 star. 3 is probably about right. Not completely unenjoyable, but on more of a “guilty pleasure”/ wasting time feel. The let down of the ending is quite palpable. That said, in a better script with more money, Adrian Brody could pull off the brooding action star. He is a competent actor, obviously…. I don’t know how much this film cost, not much I’d expect, and it probably went farther with its budget than its peers. It doesn’t suffer having Utica as it’s location as so many other films do when they try to shoot cheap. They don’t try to turn Utica into NYC or Chicago, it’s an unnamed upstate NY town and it works. Written in my phone, excuse any uncorrected auto corrections.

Trying to be high concept artistically but it comes out as a mush mash of styles that doesn’t coalesce into an interesting look. Cartoons, dark single color black and white camp scenes, live action. It’s very disjointed. Hard to watch. I would say it was probably aimed at the very young kids that we’re watching TikToks at age 3, but it deals with a very graphic suicide right off the top. I’m surprised they thought that would play in our current society. The acting is bad. The main narrator is an old pro wrestler trying at acting. His delivery sounds very similar to that of Wes Studi as the sphinx. The dialogue is mundane and generic. The action is cheesy and poorly choreographed (similar to pro wrestling?) I watched for several episodes as I thought it was trying to be parody, but if it is, it’s missing it. It has no social/political commentary nor comedy based on that. It does try to poke at some modern tropes…. Anti-homosexual, hawkish president makes a statement and someone came up with the brilliant line “dick” as a retort. It’s an alternate universe that isn’t much like ours so it’s hard to throw commentary without some serious story development, which this doesn’t seem to shoot for. It doesn’t make fun of other super hero franchises. It doesn’t imitate them other than the obvious Superman parallel. Fast paced, but doesn’t have a direction. It really feels like I’m watching “shark boy and lava girl” in a modern rendition with too many attempts to jazz up scene transitions. Very juvenile. I may continue watching it a bit more as I can’t imagine it is really as bad a garbage fire as it looks. I worry I’m missing something or a major plot twist will change the whole thing. Or maybe it’s a vanity project and has nothing inside.

My wife has hardly ever played anything in her life. A bit of wii bowling. She mocks me for playing anything (We’re gen x). I read the description for this game and she seemed interested so I got it through game pass. She really likes it. It’s simple and slow, but she isn’t very experienced so it’s a nice pace for her. I haven’t had to help her figure it out. Not to sound sexist, but it’s nice to see a game that isn’t horror or shooting or racing. Nothing gets shot or disemboweled. It seems to be an attempt to market a game that women/girls can enjoy on their terms. Not to say women can’t enjoy any kind of game, but we know what demographics play the majority video games. I knocked off a star because it lacks polish. There seem to be some camera options that don’t do anything. Frequently there are glitches. The writing is bland. It’s the quality of an 80s made for cable TV movie in relation to “Oscar winning” story type games. Graphics are simple. Probably 16 color, but not 16bit. Reminiscent in style of early roll playing game graphics. But only in their artistic design. In summary. I don’t think I’d spend time on it, but I can see the draw. My wife would give it 5/5.