awfulketchup Reviews

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

You know what? This is actually well written!

[9/10 · 22 May 2022]

No seriously, I was super concerned at first when I saw the trailer, I didn't think much of it until everyone started talking about this movie, so I sat down, turned it on and was surprised, really surprised over how much care and good the writing is, it's not only works as a family movie, it's something that highlights the nostalgia and brings up very real modern topics about franchises as a whole.

The humor wasn't cheap, it felt proper and deconstructive.

I can't believe I'm saying this but, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers feels like I'm watching Roger Rabbit all over again, and that's a good sign.

9/10.

Peacemaker (2022– )

Peacemaker is pure gold

[9/10 · 18 February 2022]

If there was any way to describe James Gunn, it's that he knows how to write believeable characters, no matter how absurd or obscure they are which has been seen times and times again, Peacemaker is no different. The direction, scenery, acting and portrayal of the DC property is very comic-like in nature which is a good thing. It was quite the ride from start to finish, I honestly had set my bar low, but I knew James and everyone who were a part of this project put love and effort when creating the show.

I hope more people take note of this.

I'm giving it a 9/10.

The Silent Sea (2021)

Good ideas, somewhat falls apart at the end.

[7/10 · 9 January 2022]

If there is one thing that south Korea does like no other, it has to be the drama and believeable acting from really great cast. Now while this movie does have the quality a good narrative and well defined characters all wrapped in a very well made sci-fi story, I can't help but nitpick how flawed it feels towards the end.

I'm not going to give away any spoilers, so what I can say is that while I find this show to be good and not a waste of time, I cant say that it struck me like other shows did.

I am very much into sci-fi mystery and thrillers, but it felt like the suspense of disbelief got thinner and thinner towards the last portion of the film.

Overall, I enjoyed it for the most part and I think there's things to like even if the show pales in comparison to ''My Name'' or ''squid game'' But it's my view on it.

7/10.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)

Feels rather incomplete and jumbled.

[4/10 · 8 December 2021]

Not sure what to say, it felt like I've wasted time on a incomplete mess of a movie that tackles conspiracy theories the same way a creepypasta parodies the dangers of the dark web. I'm pretty sure that this film was inspired by the ''I feel fantastic'' robot woman video that surfaced on youtube many years ago, on paper that sounds like a great idea but in reality what we have here is a movie that has nothing to be thrilled about.

I know I'm sounding harsh and someone out there probably enjoyed this and the people behind it had great ideas, but at the end of the day, I was bored, couldn't get invested in the actors and a plot that had potential but kept stumbling, slowing the movie to a snails phase.

Arcane (2021– )

I haven't touched League for over five years but...

[9/10 · 4 December 2021]

I've been convinced by friends who couldn't shut up about this show to get me to watch it, so I decided to jump right in along with another friend who hasn't even played the game and we were both struck by something really fantastic. Firstly let me just say that the animation is spectacular, sometimes downright breathtaking with every given scenery, angle along with the choreography that keeps the world fluid and alive. Other than it being well animated, the compherensive storybuilding set in what seem to be a steampunk or (Aetherpunk) world where technology and magic is at odds with each other really helps ground everything to be somewhat familiar.

There's so much good in this show, I hardly have anything bad to say. You don't have to be a fan of League to enjoy this show, and if you are a fan? Well you're probably going to enjoy it even more.

9/10.

V/H/S/94 (2021)

Chapter four is really awesome!

[6/10 · 3 December 2021]

Honestly, overall this anthology of short films tend to be hit or miss, everyone will get something out of it. I'm just going to put my spin on how it felt watching this new vhs movie, well it was alright to say the least, some are better than others, but oh man, oh boy chapter four was the real dealbreaker for me, that alone was really disturbing and enjoyable, kind of reminded me of the videogame soma but in a more messed up way. Overall I'm happy to have taken the time to watch through these flicks, hoping to see more of this franchise in the future!

6/10.

Squid Game (2021– )

Perfection!

[10/10 · 21 September 2021]

Squid game is what I can only describe as an evolution of the Battle Royale genre, what I mean by that is that you have a premise of putting x people into a deathmatch situation where only the best or luckiest individuals can get out alive. This heavily reminds me of Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (Anime) and another movie called As the gods will, but this series did something quite unique and unthinkable which deconstructs many tropes and cliches.

Honestly this is very well made, You get to feel for everyone's struggles and motivations to the point where it becomes relatable.

I highly recommend you to give it a watch!

Invincible (2021– )

This is it, the pinnacle of what a superhero genre can be.

