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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat.  The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Private Romeo is a modern take on Romeo and Juliet, set in an all-male military school and hence a gay love story. Another very important thing to know about this film is that this is almost all in Shakespearean English with some dialogues straight from the play. 

A small group of cadets at a military school is left alone for a long weekend as their superiors and the remaining students go on a military drill. As they continue with their classes and routine, including reading Romeo and Juliet, the students start to find the play overtaking their lives as they begin to recite the dialogue and embody the characters. As love begins to bloom between two cadets Sam & Glenn, they have to deal with jealousy, feuds, and how they can maintain their love once Romeo (Sam) is expelled.

This film is soooooo not for me. I mean I can tell how much hard work and genuine effort in performances and direction has gone into making this film, but my god! The original shakespearean English didn't help. 10 minutes into the film and it had already lost me. The guys were all gorgeous and at some point it was difficult to differentiate one from the other. I couldn't wait for the film to get over. In fact, after watching it for about an hour, I finally gave in and stopped, which I almost never do. My review here is going to sound so superficial, I can tell, while I write it. But as a novice, having no formal knowledge of films but watching them just an an audience, besides the good looking actors and their honest performances, this film had absolutely nothing for me in it. I could never recommend this. (1/10)

Comments

luigi43 said…
May be bcz I watched it with the subs in Italian ( my mother tongue )and my attention was attracted only by the actors , the story was easy and fluid watching , I had a better impression. But thanks for the rewiew .
Sailor Maan said…
I have bad memories about this one, simply because watching it with eng subs I couldn't understand half of it... I guess I should have watched it with french subs like you Luigi43. However I remember thinking it was probably interesting to keep the original Shakespeare dialogues for native english speakers, who would probably enjoy it better. Apparently not ^^;
Golu said…
Maybe folks who are more familiar with Shakespearean English, or English as their first language would have appreciated it more, like you both have said. I mean, I have read some excellent reviews about the film online.
Sadly, English is not my first language either :(

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