TYTD Reviews

The ‘revenge of the nerds’ification of this series really needs to be studied. Police Academy 3 is…well, I can’t honestly say it’s a ‘new’ movie, because…itreally isnt. What this is is elements from the first 2 Police Academy movies, polished up and slammedtogether in some kind of unholy union…and it works…but I just spent most of the credits asking myself ‘why’?

The plot? There’s budget cuts happening in the city and it’s finally hit the force! With our beloved Police Academy and a rival school under heavy evaluation, and one of the academies for the chop!

As such, our old friends from the force are pulled back to the Academy to train te next generation of cop and wouldn’t you know it! Is mainly bit part actors who played members of the public from Police Academy 1 and 2! But when the rival Academy sends two saboteurs in to try and wreck up the place, it’ll take more than some funny voice effects to save the day!

And again…the only question I really had was…Why? Technically, id put this on par with the last film, and I will say that it’s consistent across the full runtime on pacing and jokes. But a lot of the humour here is retrod ground, and while I will say that the elements pinched from the last two movies are much more polished here, it doesn’t make the comedy better. In some cases it makes it worse.

I didnt really laugh at all through this film. It had good intentions and was a fun enough watch. But it isnt really trying to do anything new, and making something work smoother and time better doesnt always mean it IS better than when it was originally done.

Oh and the racism is back again more than the last film…huzzah!…

Ultimately, I’d say if you’d seen the first two, this is fine, but non essential. If you only have time to see one Police Academy film. This covers the bestow what’s come before it…and I don’t say that as a compliment.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/police-academy-3-back-in-training/

A short and sweet one from me with this one. Having been a bit unimpressed with the first police academy movie, I didnt exactly have high hopes for the 2nd outing. But I do feel going i to this one with lower expectations did so what improve the experience.

Some time has passed and our grads from the first film (the ones the studio could afford) are back and working lower level police and police adjacent jobs. But the city is in peril! With crime at an all time high, the mayor has put the police on notice, 30 days to improve the safety of the city, or the chief of police will be fired. Unluckily, the chief is brothers with the owner of police academy. And on asking g him to provides some ‘young blood’ to he,p reinvigorate the force. The chief ends up with WAY more than he bargained for!

I do think really have a lot to say on this one. It’s the same shape and for, technically as the first Police Academy. But the bigger budget allows a few more grander set pieces and stunts which pull the production up a bit.

Humour wise, its a lot more focussed. Nowhere near as scattershot with the gags, and the quality of the material is higher too, with at least a handful of moments where I actually laughed, which is a step up from the last movie.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel the final act was as strong as the first film, the gags in the last 20 minutes are thin on the ground, and lack the focus of the front two thirds of the movie…it felt a bit rushed.

Of the two, id choose this one over the first, purely for it’s j provements and consistency. I felt the big thing missing from the first film was these bizarre characters interacting with normal members of the public, and this film delivers that in spades. I still didnt outright LOVE this film. But I think it got more right this time than the last film got wrong…I probably still wouldn’t recommend this one though.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/police-academy-2-their-first-assignment/

Many things can be said about the Polonia Brothers, but it cant be said that they never tried to think a little outside of the box when it came to their work together. The original Feeders was a bizarre ultra low budget tongue in cheek sci fi movie, that felt like the cinematic equivilent of an old banger of a car that was held together with prayer and bubble gum, that could collapse any minute, but had a distinct charm and charisma to it that made it lovable, if not a bit underplayed.

Well; a few years later the Polonias returned again with a sequel. And whereas most film makers might want to continue to develop the plot they’ve already created, maybe try to ground the work a bit more with some additional lore or deeper context. These guys decided ‘Hey! y’know what our killer alien sci fi movie needs to REALLY kick it up a notch? CHRISTMAS.’

And so, we have ‘Feeders 2: Slay Bells’, and its a film with a plot somehow even MORE out there than the first entry.

