A staple of 80s comedy, i’d been meaning to get around to watching the ‘Police Academy’ films for literal decades…and after a particularly uneventful Thursday, that time has finally come, starting with the first film; and the one that most people will champion as ‘the one to watch’.

The plot revolves around a city where the new mayor has made a decision to no longer disqualify applicants to the police force based on sex, weight, height, religeon or education status. ALL are welcome to try out for the force, and a ragtag group of misfits take the city up on that offer. Its basically stereotypes from here on in, as a tall muscley black guy, a fat man, a gun nut, a criminal, an ‘Italian’, and many MANY other bizarre individuals sign up to Police academy.

But the chief of the Academy is strongly against the situation and has instructed his staff to make conditions at the training camp SO unbearable, that these misfits will quit as they cant just throw them out anymore. As such prank wars and ‘hilarity’ ensue for the first 60 minutes, until one of their hairbrained schemes triggers a full blown riot, leading the ‘Cops to be’ RIGHT into a heavy and serious situation, that may prove too much for the team!

And for all the pomp and circumstance this film gets as a ‘hit 80s comedy’ its fine. Nothing remarkable, not particularly bad, VERY dated and kind of meandering. But hey, you wanna see a handful of mixed ability comedians do some low brow, low quality ‘yuck yucks…’ then here you go.

I think the plot itself is fine, though I do think we spend a bit too long at the Academy itself, the characters dont really get much of a chance to grow beyond their establishing, and it isnt really until the 3rd act when they DO get out amongst the public that the real fun of this film kicks in. The characters are all pretty much one note stereotypes. what you see in their first 3 minutes on screen is basically what you’ll be getting for the remaining 83 minutes…so…be ready for that.

The jokes are pretty poor, most of the comedy is low effort, low brow gags that AT MOST caused a stifle ‘mhmm!’ from me. there were 2 gags in this that actually made me laugh, but otherwise, its a very dry film thats aiming for ‘zany’ with non of the real qualities of what a ‘zany’ film needs to thrive. Michael Winslow as Larvell doing sound effects is about as ‘thought provoking’ as this film gets really.

Still! the direction and cine are solid enough for the early 80s, the castings about as solid as it could have been, and the scores definitely memorable. I just kind of wish they’d done a bit more with the premise, because as it stands this feels like a ‘DC Cabs’ rip off with elements of Porkys thrown in for good measure.

Its definitely not a bad comedy, im sure some people will get something out of it…its just kind of unremarkable, just a fairly middle of the road comedy movie that didnt really have me in stitches..BUT It did inspire 2 of my favourite ‘Simpsons’ bits…So I guess it has that going for it.

Definitely not one I can recommend in the year of our lord 2025. But if you’ve had it on your watch list for a while and are curious about how it goes. i’d say its fine enough to catch at least once if your inclined.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/police-academy/

I must have been in a very ‘off’ mood when I rated this one previously. Gave it a respin today and its still not ‘Great’, but its a lot better than I remember it being. The script drags ass in the back half of the film, and the plot meanders and loses its own threads through most of the 3rd act. But the direction, given this is low/no budget to the point that they couldnt even afford to do reshoots or visit the same location more than had already been agreed is rock solid, if not a bit uninspiring, and the core premise is fun enough until the slowdown suffocates it.

That being said, it has a LOT of iffy performances, the cops subplot made me wish for the sweet release of death and the score sounds like someone dunked a synth in porridge.

Your milage VERY much will vary on this one. and a lot of what I said in my old review still stands. But I feel like I was a bit overly harsh last time…this is a fine, if not pretty dull christmas slasher movie that didnt have the budget to make the film look like a christmas slasher movie…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/silent-night-deadly-night-3-better-watch-out/1/

The first two Dragonball Z movies were fine enough films, but they did feel a bit like they were still kind of feeling out the format of how these stories should play out. Less interested in giving our characters new scenarios to face, and more interested in just…testing the characters out with the audience and finding a good fit for what would or wouldnt work.

‘The Tree of Might’ is the 3rd film in the series, and I think they’re really starting to move in the right direction with how these things should work.

The film unashamedly ditches the mainline manga plotting and instead reintroduces the Saiyans in a totally different way to the series. But here it feels like an actual experiment in ‘What if?’ storytelling. Turles isnt exactly the greatest villain the series ever has. But I found him a lot stronger a player than Garlic Jr. or the scientists from ‘The Worlds Strongest’.

