March 16, 2020 “House Of Mirrors” (0 stars out of four) was absolute rockbottom fare about a sleazy music-executive (Brian Neil Hoff who also wrote and directed this mess) who receives a mysterious phone call from a stranger who says he has evidence that could ruin his career but obviously all is not what it appears to be. Sounds campy and fun but believe me it isn’t; graze-Z filmmaking goes hand-in-hand with awful acting to make this pure misery to sit through. Lead Josette Pacino is actually Al Pacino’s sister but this may be the real dog day afternoon. Continue reading →
March 16, 2020 “I Still Believe” (**1/2 out of four) was an earnest and well-meaning Christian drama about the true story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) and the struggles he went through to keep his faith and pursue his dreams of music as he lost his wife (Britt Robertson) to cancer. Undeniably corny at times but still has enough good performances and effective moments to make it a worthwhile tearjerker. Gary Sinise is rock-solid as usual as his dad and Kristopher Kimlin’s beautiful cinematography is a major plus. Continue reading →
March 15, 2020 “The Hunt” (** out of four) was a heavy-handed adaptation of “The Most Dangerous Game” about twelve strangers (Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank, and others) who wake up in a clearing having no idea how they got there but they soon figure out they’ve been chosen as part of the hunt and have to scramble to survive and find out the game’s purpose. Director Craig Zobel works in an engaging screwball manner that keeps you watching but story becomes so over-the-top and strange at times that it doesn’t hang together. Same story told in same city (New Orleans) in John Woo’s “Hard Target.” Continue reading →
March 14, 2020 “Escape From Pretoria” (*** out of four) was an absorbing political prison thriller set in the apartheid days of South Africa in which two captives (Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber) refused to accept their lengthy prison sentences and worked together to conspire to escape to freedom. Yet another image-altering and challenging role for Radcliffe who is compelling and convincing and works well with Webber in a story that is completely gripping and involving. Ian Hart and Nathan Page are superb in supporting roles as a prison mentor and prison guard. Continue reading →
March 10, 2020 “Onward” (*** out of four) was a delightful Pixar animated adventure about two elf brothers (voiced by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland) who set out on a quest to find a spell that will bring back their deceased father (voiced by Kyle Bornheimer) but naturally encounter many twists and turns along the way. Full of Pixar’s usual lush and spectacular animation and features some witty dialogue and scenarios as well. Not groundbreaking in the ways of their earlier work but a small winner all around. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Octavia Spencer, and Tracey Ullman among others contribute some of the other voices. Continue reading →
March 9, 2020 “Spenser Confidential” (** out of four) was a middling Netflix crime thriller set in Boston in which a former cop (Mark Wahlberg) who is just recently released from prison teams up with his new tough roommate (Winston Duke) to get to the bottom of a larger-conspiracy at hand when numerous police officers start getting murdered. Wahlberg is dependable as usual and the local Boston scenery is a definite plus but him and Duke don’t have much chemistry together and the more the mystery goes on, the less interesting it is. Fifth collaboration between Wahlberg and director Peter Berg but this is no match for their last Boston thriller “Patriot’s Day.” Continue reading →
March 9, 2020 “The Way Back” (** out of four) was a tepid inspirational drama about a severe alcoholic (Ben Affleck) who is hired as a basketball coach at his former high-school but his continued alcohol abuse causes his life to spiral out of control affecting his job, his family, and his overall control at life. Affleck tries in a role that obviously echoes his own life and own alcohol issues but we know so little about him and his character that the story fails to connect much emotionally. Works best in its final third but then reaches an unsatisfying conclusion. Similar story was told much more richly in 1986’s “Hoosiers.” Continue reading →
March 8, 2020 “The Dark Red” (*1/2 out of four) was a ponderous psychological thriller about a young woman (April Billingsley) who is committed to a mental institution where she relays her story to a helpful nurse (Kelsey Scott) about how her newborn was stolen by a secret society to harvest its supernatural blood and she attempts to uncover them to get her child back. Unpleasant and uninvolving pretty much all the way through although decent performances and filmmaking do their best. Continue reading →
March 8, 2020 “The Corrupted” (** out of four) was a grim underworld thriller set in London about an ex-con (Sam Claflin) trying to go straight and win back the trust of his family but ends up getting sucked back into his former lifestyle of organized crime involving crooked cops and corrupt politicians. Unexpectedly missing, though, are Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, and writer/director Guy Ritchie who has told this same story many times before. Not bad by this genre’s standards and does move fast enough but overall too routine and derivative. Timothy Spall is amusing in his umpteenth role as a slimeball. Continue reading →
March 7, 2020 “Final Cut” (*1/2 out of four) was a pretty awful horror show about a filmmaker (Dante Aubain) and his girlfriend (Syrissa Sacca) who start filming their own low-budget horror movie about a masked murderer on the prowl when (to the surprise of no one) an actual masked murderer shows up on set and ends up slashing away the cast and crew and they’re all just dying for it to end. Standard stalk-and-slash fare for most of the way up until its ludicrous (and unnecessarily stupid) double-twist of an ending. By now, it should be apparent that most horror movies about making a movie (“Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”, “Scream 3”, “Urban Legend 2”) don’t work. Let’s hope this one truly is the “final cut.” Continue reading →
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