Puella Magi Madoka Magica Review (No Spoilers)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica or otherwise known as Magical Girl Madoka Magica is a magical girl anime that will make you feel as if you are about to see a silly show about a happy go lucky girl’s life… and you would be wrong. The look of the main character Madoka is different to most of the other characters in the show. She looks innocent and happy and to top it all off she finds a creature that looks like an adorable cat, and the cat talks! If you want a cute show then you cannot go wrong, right? WRONG!

This show is dark and full of twists. Characters are not what they seem and though friendship is important to the main plot of the show, it is not the way you would think. There are characters that you think you can trust or that you should hate that turn out not to be what they seemed to be at the start. The idea is that a girl has to become a magical girl to fight witches and save those tortured by them. They get their powers by asking the cat for a wish which most of the time is granted but then they cannot go back to their previous lives.

There is of course a lot more to the show and the plot, but telling you more than that would risk going into massive spoilers. We will not be going into those because we want you to be as surprised as we were. What we can tell you is that despite the look this is not a show that you want to watch with your kids as it deals with scary situations, death and suicides.

The main characters include Madoka, her best friend Sayaka, the mysterious Magical girl Homura, two other magical girls Mami and Kyoko and the “cat” Kyubey. I say “cat” because if something talks it is not a cat. All characters are explored in the series, some more than others, but you never feel as if you are missing something. Everything in the show happens for a reason.

The animation for the show is one of the better ones in the magical girl genre. The witches are very artistic representations and though it is confusing at first you get used to it pretty quickly. The stakes for the characters in the show are very high and that is something I appreciate in any movie or show that I watch. So we are giving Magical Girl Madoka Magica a 4.3 out of a possible 5 stars.

“Bitten” Movie Review *Spoilers*

“Bitten” is a movie that most of you have not seen, but that you can get as a DVD or while surfing your Roku or Netflix. It stars Jason Mewes as Jack and Erica Cox as Danika. In the movie Danika is bit by a vampire and left for dead in a dumpster just outside of Jack’s apartment and Jack just happens to be a paramedic. She refuses to go to the hospital and so he does what anyone would do when faced with a super-hot chick that needs help… he opens his door and lets her stay.

A romance between the two grows, but then they realize that Danika has transformed into a vampire, don’t worry, there is no glitter. She cannot eat normal food and blood from the blood bank will not do so she does the next best thing and feeds on Jack’s ex and the neighborhoods dealers.

This is not by any stretch of the imagination a great movie, but I found myself surprisingly entertained by it. The plot is fun, the movie does have a few funny moments that made me laugh and I would not call it a complete waste of time. Plus, Erica Cox is really good looking and not a bad actress either. I found myself wondering why I have not seen her in other things. If you pay attention to her she is more than just a cute face and a sexy body though she does have a lot of that… can you say “new crush.”

You should not expect to be scared by bitten, it is not that type of horror movie. While there is some bad acting by some people which I will not mention or the most part Mewes and Cox carry the movie. This one is perfect if you are in the B-Movie mood where I would say it is better than most, but that is not how we review and rank movies in this blog so we will give it 2 and a half stars out of 5. That’s right, I enjoyed it and I would say that you should watch it if you are simply looking to be entertained.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Review

When it come to the Paranormal Activity movies I have been split. On the one hand I think they were creative and kind of creepy, but on the other hand they have been repetitive and predictable. I am also not a fan of the “found footage” films that a lot of studios like to make because they are cheap.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is different from the other movies in the franchise, but that does not mean that the change is all positive. The difference is that unlike in previous movies there is a camera that can capture the demon, so instead of being afraid of something you cannot see, the movie bets on putting a monster in front of your eyes. That unfortunately did not work as well as it does in other movies. The good thing about the previous installments was that you could not see the thing that you were afraid of, and they took that away in this film.

As for the movie itself, it is the same thing that you have seen all over again. There is nothing that feels new or fresh about it except for the 3D which The Ghost Dimension relies on in order to get a few jump scares. The problem with that approach is that you see the scares coming from a mile away, so those that are used to scary movies are not likely to get as much of a thrill. The 3D in this movie is just a gimmick that does not really work.

Just like in the other Paranormal Activity movies you are left to wonder who in their right mind would still be holding a camera if all that stuff was going on around them. I found myself laughing more than being scared which is definitely not something that you want when you are watching a scary movie. There are a couple of funny lines in the movie, but for Halloween this movie was a fail. It is not the worse scary movie ever, but it is not even close to being decent.

Overall the movie was predictable and relied too heavily on the 3D gimmick to scare the audience. Overall I cannot see myself giving Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension more than 1 ½ stars, and that is actually generous. So what did you think of this movie if you saw it? Let me know in the comments section.

Sinister 2 Review

If you saw the first “Sinister” movie, then chances are that you were looking forward to the sequel. The first movie was a refreshing new horror movie and for the most part we loved it… except for the “monster” in it which is supposed to be the boogie man, but even then we loved it because it really creeped us up.

The second movie is not as good, but that does not mean that it is not worth the admission price. The “Sinister 2” movie has its share of problems, but it still managed to give us a few scares. My personal problem with Sinister 2 is that I was able to figure out the ending after watching about 25% of the movie. We got to the ending and though I did not know how we would get there, the end result was what I predicted.

The other problem that I had with the movie is that it relied way too much on the jump scares. Some of those jump scares you will be able to see from a mile away. The moment that you see a space behind the actors, you know that something will be happening behind them. That could mean that if you see a reflection or enough space by them you and bet something will be jumping out of there, and yes it happens every time.

Now to the good things about Sinister 2. The movie manages to give us a story is believable when it comes to what the family interactions are. You have a mother that is willing to protect her kids against earthly dangers and if you see the movie you will know what I am talking about.

There are somethings that I did not see a connection to the story for like the “confession” or why James Ransone’s character was so into helping the woman and her kids. I see why he wanted to take care of the home, but after that the motivation is not clear; I mean once he sees that there are people living in the house then it would have made sense to tell the mom and get the hell out of there… that is what I would have done, but that would not make for a good movie I guess.

Overall I liked Sinister 2, but just in the pure “entertainment” sense. I am not telling you that the movie is something that you just have to watch, but it is good enough that if you see it you will walk out of the movie theater not sorry that you saw it. What I am saying is that it is not a waste of time and you should watch it… or not.

I give this movie 2 ½ out of 5 stars.