April 30, 2020 “Guests” (*1/2 out of four) was a stale pileup of horror movie cliches about a young girl (Jessica Rau) who meets a group of young partiers (Greg Chun, Yuriy Chursin, and others) with whom she takes to a secluded house to throw a party but to the surprise of no one- an evil entity and force still exists within the house and threatens to turn their party into a nightmare. Competently made and filmed but lacking any sparks of originality or scares and soon becomes tiresome. Don’t invite yourself as a “guest” for this party. Continue reading →
April 29, 2020 “Dreamkatcher” (*1/2 out of four) was a trite horror story about (what else?) a possessed young child (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) who steals a dreamcatcher from a bizarre neighbor (Lin Shaye who can play this role in her sleep by now) forcing his parents (Henry Thomas and Radha Mitchell) to attempt to rescue him before it’s too late and his soul goes to Hell. Well shot by George Wieser but just another package of horror cliches warmed up and reheated. No relation to the Stephen King novel of the same name but liberally rips off “The Exorcist” among many others. Continue reading →
April 29, 2020 “Samhain: A Halloween Horror Story” (*1/2 out of four) was an amateurish horror thriller about a girl (Michelle Moracco) about to leave for the West Coast who ends up housesitting on her final night in town; to the surprise of no one but her, a psychotic killer shows up and stalks her to the death. Writer/director Joe Gray lamely rips off “Halloween” in a few key shots and right down to some of its film score but there’s otherwise not much distinction here from thousands of other direct-to-DVD dreck. Film is only a little more than an hour long but no one will likely be complaining. Continue reading →
April 29, 2020 “Dying For Motherhood” (*1/2 out of four) was a ludicrous thriller about a young pregnant girl (Hannah Bamberg) in fear for her life from her abusive boyfriend who then agrees to live with the couple (Emmanuelle Vaugier and Josh Ventura) who are adopting her child but soon finds out that things aren’t quite right with them and they are vindictive and unstable. Highly predictable and routine story becomes truly laughable and absurd in its final third, at which point most viewers will be “dying” for this to be over. Bamberg’s sincere performance is wasted. Continue reading →
April 29, 2020 “The Lodge” (*1/2 out of four) was a vacuous horror thriller about a stepmom (Riley Keough) who is snowed in with her fiance’s two children (Jaeden Lieberher and Lia McHugh) at a remote village and naturally- strange occurrences begin taking place and a supernatural entity overtakes her and threatens all of their safety and sanity. Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz are obviously attempting to emulate the Kubrickian mood and style of “The Shining” but it all adds up to nothing, since film is pretty much of a bore. Early on, the two kids are watching John Carpenter’s remake of “The Thing” on television- a reminder of the right way to make this kind of movie. Alicia Silverstone has a cameo as the boy’s real mom but she wisely exits the movie early; most viewers will wish they did the same. Continue reading →
April 28, 2020 “Stray Dolls” (*1/2 out of four) was a muddled, tedious story of a South Asian immigrant (Geentanjali Thapa) who attempts to start over in America by taking a job at a seedy motel and is soon sucked back into the criminal underworld which she wanted to leave behind. When the main character of a story like this is aloof and hard to care about, then you can pretty much say the same for the rest of the movie as well. Heavy-going pretty much all the way Continue reading →
April 27, 2020 “Sam’s Lake” (*1/2 out of four) was an enervated horror thriller about a young girl (Fay Masterson) who takes a group of her friends (Sandrine Holt, William Gregory Lee, and others) to the title lake where they are confronted by an ancient and evil force that threatens to kill them all one by one. Not all that different, if you think about it, from “Friday The 13th” which was a horror movie done with style and craft which this utterly lacks. This one is all washed up long before its predictable climax. Continue reading →
April 27, 2020 “Beastie Boys Story” (*** out of four) was an endearing documentary of the legendary NYC rap group as narrated by Mike D (Mike Diamond) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz) at The Kings Theater in Brooklyn as they recount their formation, their highs and lows, and their 40+ years of friendship that kept them together musically and emotionally. Interesting for fans, with lots of rare photographs and backstories about their various albums and classics, but also a touching tribute to MCA (Adam Yauch) who died in 2012 which ended the group. A nice homage to a highly influential group whose career unexpectedly spanned over three decades. Continue reading →
April 26, 2020 “Trigger Points” (0 out of four) was an indescribably awful horror thriller about a woman (Denise Meller) in some sort of hospital who escapes to find a world in absolute chaos of which she must try to make sense and find her own place and source of continuance. First-half of the movie literally has almost no dialogue and features the main character mostly wandering around in a dull haze; second half is mostly incoherent. Ugly cinematography and obscure ending are icing on the moldy cake. If you make it to the end of this mess, you may find yourself needing to check into a hospital. A real head-scratching bore, to put it mildly. Continue reading →
April 26, 2020 “Extraction” (*** out of four) was a dynamite action thriller about a black-market mercenary soldier (Chris Helmsworth) who embarks on the most deadly mission of his career when he is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord in India but finds treachery and danger at every turn. Packed with hand-to-hand combat and gunfights that are tensely staged; it starts to get a little redundant after a while in the final third but at least it never stops moving and throwing action at you. A solid directorial debut for noted stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave and an adaptation of the graphic novel “Ciudad.” Continue reading →
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