Theres a lot more interesting visuals on hand in this one, though that does work to the films detriment, as I realised fairly early on that footage from this film makes up about 75% of the western intro seqence for the ‘Dragonball Z’ anime series.

All in all? This felt more in line with what I was hoping a ‘Dragonball Z’ movie would be, a self contained <60 minute ‘what if?’ runaround that has some nice moments, some genuinely dark pieces and just that right twist of light heartedness to let you know your watching something made by Toriyama. I absolutely HOPE things continue to improve from here, but so far? this has been the first one i’ve actually ‘enjoyed’ watching, and that I could see myself watching again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-the-tree-of-might/

The second of the Dragonball Z movies, and this one has a bit more pep in its step over ‘Dead Zone’, in this one a henchman of a long lost mad scientist uses the dragonballs to ressurect his master. Leading to the genius creating a group of ‘super fighters’ which he wants to put up against our ‘Z’ fighters, with the ultimate goal being to create the worlds strongest fighter.

This one I feel was more worthy of the ‘film’ length runtime, clocking in at just shy of an hour, it feels a bit more grander, theres a bit more at stake, and the fight scenes feel more solidly choreographed. Again, much like ‘Dead zone’ I cant say I ‘Loved’ this one. But I had a more than fine enough time checking it out, and visually this films in a different league. Deadzone felt like an extended episode of the show, this film felt like an actual attempt to do something that the shows budget couldnt stretch to usually. and I apprecitated that.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-the-worlds-strongest/

The first of the ‘Dragonball Z’ movies, and a kind of middle of the road entry in my opinion.

The plot revolves around a mysterious character called ‘Garlic Jr.’ who is attempting to gather the dragonballs in order to wish for immortality, and with it, the ability to take over the world. Goku and the gang end up running into Garlic Jr.s Cronies while they’re hunting the final dragonballs, and all of this leads to a fairly epic showdown with the ultimate fate being a one way trip to ‘The Dead Zone’.

At 40(ish) minutes in length, this plays out almost like a 2 part story from the series. In that sense, theres a distinctly ‘filler-ish’ vibe to this one. I enjoyed it for what it was trying to do, but I wasnt particularly ‘wowd’ by it. Elements of this story would be reworked into the mainline dragonball Z anime as its own arc, and I feel this film handles the plotting better than that arc. But this isnt exactly a ‘must see’ movie for this series…Its a fun enough way to kill 40 minutes. But i’ve definitely seen better.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-dead-zone/

Watched on Friday October 31, 2025.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/wacko/1/

And so, my journey through the entire ‘Hellraiser’ franchise draws to a close (for now) with a definite bang in the form of the 2022 reboot/scraping of the DTV and previous Streaming movies into the garbage that is ‘Hellraiser. and a definite palette cleanse this was! Even if it is the worst sequel to ‘Inside out’ and the new emotions scare me profoundly…

The plot this time follows Riley, a recovering drug and alcohol addict whos living in an apartment share with her brother, his boyfriend and another roommate in an attempt to get clean. But Riley has a bad habit of not really being totally dedicated to her goals and has recently shacked up with a bit of a bad guy who drinks, deals the occasional bit of drugs and is on the lookout to swipe stuff when given the chance.

Rileys brother is at his whits end with her, She’s been late on rent now consistently for months, and seemingly would rather be out with her boyfriend doing GOD knows what than actually trying to fix her situation. Thats when her boyfriend has a GREAT idea!, see, he recently lost his job working at a storage facility, but before he left he memorised the access codes, and he distinctly remembered that, before leaving the job, there was one shipping container left, VERY likely left there by some rich guy who forgot it even existed…

The plan? break into the facility, break into the storage container, swipe anything worth cash not nailed down, and everythings resolved! Rileys reluctant, but with little else to lose, she goes along with it, but on breaking into the container all the pair find is a safe. and in the safe, a wooden box containing a weird ornament. The pair take it with them, but are majorly annoyed at the bust, so they decide to grab a few drinks.

Returning to the apartment drunk, Riley and her brother end up arguing and after pushing her brother one too many times, he kicks her out of the apartment in a rage. She heads to the local park to cool off, but remembers she still has that weird ornament with her, so; she takes a better look at it, and on messing around with it a bit, she suddenly finds herself deeply woozy…and sat before THE most terrifying interdimensional beings she’s ever seen in her life, who speak in vaguenesses, before putting a hit on her brother.

