June 23, 2020 “Top Gunner” (*1/2 out of four) was a stale, synthetic action melodrama about a group of renegade pilots (Buck Burns, Julian Cavett, Reavis Dorsey) from the U.S. Air Force who have to protect a biological weapon from falling into the wrong hands of the Russian military who want to seize it any costs. Result is such an obvious rip off of “Top Gun” (right down to its title, no kidding) but it also rips off “Iron Eagle” and also “Red Dawn” to make it feel like a KMart greatest hits of ’80’s action fare. Eric Roberts sneers his way through a token role as the group’s tough but tender instructor. Continue reading →
June 23, 2020 “Zombie With A Shotgun” (* out of four) was a witless adaptation of the title web series about two teenagers (Braeden Baade and Kathryn Kuhn) on the run because he is infected with a zombie virus that allows him to (!) communicate with other zombies while at the same time trying to find the source of the infection and thus save the world from eradication. I wasn’t a big fan of either of the “Zombieland” movies but this movie makes them look like Noel Coward by comparison; sputteringly stupid at times and cheaply made as a bonus. Continue reading →
June 22, 2020 “Revenge Ride” (** out of four) was a disjointed action melodrama about a young girl (Serinda Swan) who is a member of a vicious biker gang (led by Polyanna Macintosh) who she rounds up to embark on high-speed revenge when her young cousin is drugged at a party. Cheeky visual style and some amusing ideas fail to sustain film at feature-length and its overall unpleasantness eventually wears you out. Both visually and thematically inspired by both “Mad Max” and “The Road Warrior” but there’s no Mel GIbson or George Miller here. Continue reading →
June 21, 2020 “House Of Many Sorrows” (*1/2 out of four) was a slapdash horror show about a mentally unstable man (Tom Malloy) who takes over his mother’s bed-and-breakfast operation and begins slashing and killing the various members who show up until a few unhappy guests (Barry Gillis and Samatha Brownlee) decide to fight back and attempt to escape. Marginally stylish touches from Gillis’ direction (he also wrote and directed) are unable to provide this crude schlock with much distinction. Not the worst of its ilk but you’ll likely have many sorrows from wasting your time by the end of this. Continue reading →
June 21, 2020 “The Tent” (** out of four) was a frustrating melodrama set after an apocalyptic event called The Crisis in which an elderly man (Tim Kaiser) and a younger woman (Lulu Dahl) cross paths as they are both stranded in the wilderness for survival in which they both take refuge in a tent to ward off the ugliness and uncertainty of the outside world. Dour and aloof storyline is hard to get involved in for much of film’s running time but the final third and film’s ending does have some touching moments about loss and death. Give writer/director Kyle Couch some credit for making a new take on the post-apocalyptic genre but it’s overall effects are mixed and muted. Continue reading →
June 21, 2020 “The Evil Rises” (* out of four) was a grade-Z horror thriller about a group of young friends (Bailey La Flam, Michael Glauser, Julian De La Mora) and others who discover an ancient statue that (yawn) unleashes an evil spirit and entity unto the world; it’s up to a pizza delivery boy, a detective, and (naturally) a priest to save the day and send the statue back to the bowels of Hell. Or something like that. Incredibly low-rent thriller is also low on thrills and low on brains. Movies like these make you wonder whether the horror genre will ever effectively “rise” again! Continue reading →
June 20, 2020 “Abducted On Air” (** out of four) was a tame suspense thriller about a local news reporter (Kim Shaw) with aspirations of being a television star who is kidnapped on air and suddenly is thrust into the spotlight and becomes a media firestorm. Was this kidnapping real or was this something engineered to bring her more notoriety and coverage? Competently made and acted but lacking in suspense and scares that make these kinds of movies satisfying. Director Gus Van Sant told a similar story with much more comedic and satiric flair in 1995’s “To Die For.” Continue reading →
June 20, 2020 “Melany Rose” (* out of four) was a disastrously lame horror show about a doctor (Dawn Hamil), reeling from the death of one of her former patients, who takes a job working for a mysterious physician (Steven Marlow) at a military facility conducting strange experiments on maximum-security inmates. Allegedly inspired by MKUltra which were illegal CIA mind-control experiments but seems even more inspired by “The Shining”, “Hellhole”, and also “Shutter Island” although that’s by no means meant as a compliment. By the time you sort out the muddle, film is too far gone for it to matter. Only some striking cinematography from Jarrod Rosenstock towards the end is film’s sole asset. Continue reading →
June 20, 2020 “Chameleon” (** out of four) was a turgid melodrama about an ex-con (Joel Hogan) fresh out of prison who returns to a lifestyle of crime with his former cellmate (Donald Prebatah) involving scamming wives and their husbands in L.A. but their games soon attract the attention of a hard-nosed cop (Alicia Leigh Willis) who attempts to bring them down. Familiar story of lowlifes and cops never rises above the mire and remains mild through-out without ever taking off. Elegiac music score by Jeremy Nathan Tisser is a definite plus. Inauspicious feature-length directing debut for music video director Marcus Mizelle. Continue reading →
June 20, 2020 “A Wreck Without You” (** out of four) was an earnest but slight melodrama about a young man (Alexander Roberts) whose lover (Rya Meyers) disappears without a trace and without any reason; years later he moves on with a new girlfriend (Camille Hendricks) but still finds himself psychologically stuck and this worsens once he receives a box which soon solves the mystery of what happened with his former lover. Interesting themes of guilt and lost love but story fails to ignite emotionally; shot in grainy black-and-white photography but that also becomes mundane after a while, much like the film itself. Similar story covered in much more horrific terrain in “The Vanishing.” Continue reading →
dlepikcom 