The plots a bit of a weird one, becuase we pick up with John Mcbrides Derek, whos now being interrigated after the events of the first ‘Feeders’ movie…But; this is totally unconnected from the actual FILM. Hes just here to essentially fully recap the first movie in dribs and drabs across the runtime, essentially cutting in to add context or background where its appropriate. Beyond this? he has absolutely nothing to do with this movie.

Instead it’s Mark Polonias time to shine as Alan Parker, husband and father of the Parker Family, a lovely little suburban household just about getting by, and as LUCK would have it, its December 23rd! ALMOST Christmas. and the family are busy decorating the tree, wrapping presents, and getting festive…When, seemingly at random; THE FEEDERS ARE BACK! and this time they’re planning a full scale invasion! some recon feeders beam down from their mother ship and set up camp in the Parkers basement. and while Alan spots the mothership in the sky on the night of their landing, he writes it off as a helicopter, before returning to bed.

And from here the film kind of forks into two plots, one being the Parkers prepping for Christmas, including Alan working and getting grief from his boss, while also having the occasional unsettling vision. While the Feeders begin to explore the houses in the neighbourhood, and well…they feed on the residents.

This goes on for about 50 minutes of the hour and 13 runtime, until late on Christmas eve Night, when the feeders attempt an attack on the Parkers! leading to all out christmas warfare between humans and aliens…AND SANTA…Independence day showed the earth under attack from aliens. Feeders 2 will make you FEEL it.

And basically? this is a vast improvement over ‘Feeders’ in almost every capacity. and I think the biggest reason for that is down to one simple factor, they decided to film across two indoor locations for the vast majority of the film over shooting outdoors.

This had a LOT of benefits, filming indoors means they had a lot more control over the conditions of the shoot, meaning we get a LOT more creative lighting and colour work that looks fabulous, more coherent and staged direction, thats open to experimentation, while also clearly trying to produce something somewhat professional, the cinematography is much more thought out and staged. with even the occasional nice tracking shot and experimentation thrown into the mix.

The edit is a LOT sharper than the first film, and the introduction of more computer generated effects that, in my opinion, are handled a lot better this time around, help really bring a richer and bigger budgeted effect to the film. Dont get me wrong, this is still unmistakably SOV, with the rickety-ness that comes with it. But this is upper tier SOV in my opinion, a stronger work that is much more standout that your typical ‘Two teens running around with a camera in the woods shooting cool things’ fare…

The script is probably the only thing thats truely a bit wobbly here, and the main reason for that is the scourge of SOV…filler. the core plot of the film is daffy in the best possible way, totally eccentric and a littered with nuggets of genuinely bizarre visuals and narrative points. But in amongst the good, is a whole HEAP of people having inane discussions, random wandering around, and scenes that feel repetative and arnt particularly that interesting. it just about takes the film over to feature runtime. But the end result is a bit of a mixed bag. I adore the more bizarre moments of on screen chaos and the wonderful dialogue moments. But im less enthused about discussions about christmas presents, or extended scenes from the Feeders POV of them wandering around a garage.

Mercifully; there is more good than bad here. The performances are the perfect kind of dry and awkward to appeal to’bad movie’ hunters and the acidically cheerful christmas midi soundtrack crammed into this thing really helps tip it fully into the kind of manic, goofy self aware christmas sci fi horror film that I never truely knew I needed.

‘Feeders 2’ wont win over the ‘real’ movie crowd, but in many ways it isnt a film for them, this is a lumpy, messy, but quite high quality for SOV little movie for fans of the bizarre and inexplicable. I really had a soft spot for it, and could easily see myself revisiting it over the festive period. and I highly encourage you to check it out this christmas too if you havent seen it already. No need to watch the first film because about 80% of it is recycled into this movie in one way or another.

Its a hoot of a film, thats more than earned its reputation. and is definitely worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/feeders-2-slay-bells/

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/