June 20, 2020 “I Am Vengeance: Retaliation” (**1/2 out of four) was a serviceable action sequel about a former Special Forces solider (Stu Bennett) who is given the opportunity to enact his vengeance on a villainous and ruthless former solider (Vinnie Jones) by transporting him to justice but has to contend with various underworld figures trying to break him free along the way and a world-class assassin who is trying to kill Jones on their own and doesn’t want him brought to prison. Lack of distinction and variation (not to mention being unnecessary) are made up by plenty of kinetic fights and nonstop action which actually makes this an improvement over the original. Would it kill Jones to play a different role once in a while? Continue reading →
June 19, 2020 “Force Of Nature” (** out of four) was a sputtering action thriller about a group of vicious thieves (led by David Zayas) who plan a lucrative heist during a hurricane when a building has to be evacuated but find opposition when several of the building tenants (Kate Bosworth and Mel Gibson) and a cop (Emile Hirsch) fight back and they all try to survive the hurricane and stay alive. Initially tense and unsettling for the first half but then loses its momentum and turns banal and tedious. The weather of a quick storm that soon flames out. Continue reading →
June 18, 2020 “You Should Have Left” (** out of four) was a pallid horror thriller about a screenwriter (Kevin Bacon) and his wife (a gaunt Amanda Seyfried) and daughter (Avery Tiiu Essex) who travel to a home in the remote countryside where strange occurrences begin happening that unearth dark secrets that divide them apart and threaten their family unity and in turn their lives. Elegantly and atmospherically shot by Angus Hudson and does have some creepy moments towards the end but is otherwise an all-too-obvious and logy imitation of “The Shining.” Directed by David Koepp but this is no match for his last collaboration with Bacon “Stir Of Echoes”; this movie just stirs echoes of past horror classics. Continue reading →
June 17, 2020 “Driven” (* out of four) was an almost completely inept melodrama about a female cab driver (Casey Dillard) who picks up a mysterious and strange passenger (Richard Speight, Jr.) which turns her night inside-out and she realizes she’s battling an evil entity that may threaten her sanity and thus her life. Opening half-hour may remind you a lot of Michael Mann’s “Collateral” but it’s the best part of the movie as film veers disastrously into several other directions which are pretentious and incoherent. Annoying characters and performances are icing on the cake. You’ll want to put the brakes on this mess long before its running time is up. Continue reading →
June 17, 2020 “7 Deadly Sins” (*1/2 out of four) was an utterly unimaginative teen horror thriller which commits more than enough sins of its own with annoying characters, cliched dialogue, and by-the-numbers storytelling; a group of teenagers (Tori Vild, Ana Walczak, Gladys Bautista, and others) have a Spring Break party full of the usual sex, drugs, and booze but an evil spirit is soon summoned which takes over the party and causes them all to run for their lives. Disappointing directorial effort from noted character actor Glenn Plummer (“South Central”). Tom Sizemore and Eric Roberts pick up a couple of bucks in meaningless cameos. Continue reading →
June 17, 2020 “Assassin’s Game” (** out of four) was a jumbled action thriller about a secret team of assassins (Venard Adams, Demond Ballou, and others) called the Shadows who are put to the ultimate test in a game of life-and-death in which they turn against each other and yet have to also to team together in order to survive. Lots of action and hand-to-hand combat but nothing to make you terribly involved. After a while, this feels like watching a played video game. Having the assassins called The Shadows is a homage to “The Dark Knight” (as in The League Of Shadows) that this film simply doesn’t deserve. Continue reading →
June 17, 2020 “The Luring” (*1/2 out of four) was an abominable horror show about a man (Jake Katzman) who tries to recover lost memories by returning to his family’s Vermont vacation home where a tragic incident took place which left him institutionalized as a child and left multiple personal/psychological scars on him. In dire need of a coherent script and storyline and a main character who is even slightly likeable; this becomes like a jigsaw puzzle you don’t want to put together. The Vermont scenery is pretty but viewers would best avoid “the lure” of wasting their time on this dreck. Continue reading →
June 16, 2020 “Funhouse” (** out of four) was an underdone horror show about 8 internet celebrities from around the globe (Valter Skarsgard, Khamisa Wilsher, Gigi Saul Guerrero, and others) who compete in an online reality show in which they soon realize they are playing for their very lives and their deaths will soon be broadcast to the entire world. Not the worst of its kind, with some gruesomely imaginative kills and amusing irony, but just a bunch of ideas collected from other and better movies (“The Hunger Games” in particular). By this point- is there really anything left to satirize about social media and the mass commercialism of violence? Continue reading →
June 16, 2020 “The Clearing” (*** out of four) was a fierce horror thriller set during the zombie apocalypse in which a dedicated father (Liam McIntyre) must fight through a Hell wrath of zombies in order to save his daughter (Aundrea Smith) before they’re both turned into zombie brunch and eaten alive. Umpteenth zombie story is livened up and given a fresh coat of paint by unusually vivid and scary zombie attacks and breathless action scenes. Takes its time to get going but once it does there is no letup. Byetheway, this is not a remake of the 2004 Robert Redford/Willem Dafoe drama of the same name. Continue reading →
June 13, 2020 “Darkness Falls” (*1/2 out of four) was a misbegotten murder melodrama about a troubled young detective (Shawn Ashmore) grieving for the recent death of his wife who everyone thinks committed suicide but he then begins to suspect that she was murdered and obsessively trails down all clues, leading to a father/son team (Gary Cole and Richard Harmon) of serial killers whom he swears to bring down. Tired story of serial killers and vengeance and murder doesn’t offer much that’s vitally new to the genre. No relation to the 2003 horror movie of the same time but owes quite a lot to “Death Wish” and (more to the point) “Mad Max.” Continue reading →
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