December 12, 2018 “Prudence Drive” (* out of four) was a dismayingly awful melodrama about a former local rock hero (Drew Mills) who is content leaving his wild days behind him and has settled into a domesticated adult life but one day meets a younger woman (Kristen Drake) who re-ignites his fire and passion which leads to a bizarre turn of events. Potentially interesting story of the changes in life from one’s reckless youth to being an adult and being an aspiring musician are undone by inept filmmaking and molasses pacing. It also would have helped if any of the characters were likeable. Watch David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” instead. Continue reading →
December 11, 2018 “Delirium” (** out of four) was a well-made but empty horror thriller about a man (Topher Grace) released from a mental hospital after 20 years for committing murder and returns home to the mansion in which he grew up and immediately begins losing his mind and falling apart. Vibrantly shot by Mihai Malamaire, Jr. and Grace is good in the lead but story becomes hokey and repetitive after a while and takes too long to unfold even though it holds your attention. Watchable but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be watching “The Shining” or “House” again instead. Continue reading →
December 11, 2018 “Creed 2” (** out of four) was a disappointing sequel in which Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) faces off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) who is the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who killed his father in the ring 33 years earlier in “Rocky IV” and is once again trained by Rocky (Sylvester Stallone). Jordan is strong in the lead again and holds the movie together but script (co-written by Stallone) and direction are weak and unfocused and thus- film doesn’t have the knockout punch that the original entry had. Even Stallone seems to be walking through his role and going through the motions and Lundgren’s return to the series isn’t as explosive as you would have hoped. Continue reading →
December 10, 2018 “The Possession Of Hannah Grace” (*** out of four) was an engrossing horror melodrama about a cop (Shay Mitchell) just out of rehab who takes the graveyard shift in a city hospital morgue but she soon encounters a series of bizarre and violent occurrences involving a mysterious evil force. Are they real or is she just losing her mind? Unusually compelling horror story weaves character development with style and scares into an uneven but overall satisfying whole. Mitchell’s first-rate performance patches up some occasional lulls in the story. Similar to Ewan McGreggor’s “Nightwatch” but far better than that disaster. Continue reading →
December 10, 2018 “Def Con 2012” (*1/2 out of four) was a sub-routine action thriller set 200 years in the future in which Earth has become a vast nuclear wasteland and three rogue galactic thieves (Bryan Neil Hoff, Albertossy Espinoza, and Justin Brusca) return to find treasure and lost artifacts but are instead (naturally) stranded and are preyed upon by a sinister force. Utterly derivative and predictable time-waster is just a collection of ideas and plot points borrowed from other (and better) movies. No relation to “Def Con 4” but may as well have been. Continue reading →
December 8, 2018 “Asher” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary hodgepodge starring Ron Perlman as an over-the-hill hitman who embarks on one last job which puts him in the crosspath of his former lover (Famke Jansen) and various other underworld figures who want both of them silenced. Perlman is good as always and does everything he can to give this some personality but he is enable to envilen or enrich the proceedings which soon grind to a halt. A disappointment from director Michael Caton Jones who gave us far smoother and richer genre material in “This Boy’s Life”, “Memphis Belle”, and “Doc Hollywood.” Continue reading →
December 8, 2018 “Hornet” (*1/2 out of four) was a dismal action thriller which just about stings you with its awfulness about an alien race who invades Earth and begins to brainwash humans into senseless acts of destruction and how humanity must rely on the title robot Hornet to save Earth and restore civilization. Just an umpteen amount of ideas borrowed from umpteen other movies (“The Transformers” and “Alien” just to name a few) except those movies are far better than this forgettable trifle. Film doesn’t so much end as stop but no one will be complaining. Continue reading →
December 7, 2018 “Mortal Engines” (** out of four) was a joyless adaptation of Phillip Reeve’s blockbuster novel set in a post-apocalyptic world about a young man (Robert Sheehan) and a masked assailant (Hera Hilmar) who are both thrown out of their predatorial moving city by the powerful and evil Head Of The Guild Of Historians (Hugo Weaving) and have to fend for themselves and try to enact revenge. Opens and closes with spectacular action scenes and is filled with sumptuous visual effects through-out but story sputters to a halt in the middle and becomes jumbled and dull. One of the producers was Peter Jackson and you can see his blueprint, especially in film’s large-scale action scenes. Weaving is good but he was more entertaining more-or-less playing the same role in “The Matrix” almost two decades ago. Continue reading →
December 7, 2018 “Alice In Murderland” (* out of four) was a startlingly awful horror flick which is nowhere near as clever as its title. A sorority girl named Alice (Malerie Grady) is celebrating her birthday with her sorority sisters (Marlene McCohen, Kelly Kula, and others) who throw her a “wonderland” themed party which is crashed by a serial killer on the prowl. Lame writing and filmmaking sinks this all the way and terrible acting turns this into a real horror show. Lewis Carroll would be gagging if he saw what has now become of his original “Alice” material. Continue reading →
December 7, 2018 “Payday” (*1/2 out of four) was a lackluster independent melodrama about an inept criminal (Derek Babb) who holds up a small-town diner which soon spirals out of control into a hostage crisis. Oh- did I forget to mention that his girlfriend (Lara Jean) is the manager of the diner and she mastermined the theft in the first place to cover up her own embezzlement? Potentially twisty and intriguing material is bungled by low-grade filmmaking and substandard writing and characterizations. You can only imagine what David Mamet or Michael Mann may have done with this material but this is strikingly similar to Kevin Spacey’s directorial debut “Albino Alligator.” Former WWE star Bishop Stevens shows up as a hostage negotiator but the only reason he must have taken this is for a quick payday. Continue reading →
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