October 28, 2017 “Nightworld” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary, derivative horror thriller that rips off (yet again) “The Shining” and “Poltergeist” and many others. In a run-down city in Bulgaria, a former cop (Jeremy London) takes a job as a security officer at a historic building but he soon begins to learn of the building’s terrifying history and is visited by a sinister figure (Robert Englund). Reasonably well-directed but story becomes sillier and hokier and gradually decays into sheer corn. Englund would have done better collecting his “Nightmare On Elm Street” royalties rather than starring in dreck like this. Continue reading →
October 28, 2017 “1922” (*1/2 out of four) was a practically lifeless story set in 1922 about an impoverished farmer (Thomas Jane) who is down on his luck and conspires with his teenage son (Dylan Schmid) to kill his wife (Molly Parker) for financial gain but they find a tough road living happily ever after. Unpleasant and uninvolving story has no energy or style and thus has no impact. The usually dependable Jane is hammy and his accent is laughable at times. Similar story was told in “Killer Joe” back in 2012 with much more style and fire. Based on a short story by Stephen King and it should have stayed short. Continue reading →
October 28, 2017 “Attrition” (** out of four) was a half-hearted action melodrama about a grizzled C.I.A. veteran (who else but Steven Seagal?) who regroups his team together after a Thai woman with mystical powers goes missing and he interrogates a renegade soldier (Luke Goss). Seagal mumbles and sleepwalks through his role and is in it very briefly; Goss fares better but his character is a muddle. Both their careers could use the addition of some good movies once in a while Continue reading →
October 17, 2017 “American Gothic” (** out of four) was a trite horror thriller about two escaped inmates (Slate Holmgrem, Mark Barthmaier) who take refuge in a farmhouse with a family (Ned Luke, Rochelle Bostrom) they hold hostage but it turns out the family are vindictive predators who turn the tables and prey on them. Clever storyline involving the victims becoming the aggressors can’t quite escape mediocre filmmaking and low budget. Still, give it some points for originality which is more than you can say for most horror movies nowadays. Also- this is a definite improvement over the last “American Gothic” in 1988 with Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo which was American crap. Continue reading →
October 17, 2017 “Lost In Paris” (** out of four) was a tiresome foreign comedy about a clumsy, accident-prone young woman (Fiona Gordon) who visits Paris for the first time to help her dying aunt but ends up involved in zany escapades with a wacky homeless man (Dominique Abel). French scenery is beautiful as always but a little of this slight comedy goes a long way. Abel does have a very funny scene in which he drunkenly gives a eulogy about a person he knows nothing about. Still, Paris fans who want a travelogue should watch “Forget Paris” or “Moulin Rouge” (or even “An American Werewolf In Paris”) instead. Continue reading →
October 14, 2017 “Blood Money” (* out of four) was a lackluster thriller in which everyone must have been in this for money and no other discernible reason about three friends (Ellar Coltrane, Willa Fitzgerald, Jacob Artist) off on a wilderness trip who are hunted and stalked by a redneck psycho (John Cusack) who is out to retrieve his bag of stolen cash. Once they find out about this, it gradually turns all the friends against one another. Modern-day retelling of “The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre” and “Deliverance” is ugly-looking and drab. Cusack, for some reason, attempts to be trying to change his image in playing creeps at this stage of his career but he really should go back to playing the nice guy next door. Continue reading →
October 14, 2017 “The Babysitter” (** out of four) was a nasty, empty thriller about a young kid (Judah Lewis) who spies on his babysitter (Bella Thorne) and soon comes to find out she is a seductress and a murderer and the rest of the night involves his attempts to escape and to stay alive. Director McG (“Charlie’s Angels”) directs with his usual flair and style and tries to infuse this with as much bounce as possible but it’s a lot of energy expended over nothing. Thorne is good in the lead role though. Incidentally, this is not a remake of the 1995 thriller of the same name starring Alicia Silverstone Continue reading →
October 13, 2017 “Happy Death Day” (** out of four) was a not-bad horror thriller about a bitchy college student (Jessica Rothe who looks like a young Britney Spears) who finds herself reliving the day of her murder over and over again a la “Groundhog Day” until she discovers her killer’s identity and also learns how her past behavior affected others. Undeniably repetitive and silly after a while, as all these time-repeat movies are, but has enough scares and laughs to make it watchable for horror fans. Rothe’s first-rate performance helps a lot. Funny enough, one of the characters actually asks her at the end “have you ever seen ‘Groundhog Day?” in order to compensate for ripping that movie off. Continue reading →
October 13, 2017 “Branded” (*1/2 out of four) was a lame story set in yet another post-apocalyptic future in which a soldier (Jeremy London) receives a letter from the brother (Jason London) he thought he accidentally killed years earlier and they try to reunite and make sense of the years in between. The gimmick of casting the London brothers as actual brothers hardly matters since they’re both still very bland actors. Neither are helped by this weak script and cheapjack production. Watch “Brothers” instead. Continue reading →
October 13, 2017 “The Mountain Between Us” (** out of four) was a lumbering adaptation of Charles Martin’s best-selling novel about a journalist (Kate Winslet) and a surgeon (Idris Elba) whose plane crashlands in the High Uintas wilderness as they struggle to stay alive with no food and freezing weather conditions. As they grow to depend on one another, they gradually fall in love. Despite two great actors and beautiful scenery, story is never very compelling and remains earthbound and dull. Elba and Winslet work well together but film lacks sparks. For the same story with more grit and fire, watch 1992’s “Alive” instead. Continue reading →
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