June 8, 2018 “Two Steps From Hope” (*1/2 out of four) was an embarrassingly awful religious drama about a seemingly perfect family whose life begins to crumble when their teenage daughter (Tara Vandenberger) is diagnosed with an incurable brain disease leading them all to question their purpose and faith in life. Hard-core Christian fundamentalists may be the only ones who find any substance here but even they will likely be put off by the heavy-handed acting and maudlin dramatics which will make you question your patience instead of your faith. Full of good intentions but resembles an endless Sunday in church. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018June 3, 2018 “Field Study” (* out of four) was a horrendously inept horror show that’s basically a study in poor filmmaking and acting. Multi-character story provides multiple headaches regarding contestants on a gameshow, a morally conflicted businessman, and other swell folks you can’t wait to get away from. Almost completely incoherent movie gives low-budget horror movies a worse name than they already have. Plenty of blood and gore but otherwise you’ve been warned. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Future World” (*1/2 out of four) was a muddled pastiche of “Mad Max”, “Resident Evil”, and also bizarrely “The Book Of Eli” about a young man (Jeffrey Wahlberg) searching a deserted futuristic wasteland for a cure for his dying mother (Lucy Liu) while eluding a villainous hitman (James Franco) and then aided by a spiritual mentor (Milla Jovovich). Wearily derivative movie is just a series of ideas borrowed from other and better movies. Franco actually co-directed this! Why him and Jovovich and others wasted their time on this claptrap is film’s biggest mystery. Snoop Dogg and Method Man have small roles Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Thoroughbreds” (*1/2 out of four) was a losing proposition that was all-too-obviously originally intended as a play about two upper-class Connecticut girls (Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor Joy) who rekindle their friendship after years apart and take their frustrations in life and exact revenge on a drug-dealing friend (Anton Yelchin). Bizarre and off-putting drama never gets going and has no real story to tell. Performances are mostly one-note as well. Many critics highly praised this when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but I’m not one of them. Yelchin’s final film but it’s sadly one of his weakest roles. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Hometown Hero” (*1/2 out of four) was a saccharine love story about a divorce mediator (Brooke Nevin) having to care for a client’s dog whom she has to take to a local vet (Jake Sandvig) and the two soon fall in love and thaw one another’s hearts. The kind of movie that gives the word “contrivance” a bad name; romantic comedy fans may like it but it’s awfully gooey and cheesy. You may want to watch “Must Love Dogs” instead. Continue reading →
June 2, 2018 “Flight 666” (**1/2 out of four) was a diverting Redbox action thriller about passengers and crew (Jesse James D’Angelo, Sharon Desiree, Liz Fenning and other) aboard a flight that are attacked by unseen forces that threaten everyone’s sanity and threaten to crashland the plane. Sewn together from pieces of “Snakes On A Plane”, “Turbulence”, and “Final Destination” but it moves briskly and features a solid quota of thrills and scares. Mostly forgettable but entertaining enough while it lasts and better than most direct-to-Redbox junk. Continue reading →
June 2, 2018 “59 Seconds” (*1/2 out of four) was a synthetic ghetto underworld melodrama which viewers will likely forget in about 59 seconds about a troubled teen (Nyell Segura) haunted by the death of his twin brother who seeks attention from his parents (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Ciera Payton) and his community which leads him to engaging in criminal behavior. Since his character is never likeable though, it’s hard to get involved in his plight or care and thus that goes double for the movie. Segura shows some promise in the lead role. Continue reading →
June 1, 2018June 1, 2018 “King Lear” (**1/2 out of four) was a competent but empty retelling of the Shakespearean classic with Anthony Hopkins in the title role as the conflicted king, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, and Florence Pugh as his daughters, and Jim Broadbent particularly strong as the Earl Of Gloucester. Film has strong performances and is vibrantly shot but missing the dramatic fire and involvement of earlier “Lear” adaptations and Shakespearean novel. Not bad but still a disappointing reteaming of Hopkins and Thompson who previously starred in “Howards End” and the classic “The Remains Of the Day.” Continue reading →
June 1, 2018June 1, 2018 “Unsane” (** out of four) was an unwieldy psychodrama about a young woman (Claire Foy) about a young woman whose involuntarily committed to a mental institution where she encounters strange occurrences with both the staff and workers. Are they real or is she losing her mind? Spooky and atmospheric for a while but story becomes too cerebral and unpleasant in the second half and starts to lose focus. Director Steven Soderbergh’s first horror movie and probably his last. Not all that different in story and structure from Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling.” Continue reading →
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