December 17, 2020 “Silent Night” (** out of four) was grim gangster melodrama about a recently released British hitman (Bradley Taylor) trying to go straight for the sake of his daughter but gets sucked back into the vicious criminal underworld by his former cell-mate (Cary Crankson) who talks him into doing one final job which naturally backfires in multiple ways putting him at a crossroads about what to do next. Holds your attention for a while with its rapid-fire hard-boiled dialogue and stylish filmmaking but never rises above the routine mire. Plays like a Guy Ritchie melodrama (“Lock, Stock, And 2 Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” in particular) without its pizazz and humor. Continue reading →
December 17, 2020 “The Curse Of Hobbes House” (*1/2 out of four) was a desultory thriller set in England in which a down-on-her-luck woman (Mhairi Calvey) finds out about her aunt’s death (Emma Spurgin Hussey) and is expecting a lucrative inheritance but instead soon finds herself battling zombies who threaten her life and want world domination. Relatively well-directed but with absolutely no distinction to make it stand out from countless other movies about zombies and the walking dead. Even the gloomy and dour cinematography starts to grow monotonous after a while. Continue reading →
December 16, 2020 “Paintball Massacre” (*1/2 out of four) was a stultifying pile of horror cliches set in the English countryside in which a group of friends (Katy Brand, Lee Latchford-Evans, Robert Portal, and others) have a reunion on a paintball trip in the middle of nowhere when they are stalked and slashed one-by-one by a deadly masked killer and they realize they have to turn into survivalist mode to stay alive. Umpteenth story of a killer in the middle of the wilderness is routine and blah; film just stops, rather than ends, for anyone who even makes it that far. For the right way to make almost the same story, watch 2003’s “Wrong Turn” instead. Continue reading →
December 16, 2020 “Phobic” (** out of four) was an ambitious but ambiguous horror thriller about a homicide detective (Heather Beers) who starts to see similarities between herself and the victims of a serial killer who murders clinical phobics by exposing them to their fears and she then attempts to track him down and put an end to his grisly reign. Intelligent and interesting thriller has some clever and stylish touches but becomes (like a lot of serial killer thrillers) overly cerebral and unpleasant after a while and its ending is obtuse and obscure. A good attempt by writer/director Bryce Clark (who obviously was inspired by “Seven”) that falls apart in the stretch. Continue reading →
December 15, 2020 “Army Of One” (** out of four) was a tired action melodrama about an ex-special forces solider (Ellen Hollman) who stumbles onto the compound of a redneck drug cartel (Geraldine Singer, Barry Hanley, and others) that leaves her husband dead and her badly beaten and she soon returns for bloodthirsty vengeance. If you’ve ever wanted to see a cross between “Rambo” and “I Spit On Your Grave”, look no further; for anyone else it’s decently acted and made but utterly routine and bereft of any surprises or fresh plot twists. No relation to the 2016 Nicholas Cage movie of the same name. Continue reading →
December 14, 2020 “The Midnight Sky” (*1/2 out of four) was a ponderous and pretentious melodrama set in the future in which a dying scientist (George Clooney who also directed) awakens after a global meltdown and has to warn an astronaut (Felicity Jones) and her crew (David Oyelow, Demián Bichir, and others) not to return home while he befriends a lost mute young girl (Caroline Springall) and tries to keep both of them alive. You keep thinking something substantial or significant is going to happen but nothing ever does as film dawdles and drags through much post-apocalyptic and futuristic hooey we’ve seen before and much better. Slickly made and certainly well-shot but hollow and pointless. Clooney has done much more inspired work on both sides of the camera. Continue reading →
December 14, 2020 “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” (***1/2 out of four) was an enchanting documentary about the legendary title group who started out as three brothers who simply wanted to sing together and how they initially made their mark with Beatles-like pop in the late ‘60’s, had explosive worldwide success in the disco era, then suffered plummeting popularity, but always stuck together and persevered through tragedy and turmoil. Exceptionally well-done film features tons of rare footage and interviews and (most importantly) lots of great music that showcases them at all different junctures of their career. A must for Bee Gees fans but also an entertaining journey of the ups-and-downs of the music industry and a moving story of family and musical unity. Continue reading →
December 13, 2020 “Wheels Of Fortune” (*1/2 out of four) was a jeopardizingly dumb comedy about a Southern jackass (Matt Jones) who travels the country with his family (Noureen DeWulf, Christina Moore, and others) and a lawyer (John Ducey) after finding out that his ill father (Jeff Fahey) may have left him a business inheritance involving race-cars. Some scattershot chuckles are overtaken by film’s generally moronic dialogue and unfunny Southern stereotypes. Strictly for those who couldn’t get enough of “The Jerry Springer Show” and thought “Talladega Nights” was robbed at Oscar time. Continue reading →
December 12, 2020 “Christmas Zombies” (0 out of four) was a torturously inept horror comedy about a disgruntled elf (Ashley Hays Wright) who gets fired and a new zombie boss (David Owen Wright) takes over and seeks revenge on the North Pole and creates some new robot zombies who satisfy their cravings by stealing back presents! Bewildering storyline is thrown into your face and made even worse by ham-handed direction and shoddy production. A Christmas present at the equivalent of a lump of coal. Hays Wright also wrote and directed and produced and unfortunately bears all the blame for this embarrassment. Continue reading →
December 12, 2020 “We Still Say Grace” (0 stars out of four) was a graceless- and worthless- horror show about the teenage daughter (Holly Taylor) of a religious fanatic (Bruce Davison) who attempts to break free of her father’s delusions and religious suicide pact but finds that escaping is not quite as easy as it seems. Viewers will find it’s far easier to escape the movie instead; by the time you sort out the unpleasant muddle, film is too far gone for it to matter anyway. Someone should say “grace” for Davidson who was a first-rate character actor but whose career obviously needs a few hail-mary’s at this point. Continue reading →
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