[10/10 · 30 April 2021]

I thought for the longest time why comic book related series or movies more often than pull their punches to make something so engaging, but invincible scratches that itch which so many shows try to do. It's well animated, has a great phase and growing stakes, well timed dark humor and likeable characters. While the plot might seem like something you've seen a million times, this show does things so differently that it manages to stand out, and ooh boy does it stand out. I'm looking forward to Season 2, this is some of the best superhero series I've seen, if not the best in so many years.

It deserves all the praise, love it!

Space Sweepers (2021)

What a pleasant Surprise!!!

[8/10 · 8 February 2021]

Just wow, Space Sweepers surprised me, I thought it was going to be a episodic series but instead I got to see an entire different beast of a movie, from having top notch animation, to a large diverse and likeable cast, both main characters and side characters had a charm to them. While the plot is nothing new if you're familiar with the space opera sci-fi genre, it did bring an unique take on that concept. I would like to just take a moment and also point out that the villain was perfect, over the top, classy ruthless and not contractionary at all.

My few gripes are that there were moments where I had to suspend my disbelief a bit too much, but overall this show was a fun ride all the way through, it stuck the landing. South Korea have been killing it with their shows and movies over the past couple years and it seems that it's only going to get better from here.

8/10

Monsters of Man (2020)

It's alright, but should've been way shorter.

[5/10 · 24 December 2020]

So many moments in this movie just works, but the problem that it ran into several of times is extending every scenes way longer than possible, even the dramatic scenes felt like an eternity despite little interaction or introduction between characters. The effects were good and the plot premise really worked. Overall it's a movie that Is worth a watch for what it is but It has way too many things working against it.

5/10

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020)

A beautiful parting gift for the fans of Digimon Adventure

[10/10 · 27 November 2020]

It's hard to face reality in which you live, if you're a grown up person who has lived through the late 90's. or if you're a fan of the older Digimon series, you'll understand the gut wrenching pain of departing from something that you've grown to adore. With that said, Last Evolution Kizuna is the real ending for the Adventure franchise, it offers not only some of the best character development, animations, fight scenes and themes which I've I frankly never seen as heavily explored in this franchise, but we also get a more compelling antagonist with ideals that come from a genuine place, which makes you as the viewer conflicted about your choices.

This makes up for the Tri movies that came before it, I'm probably biased, but my nostalgia alone couldn't let me ignore the multitude of issues those films had, this one however, hits home, all the way to the core. This is for the fans, And I enjoyed it!

Block Z (2020)

For a zombie movie, it's about average.

[6/10 · 23 November 2020]

Let's face it, there are countless of zombie movies at this point, what made this one stick out more than usual was the somewhat likeable characters and well shot moments followed by some entertaining scenes sprinkled all over the movie to keep you invested in the survivors. With that aside, what stops this movie from being higher than 6 is the many faults that can be seen in zombie movies that just don't know what to do with the characters that were established, I mean without spoiling the movie of course, there are moments that feel rushed, contrived and even tone deaf of what genre it wants to be, what I mean by tone deaf is that they'll have comedic moments at times which would normally be there to break tension and make the audience laugh, but these jokes are so self aware that I mistook it for a comedy when it's trying to be so super serious 90% of the runtime.

Overall, I'm very hard to please in regards to zombie flicks, but this did tick a lot of boxes to make me have a fun time. but I wouldn't revisit it anytime soon.

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (2020)

Straight forward, It's alright.

[4/10 · 1 November 2020]

It's pretty straight forward as slasher fest goes, If you're a long time horror fan then this movie offers nothing new to the table. On its own I guess it's a flick you can watch when you got time to burn. I wasn't bored watching this movie but it didn't really do anything for me.

Origin (2018)

I can't believe there's no second season!

[9/10 · 23 September 2020]

Origin is a Sci-Fi/horror/mystery show that flew under my radar for over two years, when I finally decided to binge it with the free time that i had, I was taken by surprise of how organic and well built the storyline was maintained throughout the span of each episodes. The backstories or flashbacks that gave layers to the crew really made me feel more empathic with their circumstances, seeing as all of them want to have a blank slate, a new identity because of the unjust reality that they were part of. But that is only part of what makes it so compelling.

I really had to digest the last half of the episodes to understand that not everything is what it seem, it made me question everything despite feeling like you know the crew, how genuine and relatable they can be, but at the same time the sense of apprehension because of one of them being controlled by some incomprehensible parasite from space.

It's been two years since this show aired with no second season in sight, I wish and hope to see this continue.

The Lodge (2019)

A Nosedive into Psychosis

[7/10 · 7 June 2020]

This is the first time I've seen this movie, i jumped into it blindly, without any spoilers or opinions to warp my perception of how to think or feel about seeing this. And I'm happy to have caught up on this film. So where to start? Well, this is a psychological horror movie about a father of two kids, a boy and a girl. During a divorce, his ex-fiance (I'm assuming) didn't take it too well and things took a complete 180 from there, I'm going to have to spoil some of it to give my perspective and why i enjoyed it.