And this encounter will see Riley and her friends sent on a journey to understand more about this ‘puzzlebox’, and a billionaire who gave his soul to play with it.

And, I honestly got to the point with this franchise where I genuinely considered the possibility that it may never ACTUALLY be good again. So to end things on…probably as good a high as im going to get is ABSOLUTELY a welcome thing.

My biggest criticism of this film is simply that its 2 hours long. Apart from the fact that the pacing of this one is pretty pedestrian, it really isnt in a rush to get where its going and it could have EASILY lost 20 minutes and not touched the sides. Regular readers will know that, if your movies 2 hours or longer, the odds of me EVER having the time to conciously sit down and rewatch it after the first time, is 10% or less. And thats a shame, I feel had this film been cut a bit more leaner, down to 90 or 100 minutes, not only do I feel like the pacing would have benefitted a lot, but this probably would have become my second favourite ‘Hellraiser’ film after ‘Hellbound’.

As it stands, the characters are purposfully flawed, have deep and rich complexities and get MORE than enough time to develop across the runtime. the tone is absolutely jet black with scarce moments of lighter horror to help keep the film away from being truely oppressive. The dialogue glorious, the character interactions largely feel belivable, and the newer take on the cenobites…while not my favourite take, is probably about as good as it could possibly get for a series 11 entries in, hitting the ‘erase all’ button as it goes.

In essence, this is a film i’ll rarely revisit, NOT because I didnt enjoy it, but purely because, its a quite bleak film in places with lots of VERY harrowing gore and violence, meaning i’ll have to simultaineously be in the right headspace to appreciate it AND have 2+ hours to spare…Which these days is an incredibly rare thing honestly.

Direction and cine are sound, they get the balance just right between experimentation and ensuring the film adheres to the principles of technical execution. There are some moments here that are positively glorious, and as an; admittedly somewhat limited ‘Hellraiser’ fan, I was absolutely blown away to see the cenobites and all that comes with them, ACTUALLY given a half decent budget and a fair crack at trying to look cool. They almost certainly succeed in my opinion.

Compositions are rock solid, the edit breaths a little loose for me, the sequence constructions pretty razor, I cant fault the edit honestly. lighting and colour use is absolutely perfect for this kind of film and the use of CGI is minimalist, but welcome where its used. Honestly? this is just a very pretty, VERY disturbing little picture.

Performance wise? Odessa A’zion as Riley is a bit of a mixed bag, initially; I found her physicality fine, but her line deliveries were a bit too polished and staged, however, as the film progressed and her character gets a more broad range to work with, I found her very enjoyable, much more naturalistic and a really pretty solid choice honestly.

Goran Visnjic as Voigt dips in and out of the film across the runtime, but I must say I really enjoyed his performance too, bringing a glossy, celeb style ‘chic’ with a viciously malevolent streak to it, he also works a great range and was definitely worth sticking around for!

As for the new pinhead? Jamie Clayton is absolutely brill in the role, while I may never full adapt to a Pinhead with an American accent (in fact, the fact most of the cast are American accented did feel a bit weird to me) I have to admit she absolutely blew me away with a fantastic and intimidating screen presence, and the perfect tone for line delivery. I REALLY hope we get a sequel to this one, as i’d just love to see more of her performance honestly.

And the soundtrack, similar to Halloween (2018) we have here a score influenced by the first 2 Hellraiser movies, with remixes of tracks FROM those first 2 films, married up to new compositions, it sounds gorgeous, I loved it, and while I dont think i’d necessarily listen to this one isolated, I dont think they could have handled it any better in terms of how its implemented in this film.

Ultimately; I really enjoyed ‘Hellraiser’ (2022), I just…REALLY wish they did a shorter cut of it that I could more easily chuck on when im in the mood. It resets the base for the franchise, modernising all the stuff I loved and enhancing it even beyond the boundaries ‘Hellbound’ set. One i’d recommend checking out, especially if you’ve been burnt out on the endless DTV sequels. I REALLY hope this thing gets a shorter, punchier sequel. Because I’ll ABSOLUTELY be checking that one out when it drops!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hellraiser-2022/

Hot on the heels of ‘Halloween’ and following a brief stint making TV Movies, John Carpenters return to the big screen with ‘The Fog’ is simultaineously the primary blueprint for his career in film for the next decade or so, and a development on what had come before.

