May 16, 2017 “The Last Face” (** out of four) was a limited melodrama-love story set against the backdrop of war-torn Africa in which a selfless and heroic doctor (Javier Bardem) and the spokesperson (Charlize Theron) for a medical assistance organization fall in love as they are trying to make a difference and save a country ravaged by poverty and despair. Never as soaring or compelling as it should have been, and overlong. Film is well-intentioned but also jumbled and aloof, with the good performances from the two leads giving this its only real passion. A middling directorial effort from Sean Penn and about on par with his previous efforts “The Crossing Guard” and “The Pledge.” Continue reading →
May 12, 2017May 12, 2017 “Cocaine Conspiracy” (*1/2 out of four) was a drab action melodrama about a former Secret Service agent (Michael Howe) who is called back into personal action when his family is held hostage and must destroy an international drug cartel that (yawn) threatens world domination. The kind of movie that Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal did- and did better- in the ’80’s and ’90’s and seems shopworn and dated now. Good performances and a few good action scenes fail to enliven the proceedings. Continue reading →
May 12, 2017 “Vincent N Roxxy” (** out of four) was a moody but mild melodrama about a small-town loner (Emile Hirsch) with a mysterious past who falls in love with a rebellious beauty (Zoe Kravitz) who he crosses path with but the two find that violence and their past connections follow them everywhere and prevent them from living happily ever after. Highly reminiscent of Tarantino rip-offs from the ’90’s and leads to an inevitable bloodbath at the end; watchable but never invigorating or electric. Lenny Kravitz’ daughter Zoe is OK in the lead role but the first-rate Jason Mitchell is wasted in a throwaway role as a drug-dealing thug. Continue reading →
May 12, 2017 “Hunters Prayer” (** out of four) was an overplotted, underwritten underworld action thriller about a junkie assassin (Sam Worthington) who ends up helping the girl (Odeya Rush) he was assigned to kill, and helps her to avenge the death of her family as they’re both relentlessly pursued across the streets of Europe. Worthington does all he can to keep this by-the-numbers story afloat with his effortless charisma but even he looks like he’s just going through the motions at times. A disappointment from director Jonathan Mostow who directed the superior “Breakdown” and “Terminator 3”. Continue reading →
May 7, 2017 “Dark Silence” (*1/2 out of four) was a dark bore about a mentally unhinged adult (Parker Riggs) who returns home after 20 years in a mental asylum when he finds his family home has become a gathering for young kids on Halloween which he finds disfavor with. Horror fans will find disfavor with this by-the-numbers and dreary story. Umpteenth rip-off of “Poltergeist” and “The Shining” makes you wonder whether horror filmmakers ever intend on making original movies ever again. Some stylish touches from director Damon Catic can’t elevate this from being dead in the water. Continue reading →
May 6, 2017 “Born In China” (** out of four) was a pretty but pretty tedious Disneynature feature set in the wilds of China focusing on a panda raising her cub, a young golden monkey who begins to feel displaced by his sister, and a mother snow leopard trying to raise her two children. Some gorgeous shots as you might expect yet not as many as you may find on a Discovery Channel feature on the same subject. Young kids may like it but even they might get restless after a while. Even at less than 80 minutes, this still feels like it should have been an hour-long special on television. Continue reading →
May 6, 2017 “Gifted” (*** out of four) was an affecting and effective melodrama about a single blue-collar parent (Chris Evans) raising his child prodigy niece (McKenna Grace) but problems begin to develop when he is drawn into a wrenching custody battle with his mother (Lindsay Duncan). Evans, as the beleaguered and conflicted dad, has never been better and Grace matches him in a first-rate performance as a child genius who still has a lot of emotional development to make and they both have a lot of tearjerking moments in the second half. Only the mawkish ending doesn’t ring entirely true. Beautifully shot by Stuart Dryburgh. Continue reading →
May 5, 2017 “Western World” (* out of four) was an unbearable Western wannabe that just about cries out for the nimble touch of Sam Peckinpah, John Ford, or even Walter Hill. In a Wyoming nowhere town, a U.S. marshal (Christopher Rowley) is called into investigate deceit and murder involving a dead husband that has caused the whole town to unravel with greed and moral decay. Badly acted and directed, with wretched photography and cheap sets as icing on the moldy cake. Film doesn’t end so much as stop. It’s movies like these that fire blanks that killed the Western genre decades ago. Continue reading →
May 5, 2017 “Breaking Legs” (*1/2 out of four) was a plastic pastiche of “Mean Girls” and “Footloose” about a small-town high-school girl (Liv Southard) who finds nowhere to fit in except the school dance team where she proceeds to fall in love with the boyfriend of the main and mean vindictive cheerleader (Alexa Sutherland) and runs afoul of her clicky team of friends. Guess what happens next. Formulaic and predictable enough to insult anyone’s intelligence and missing the clever sting of the two aforementioned teen movies. John Hughes made movies like these in his sleep in the ’80’s. Continue reading →
May 5, 2017 “Monolith” (** out of four) was a monotonous action melodrama about a single mother (Katrina Bowden) who becomes stranded in the middle of the Las Vegas desert with her newborn child when she is en route to see his father which physically and mentally tests her will to survive. Bowden’s good performance can only carry this so far as the story starts to dawdle and run out of steam in the middle, and never fully regathers itself. Moody electronic score by Diego Buengorno. Continue reading →
dlepikcom 