Now the thing that made this movie effective is the same thing as i can say about another film which this reminded me of, namely ''Hereditary'' where that movie was mostly about grief, illness, tragedy, family, this movie on the other hand seem to focus on beliefs and psychosis (I hope I'm not misinterpreting it) Let me explain, so in this movie we have Grace, the new stepmother, who is arguable the protagonist whilst the kids act as the antagonist, but the roles switch around on the later portion of the film. The reason why i I'm deducting this to be true is because from the start of the movie we are handed with clues, valuable clues that validates my statement. These clues are the gun the now dead wife used in the beginning and Mia's quote ''Mom won't go to heaven'' Because suicide won't give you a free ticket to heaven, you'll be stuck in limbo instead until you repent.

And since the kids discovered that Grace used to be part of a religious cult of some kind, this could be seen as blasphemy, but consider that in the movie during the time where she stays in the house, she uses pills which probably got prescribed to her, we do not get to know what kind of pills they are but i am willing to bet that they are to help her recover from the trauma, so she isn't completely out of it, she's just sick and she is trying to get better. What the kids were essentially doing was to escalate her condition until it spiraled out of control, but it went too far. This is where Grace's psychosis comes into question. A lot of her behaviors seemed to fit the description.

Or maybe I'm just reading too deep into this and the kids actually were the true evil in the cabin/house, and they drove Grace from a recovering sensitive woman into a delusional, god fearing person. I mean seriously, two kids pull a elaborate plan for what? Revenge? Or was it with good intentions? I Just can't wrap my head around it, but one thing is for sure, i genuinely felt bad for Grace.

Ok half asses analysis over, I'm giving it a 7/10, have a good night!

Becky (II) (2020)

Not bad at all.

[5/10 · 7 June 2020]

This film was quite Surprising despite taking a lot of tropes from different movies. But the violence and creative way that some of the kills were had me smiling for a while. It's not a movie i would re watch but if you got nothing else to do and just want to pass some time, this movie is worth your time.

5/10

Outback (2019)

Is this a joke? What's with the high score?

[6 June 2020]

This got to be a joke, i was expecting a decent thriller, but instead I've witnessed a gradually degrading and nonsensical mess. If the couple were dropout students or written as mentally challenged then i would've suspended my disbelief, because they're both portrayed as complete morons, is that what the writers were going for? In that case it's still very poorly handled on their part. This film just drags on and every action becomes even more infuriating.

Can i say anything good about this movie? Visually it's alright, the actors did a believable portrayal of dumb people stereotypes, guess we wouldn't have a plot if they has common sense.

I know I'm sound unreasonable harsh, but there is no other way to for me to express how disappointing this movie was.

Verdict 3/10 - Should've stayed in quarantine.

7500 (2019)

Slow burn

[5/10 · 1 June 2020]

This movie is very slow, straight forward and predictable. It's not bad but it's not great either, It's weird to say this but despite the acting being good for the most part, especially from the main lead actor or the use of slow suspense, somehow it feels like this movie is missing elements, but i guess they wanted to go for realism, what i mean by that is that this movie is very realistic in its approach of Airplane hijacking so fans of that kind of genre are in for a surprise i guess.

Overall i thought the movie was okay at best, I'll leave it at 5.

Blood Machines (2019)

Those visuals are out of this world, but...

[8/10 · 28 May 2020]

However i must address the elephant in the room which is the acting and story, those two elements are the weakest portions of the movie despite it being so short. Now ok don't get me wrong, the story was somewhat interesting, but it could easily have been a longer series, but if it were this review would probably have been differently approached. There is zero things i can say about the acting, it wasn't serious enough to be engaging and it wasn't campy or corny enough to make me laugh or have fun, and i think it would've have gone away with being campy and over the top just as the visuals were.

Okay, with that out of the way let's focus on all the good things about this movie which literally is just that, everything else was mind blowing for the budget being so small, from the practical to the visual effects, coordination in movement that blended well together with the complementary color schemes of pink and green which dominated the majority of the scenery. By god the scenery took me back to the old days of 80's which might as well have been a nostalgia trip but it managed to be so stylish on its own that merits.

Lastly, Carpenter Brut is and always will be in my heart one of the grand examples of synthwave elegance, it might sound very biased but i doubt that i would have been as engaged or interested in seeing this flick if it weren't for my love of his well orchestrated synth tracks over the years. I remember when he released Turbo Killer alongside the music video, and this movie was basically more of that but with a higher budget. I hope to see more movies like this but with more plot, or let's just ignore plot and just make extended music videos, i appreciate it a lot!

I could easily have rated this a 10 out of blind worship, but i am giving it an 8 for just hitting every note except for the things they could have avoided altogether which is the weak plot and acting.