The plot centers around the coastal town of ‘Antonio Bay’, a picturesque location on the cusp of celebrating the centenary of its founding. Across most of the first act we’re introduced to the locals; Local DJ Stevie Wayne who manages the 6pm – 1am slot on K.A.B Radio (Jazz and easy listening if you must know) theres the town mayor Kathy, whos overly anxious to ensure the festivities around the centenary go without a hitch, local priest Father Patrick Malone, and town local and avid fisherman Nick Castle, who’s just picked up a hitchiker Elizabeth Solley

At midnight on the 21st of April (the day of the centenary), for an hour; Bizarre happenings occur around Antonio bay, windows smash, car alarms sound off, tremors and earthquakes occur and paranormal activity seems to take place. At the church a brick from the chapel appears to fall from the wall, revealing to Father patrick a diary…a diary from his grandfather…one that contains a terrible secret.

The next day K.A.B Report on a missing fishing boat, which is recognised by Nick as belonging to one of his good friends, him adn Elizabeth head down to the harbour to investigate, while Stevie is woken up by her child who appears to have found an interesting piece of driftwood, with half the name of a ship carved into it. and Kathy and her PA begin the rollout of the festivities.

But on heading up to the chapel to liase with Father Patrick, they’re taken into a back room, and the terrible details from his grandfathers diary are brought to light. It transpires that 100 years ago, Patricks Grandfather (also a priest) along with 5 other members of the fledgling town betrayed a nearby lepar coloney looking to relocate to within a mile of Antonio bay for easier trading and better quality of life. They were led by a once wealthy business man who wanted to use his wealth to ensure good tidings with the community by helping establish a foundation.

However; on the night where clear passage was supposed to take place, Patricks Grandfather betrayed the coloney, sending their ship crashing into the rocks, while he pocketed the gold and used it to found the church and establish the community that ultimately grew into Antonio bay, the final sight, was a mysterious fog rolling into the bay covering the corpses of the coloney and an heir swearing vengence.

Well; at this point I dont have to say anything more, you can very likely guess what happens on the night of the Centenary festivities.

This was my first time catching ‘The Fog’, and im kind of sad I sat on this one for as long as I did. In many ways it feels like a much more developed, slower burn take on the suspense cinema developed for ‘Halloween’ while at the same time it also has proto elements of Carpenters signature direction and producership, that would seep into his later works such as ‘Halloween 2 and 3’ and ‘The Thing’. Its a film trading solely on characters and atmosphere, and gave me quite strong ‘Jaws’ vibes at times. The horror comes from just how closely they tie the audience to the characters, they spend at least half the film building up the core casts complex characters, attempting to invest the audience in these characters and this world, before pulling the rug from under them in the 3rd act, taking the sleepy and scenic coastal town and turning into a living nightmare.

Im not a huge ‘slowburn’ fan, but the sheer prettiness of this picture, combined with the total likability of the characters absolutely kept me watching from start to finish uninterrupted. its such a naturalistic feeling production, that the supernatural elements feel like the perfect contrast. the pacing is slow, but not glacial, edging in just the right balance of character moments and plot development so that you never feel the films running dry. at 90 minutes on the nose, I feel it keeps a consistent pace with a rock solid act structure gently inching up the tension and atmosphere until we hit that final 30 minutes of all out horror action.

Tonally; the films kind of playful, theres some very light comedy, a bit of slice of life, but the horror elements bring with them some incredibly dark moments and heavy suspense. its a lovely contrast thats satisfying to sit through, and they never linger too heavily on one aspect or another, they seem to know JUST the right time to throw a little light in to offset the dark.

Direction wise, this is a gorgeous production, creative and vibrant world building, Carpenter having had a few more productions under his belt by this point delivers frankly a masterclass in character pieces and location work from a directoral standpoint. While there are moments here and there that do look a little cheap when watched in 2025 in UHD, I can overlook that for the gorgeous coastal location work, the lush greenery and the deep rich blues of the town at night. Carpenter here, is pretty much at the start of a HELL of a consistent run that will include ‘Halloween 2’, ‘Escape from New York’, ‘The Thing’ and ‘Christine’ to name a few. and here, he’s already more or less firmed up his style and vision to the point that you can more or less instantly identify it as a Carpenter production. I was honestly blown away.

Same goes for the cine really, extremely well composed shots stand out as distinct, the use of varying shades of dark blue to white act almost as a form of chiascuro lighting in and of itself. Shots are rich, deep, varied and very much open to experimentation. Sequences are masterfully crafted, allowing the tension to breath easy, the films not in a rush to get to the scares and that slow and mindful editing results in a pressure cooker of a movie thats a total trip from start to finish.

