suzasailor

I was happy to see a new anime premiere that I hadn't heard of and to my surprise, this one delivers.

This dark fantasy has very intriguing premise and setting. Plus it's brutal! No one is safe. If the style and violence isn't your thing then the story and characters will grab you. Each character reveals more and more of their past and it makes the story that much more engaging.

Give it two episodes and I'm sure you will be hooked. This is no simple power fantasy for boys but really a story of revenge and family.

Each episode it pulls back it's layers and gets closer to a delicious center. Koinzell, the young swordsman's journey is a treat as each episode expands this epic fantasy world.

Overall this is a hot show to get on the train before it fully takes off. Whether you're a causal anime fan or die hard, I think it has plenty for both.

8/10.

So I have to admit, I was impressed my man made this for $300. But saying that it sure felt it. I mean El Mariachi was made for 5k, but while Robert Rodriguez has a competent eye for film making, this was not so much. But that being said, instead of picking on a 300 dollar film I'd rather give advice for the filmmaker so his next feature takes a bigger leap in quality.

1. The screenplay, movies live and die by them.

This was like 15 mins of material streeeeeeeeetched to 50mins. This should have been a short. There was needless padding with endless drone establishing shots.

Also when you have finished your screenplay, have a professional look it over, some will do it for a small free and others for free.

Having someone look at your work and tell you what works and doesn't will help you tremendously in the future. You don't have to take their advice but you can definitely understand if you have weak spots.

(Also having you and your actors do a table reads of the script will help you find weak dialogue and strengthen the existing dialogue)

2. Good actors are a commodity and bringing in amateurs will make the project feel like it.

3. Lighting and composition. These are your friends. Take time to learn how these two things and mastering them will make your projects look a lot more professional and cinematic. You can find free videos online to help you.

Good luck.

This is one I was looking forward to for a while and I had reasonable expectations for it. However what it ultimately became was kind of forgettable.

Pros.

The humor can really be on point here and there and there is a really good chemistry between the two leads. The best friend dynamic was really on point, with some Super Bad vibes. The aesthetic was also on point, as someone who was in high school during this period, they nailed it. There was some good side characters that really helped pull the weight of the film. Also some death scenes were funny.

Cons.

The story seemed so good at the beginning, it really set up the characters and world nicely but if you were expecting the fun times that the trailer teased, you will be disappointed. After the initial shock of Y2K begins, it really comes undone. There is a main character that dies and it just didn't feel warranted, at least not yet. Then another death of a main side character happens almost immediately afterwards for comic effect and its really funny but doesn't work overall because of the previous death needed more time to sink in, or not happen at all. So two of the funniest characters are dead in like 30 mins... Not a good sign of things to come.

Then the characters just roam around with some side characters that were not the focus before but move into the spot light and it distracts from the main characters plight. Speaking of, he is just so bland and uninteresting that I couldn't care about him or his Crush(Laura) who also was bland, and they try so hard to make us like her but I couldn't.

Combine this with a wasted cameo towards the end and a blah ending and this movie absolutely falls apart and wishing it made good with what the movie the trailer promised. Also the acting is very hit or miss.

Overall, it's pretty forgettable but maybe it can be revisited for nostalgia, much like the movie. So meta.

5/10.