Do yourself a favor and check it out!

The Blackout (2019)

Better than average

[7/10 · 24 May 2020]

Took a while for this movie to take off, and when it did it actually had a lot of good things going for it, the premise is a cocktail of a lot of different ideas jammed into entity. I'm a sucker for Sci-Fi things, and this movie delivered on a lot of those fronts. I'm split 50/50 if i actually like this movie more or less.

In the end of the day, i was entertained enough to finish the movie without feeling like I've wasted my time, I could potentially re-watch it to see if my opinion would change, as of now, yeah, this movie was better than average.

Oh and props for the guys who borrowed a specific design aesthetic in the end, it was the high point of the movie for me, not going to spoil what that is, you're going to have to go see it to understand.

Z (I) (2019)

Creepy for the most part, but nothing else

[6/10 · 3 May 2020]

Now this review might sound a bit biased for some, I'm genuinely more scared of atmospheric slow-burn horror movies that tend to creep me out and cause goosebumps every now and then, psychological horror works more for me rather than bombastic and annoying jumpscares without substance, now with that said, therein lies the problem.

Z at first glance ticks the right boxes, it reminded me of Babadook, it started to resemble Hereditary which i was ready to embrace it as, but while those comparisons kept upping the ante as they escalated in both tone and their scare factor, Z on the other hand, does nothing despite having a easy to follow plot with one eerie twist that i wish they did more with, since this isn't a spoiler review i wont bother to give any details on that, but it became a make or break situation.

To summarize Z, it had a promising set up, there were genuinely scary moments that made my hair raise, but the last portions alongside no clear direction completely killed the momentum for me.

Final verdict: 6

Had it not been for the promising start and creep factor in some moments, i would've knocked the score by 2 and left it at 4.

Guns Akimbo (2019)

Action packed, high octane joyride!

[10/10 · 27 April 2020]

Guns Akimbo is really well phased and acted, it has some stunning visuals, comedic moments that never breaks from the action or plot which makes it all so fun to watch. I really loved the actress who played Nova, she managed to steal the spotlight more than the main character. Overall i can't say much more unless i have to spoil it for you.

Just go watch it, You'll have a fun time!

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;Surrection (2019)

A sweet ending for a bittersweet anime, i guess

[7/10 · 23 April 2020]

Honestly, I'm not sure what to say to justify this movies existence, considering that the show before it had a fitting, satisfying conclusion. I originally saw Code Geass as it was newly released and it remained one of my top favorite anime for a long time, i also recall the theories about Lelouch gaining the same immortality as his father had, but this was a long speculation, until now.

The anime later had a couple of movies that were made to change some elements from the original show, some more major than others and this was a surprising change of event, however i digress.

Fast forward to 2019, now we have Lelouch of the Re;Surrection, it's just as i could expect a continuation to be, but i'd rather have had it as a series on its own but we got a movie instead. So you're probably wondering if this movie was worth all the hype? In one way, it checked a lot of lists, remained consistent and had the exact same beat as the show itself, but there is just something about this movie that just juggled a lot of fan service in front of my face, but did so sparingly.

Final verdict from me is a 7/10 as it feels like i should have enjoyed this movie, i really should, but to undo such a satisfying climax which the original show left behind is without a doubt in my mind, a betrayal. But for what this movie is, i could have taken it or left it. Everything you love about Code Geass remains intact and i commend them for it.

Infection (2019)

not bad, not great either

[4/10 · 18 April 2020]

If you've seen a lot of zombie movies in your lifetime, this movie ultimately doesn't offer anything spectacular or new ideas to the table. The characters weren't fleshed out enough to the point where everything just blended like a bland soup. The only thing keeping me from lowering the score any further is the way the pandemic was being introduced along with clear and realistic approach to solve the issue.

Overall, this movie ended up being a watered down 28 days later with no sense of originality or identity of its own to give it a lasting effect.

If you're a huge zombie fan, there are much better options out there, this is sadly not one of them.

Sea Fever (2019)

Something fresh, yet familiar

[9/10 · 13 April 2020]

The first thought that came to mind is how Sea Fever manages to follow the same beats as older horror movies, but rather than becoming a shallow copy, it instead transformed into something remarkable. The plot is straight forward, you have what seem to be a introverted oceanography student that tags along with a crew on a ship to study behavioral patterns of seal life, things start to turn from bad to worse as the ship crosses path with something different.

For some reason i felt that this movie was a lot like John Carpenter's The thing, considering they both have the themes of isolation,contagion, being far from civilization and slowly unraveling the mysteries of the creature. Even some scenes are nearly identical!

So if you're a fan of anything of what I've just written, go ahead and grab some popcorn, but before you do that, Wash those hands.