Performance wise? Get OUTTA here. Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Tom Atkins, Charles Cypher, Janet Leigh, and the ever delightful Adrienne Barbau. and not a stinker in the pack. This is an incredible cast list, everyones pretty much perfect in their roles. I honestly have no notes. They play it exactly how I’d wanna see it played. and barring the fact Atkins is ‘Stache’ less for this film (a serious crime I fear) Im willing to overlook that for just how quality it really is.

And thats not even to MENTION the absolutely amazing soundtrack, composed by Carpenter, while it may not be as iconic as ‘Halloween’ its beautiful synth compositions that fit the moody tone of the film perfectly and were frankly beautiful to hear. I was a big fan.

‘The Fog’ may not be an ‘everyday’ watch, and the slow pacing may be offputting to some, but for me? I really loved it. Its a totally atmospheric immersion of a film that gently pulls you in, and then hangs you over a cliff face till the credits. Rich, detailed, its an incredible work. An absolute ‘must see’ at least once, and I highly recommend you do.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-fog/

Tonights Halloween viewing courtesy once again from Tubi see’s me and the missus checking out, what can only be described really as a YA haunted house movie that felt aimed at the kind of audience that think ‘The Conjuring’ is too much, but that they’re too big grown up for ‘Goosebumps’.

‘The House of the Witch’ has a similar plotting to ‘Night of the Demons’ in some regards. A group of slightly horned up college teens decide to spend a night near Halloween, having a party at a local haunt spot where allegedly a woman was drowned after being accused of being a Witch. The house, which is borded up, is rumoured to hold the angry spirit of the witch and anyone who enters, never leaves.

Most folks just egg the place, but our teens head up there, begin to party down and make smoochy face, when all of a sudden; things start getting spooky and all the doors lock tight, with no means of escape. It quickly becomes apparent that the folk lore IS true, and with that our teens enter a ‘kill or be killed’ game of survival against a terrifying force with amazing powers.

I’ll be honest, this was kind of middle of the road for me personally, but I could see a younger ‘pre-teen’ audience getting a bit of a buzz from this. Its essentially a bit of an amalgum of haunted house and supernatural horror films from 1985 up to the present day (of 2017) but the key thing here is everythings been softened. Theres genuine horror moments, but they’ve been sanded down a bit to make them less horrifying, blood guts and gore is present, but only in quick cuts and small amounts dotted across the runtime to protect the kids, swearing is reduced to a couple harder swears, but otherwise its ‘Damns’ and ‘Hells’ for most of the runtime.

Basically; this is the movie you put on for kids aged 8-13 or puritanical religious folk who wanna see ‘The HARDCORE stuff’ when you know you cant really show them ‘The HARDCORE stuff’ without causing problems… It gives the illusion of being a harder horror movie, while actually just kind of being quite gentle and a bit more family friendly.

The plot itself is kind of generic, the pacings a little on the slow side, the characters are all horror archtypes from decades passed, the tone is pretty straight cut, but again, aiming more for a teen and pre teen audience so its not THAT straight cut as a horror. The dialogues kind of weak and a bit cheesy in places, it doesnt flow particularly naturalistically. I’d say its a sturdy, but wholley unoriginal work. a good example of the genre, but not the best example of the genre.

The directions pretty by the numbers, I will give Alex Merkin some credit, there are some creative moments here, especially in the more horror driven moments, that I felt were pretty well handled. But ultimately this is just a fairly safe production that isnt here to rock the boat of court controversy. Its here to deliver some ‘mild peril’ and then retreat to the sitting room for cookies and a bible reading.

The cine is actually pretty solid, it has a feint whiff of TV movie vibes to it, compositions and sequence building is pretty solid, again, the more creative moments of this film were fun to catch and on the whole I think it tells the story visually quite well, though there are a few plot gaps that would have been nice to have seen visualised.

The edits pretty tight, but the scores kind of unremarkable. and…Im not going to pick on any one member of the cast here as it looks like a lot of the players are first timers here…But broadly speaking, I didnt care for any of the main characters performances here. theres a range of reasons, some cast members were playing things a bit too theatrical, some seemingly couldnt quite nail the tone needed to play in horror, some got a bit TOO into it which would work if everyone else was doing that, but they wernt…So they just look a bit odd. and there were a couple of performances here that were really just…pretty dire honestly. The performances are probably the weakest element of this film and kind of dragged things down a bit for me honestly.

