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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 ...

Out Of Body

Touted as a gay paranormal romance, this film was clearly 40 minutes too long than what it should have been. Despite basic production value and below average acting, the premise started off well and it felt this would go somewhere, but it got very tedious and tiring pretty quick. There was a lot of unnecessary drama and overexxagerated scenes that just didn't help that already stretched out narrative.

Its halloween and Henry has invited a few friends over including his best friend for 12 years Malcolm. Henry has feelings for him (and so does him) but neither is ready to open up fearing they will lose the friend. The friends are playing on an Ouija board with an orb. Before the night ends, Henry and Malcolm end up kissing and Malcolm sleeps. Th next day Henry finds Malcolm gone, but in reality Malcolm's spirit is still there is the room. Neither understands what's going on. Slowly using internet and spiritual healer they are make a connection that Malcolm's spirit is in that house but they don't know what the purpose it. Using the e-book written by the guide about spirits, they finally figure out that on halloween night somehow the demon spirit which was captured in the orb, escaped and took over Malcolm's body. Henry along with Malcolm's spirit device a plan to reclaim Mal's body. While all this is gnomon, of course there are a LOT of scenes where finally they both admit their love for each other.

As I mentioned, this film was stretched beyond it needed tone. The whole 'hot neighbor' story point could have been completely eliminated. That was not the only way to make them realize they love each other. I mean, they knew they did. This could have easily made the film crispier. Also some of the scenes just go on forever. I mean, once Henry realizes that indeed thesis Malcolm's spirit then the film should have been very sharply focused on one aspect. Instead it keeps moving from supernatural, to romance, to wannabe comedy to I don't know what. For movies with only 2-3 actors, the leads have to be interesting to capture your attention. But the actors here were strictly ok. Nothing memorable about their acting or the direction itself. The final confrontation scene, which is normally something to look out fo run such scenarios, was also such a dumb squib. It was the easiest resolution I have seen in movies like this, it was joke. This film is much less positives and a lot of improvements that could have been done on the editing table. Maybe then it could have been a bit bearable. (4/10)

Comments

ILHiker said…
I didn't think to see if you'd done a review before I mentioned this movie in another comment. I agree with your review and thought it an especially well done summary. Still, some 4/10 movies are to my taste and some are horrible. It's odd that I rate movies but it doesn't necessarily correspond to how much I like them or watch them. If I were to categorize this one, lol, I'd call it a pandemic movies. In a few years we'll run across movies and realize they were made with the tiniest of cast and crew and in locations with virtually no other people around and we won't even need to look up the years they were made. Jason Gaffney's also co-written a few romantic comedies with his father. I have read the first two and thought they were decent.
Golu said…
I agree that definitely some films were made for pandemic and keeping that in mind. This film could have been interesting , but nonetheless execution faltered

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