August 11, 2018 “The Meg” (*1/2 out of four) was an utterly generic and dull shark-thriller that could have easily been titled “Deep Blue Sea 3” or “Sharknado Returns” about a daredevil rescue diver (Jason Statham) who has to rescue several (Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, and others) in a sunken submarine but they all soon realize they are under siege and endangered by a 70-foot shark! Toothless movie offers no scares and no thrills and winds up a real time-waster on both sides of the camera. Even Statham’s effortless charisma can’t keep this from being dead in the water. Continue reading →
August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (**1/2 out of four) was a hit-and-miss action comedy about two lifelong best friends (Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon) who unwittingly become entangled in international espionage when one of the girls (Kunis) discovers her ex who dumped her was a spy working for the C.I.A.! Lively movie moves fast and is carried along by the engaging chemistry between its stars but script is unnecessarily crude at times and more than a little uneven. A mixed bag, woefully padded out to nearly two hours. Love that title though! Continue reading →
August 11, 2018 “Freaky Friday” (** out of four) was a mediocre musical adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ classic novel about a mother and daughter (Heidi Blickenstaff and Cozi Zuelsdorff) who find themselves at stressed-out difficulties in their lives and suddenly find they switch bodies and have to re-evaluate their lives and their relationship with each other. Third re-telling of this classic story is the least yet and makes you long for the teaming of Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Musical numbers and songs are forgettable and weak. OK entertainment for families and kids but you may as well watch the original or its first remake instead. Continue reading →
August 11, 2018 “Hope Springs Eternal” (**1/2 out of four) was a reasonably involving teen melodrama comedy about a teenage high-schooler (Mia Rose Frampton) who finds she is suddenly in remission from cancer and now has to re-evaluate her life and her surroundings and realize to herself and to her friends that she is no longer dying. Frampton’s charismatic and engaging performance carries this movie over its imperfections but film begins to ring hollow in its second half as story and script become predictable and tired. Not memorable but a hopeful showcase and future for Frampton. Continue reading →
August 10, 2018 “The Big Take” (*1/2 out of four) was a big dud about a moronic Hollywood actor (James McAffrey) who is suddenly blackmailed by someone he doesn’t know and sends his private investigator (Dan Hedaya) to sort things out but he stumbles onto an equally idiotic aspiring writer/director (Ebon Moss-Bacrach) who thinks that this attention means the actor wants to star in his new movie! The kind of movie that gives the word contrived a bad name. Attempts to mix elements of a Hollywood-insider drama, black comedy, and screwball humor with lackluster results although Hedaya has one of his best roles in years and Robert Forster is good as usual as a a lead cop on the case. Continue reading →
August 7, 2018 “The Darkest Minds” (** out of four) was a wearily derivative futuristic teen melodrama set in yet another dystopian future in which teens are imprisoned by an adult world who fears everyone under the age of 18 and one particular group of teens (Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickonson, Skylan Brooks, and others) who form a resistance group to fight back and reclaim control of the future and save civilization. By now though, after “The Maze Runner”, “The Hunger Games”, and the “Divergent” series and many others, this may be one futuristic teen sci/fi movie too many. Holds your attention for the first half but never quite gells or takes off. Mandy Moore has a small but key role as Stenberg’s doctor. Continue reading →
August 6, 2018 “Kissing Candice” (*1/2 out of four) was an oppressively weird and disorienting melodrama about a 17-year old outcast (Ann Skelly) who longs to escape her gloomy seaside town and soon becomes gradually obsessed with a troubled local stranger (Conall Keating) and then becomes entangled with a dangerous local gang. Director Aoife McArdle provides many striking images and hallucinatory touches but story itself makes no sense and leaves you stranded and cold and (eventually) bored. Haunting music score by Jon Clarke and Steve Annis’ searing cinematography are definite plusses. Continue reading →
August 4, 2018 “Christopher Robin” (** out of four) was a lugubrious adaptation of the classic children’s story showing a grown-up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGreggor) who has become a disenchanted corporate yuppie who encounters his childhood friend Winnie The Pooh who helps him re-discover the joys of life and being a father and family man. Despite being a live-action version of Disney’s animated classic, film never fully comes to life. McGreggor is engaging and charismatic as always but film lacks the joy and magic it needs. A disappointment from director Marc Forster who directed one of my favorite Bond films “Quantum Of Solace” Continue reading →
August 4, 2018 “The Barn” (* out of four) was a rockbottom horror story about two pals (Mitchell Musolino and Will Stout) celebrating their final Halloween before they graduate high school and are on their way to a rock concert but are detoured to an abandoned barn where they awaken an evil spirit inside who goes berserk. Abysmal acting and filmmaking turn this into a real horror show but film has no scares or thrills (or brains) whatsoever. For no apparent reason, this is set in 1989. For no apparent reason should you see the movie anyway. Continue reading →
August 4, 2018 “Shechotic” (* out of four) was an idiotic melodrama about a woman (Erica Mitchell) whose psychotic alter ego (hence the title) emerges after years of dormancy to enact revenge against her cheating boyfriend (Robert D. Watts) and his girlfriend on the side (Brittany Bryant). Laughably dumb dialogue is made even worse by dreadful acting and slipshod direction which makes no sense. Plenty of sex scenes but otherwise you’ve been warned. Continue reading →
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