Ultimately; I couldnt hate this one, its doing a public duty of making accessable horror for people who are either too young or too spooked to watch ‘proper’ horror films and need that halfway house of ‘Spooky enough, but not TOO spooky’ to help give them a foot in the door. Its a nice thing to see, and a bit of a dying art honestly. While its absolutely a flawed production, and I cant really say it does anything TOO out there or distinct to make it stand out. I think it works fine enough for what its trying to do, and I think I could recommend it to parents who have horror kids (though, i’d maybe watch it first just to be on the safe side) who want them to have a ‘grown up’ halloween experience, without having to worry about little Timmy or Timantha recreating scenes from ‘Terrifyer’ or ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ during recess…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/house-of-the-witch/

So, probably a quick bit of context. I watched ‘Dragonball Z’ back in the 90s and early 2000s on TV, and caught pretty much the entire series that way. I watched most of ‘Dragonball GT’ in the mid 2000s as well, but I missed quite a few episodes and eventually gave up on it. Due to the cost of the season sets in the UK up until recently, the last time I had any dealings with anything ‘Dragonball’ related was probably 2005/2006. Then due to some VERY lucky breaks, I somehow managed to secure the entirity of ‘Dragonball’ (DVD), ‘Dragonball Z Kai’ (Blu), ‘Dragonball GT’ (DVD) and all the ‘Dragonball Z Movies and TV Specials’ (Blu) for approximately £190 ($250)…I was a very happy boy.

Me and my partner recently finished watching ‘Kai’, her for the first time, and me revisiting it in its new ‘condensed’ format. and as of last weekend, we both caught ‘Dragonball’ for the first time and really enjoyed it as well. and; with us moving onto the Movies and TV specials next. I figured it was probably as good a place as any to start slightly out of order, by watching ‘Bardock – The Father of Goku’ as, being fresh off the back of ‘Dragonball’ I figured it would play as a nice bookend, acting as both a prologue to the ‘Z’ movies, and an epilogue to ‘Dragonball’, filling in the gaps that were never really explained in the series while introducing the main players for the first couple of arcs in ‘Z’.

Clocking in at around 40-50 minutes, its a fine enough little special in which we’re given much more information about the Saiyans as a race, a better look at how Freiza operated prior to the events on Namek, some nice cameos from ‘Z’ characters shortly to be better introduced. and a plot revolving around Bardock and his gang, working for Freiza, and Bardock himself gaining psychic powers that reveal terrifying glimpses into his future, and the future of his planet.

I’ll be honest? I thought this one was fine enough, but I dont think i’d go out of my way to catch it. Its a fine enough little short story with some really nice moments dotted throughout. But I cant say I absolutely fell in love with it, it feels a tad rushed at times, and I was hoping for a bit more time on Planet Vegeta to really help give the audience just…a bit more of an idea of who or what the Saiyans were culturally…instead a good chunk of the special is just Bardock figuring out whats happening to him, and then an equally big chunk is him trying to warn people of imminent danger. Like; its fine…but I just wish there was a bit more to it, even if there was just a bit more character development for Bardock, his gang and Gokus mum…it all just feels a bit surface level, with just the occasional spark of genuinely moving moments.

The visuals are delightful throughout, with some incredible art design and the animation for the fight Choreography is solid too! The dialogues pretty solid, Freiza and Vegeta probably steal the show though with several foreshadowing moments and some definite character highlights.

I think the only other thing that spoiled this one was, on the Bluray version theres an option to listen to the Japanese audio with the original Japanese scoring…or the English dub with THE most horrendous early 2000s ‘Sum 41’esq pop punk…stuff. i’ve heard in a LONG time…a third option of the English dub with the Japanese soundtrack would have really been the best of both worlds and probably would have made me score this higher, because the English soundtrack is WAY too overbearing for this.

All in all? this is just a nice little extra in my opinion, not essential, but if you’ve watched all of ‘Dragonball’ and ‘Dragonball Z’ you’ll probably get a kick out of seeing stuff that was alluded to in both the main series acutally get a bit more fleshed out and ‘realised’. Probably worth catching once if your working your way through the various series…but definitely not ‘must see’. Your milage may vary…But I had a fun enough time!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-bardock-the-father-of-goku/