January 23, 2021 “Monster Preacher” (**1/2 out of four) was a fairly engrossing documentary about the title criminal who in 1986 was a preacher who kidnapped, raped, and tortured six women in Philadelphia and ended up murdering two of them; the film mostly recounts the events of his crime spree and features stark interviews with some of his surviving victims. Interesting and intriguing as it focuses on the horrors of these crimes and the PTSD effects it has on victims although it gets to be a bit much after a while. Continue reading →
January 23, 2021 “The Flood” (* out of four) was a miserable melodrama set during WWII about an Aboriginal woman (Alexis Lane) whose husband and daughter and land are taken from her and she embarks on a brutal round of frontier vengeance to reclaim what’s hers but finds that this is a more difficult odyssey than she anticipated. Could have been an interesting look at a different time and culture but winds up pretentious and boring instead. Film’s climax finally comes alive but by that point film is too far gone for it to matter. Continue reading →
January 23, 2021 “Psycho Goreman” (**1/2 out of four) was a mildly entertaining adventure yarn about a young girl and her brother (Nita Josee-Hanna and Scout Flint) who unearth a rare gem that unleashes the title monster Psycho Goreman (Matthew Ninaber) but things go askew when they use the monster to do their bidding. Nicely told and relatively watchable sci/fi fare for kids but others may find it a bit too much like recycled Spielberg (“Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” and “E.T.” in particular). A mixed bag but not bad of its kind. Continue reading →
January 23, 2021 “A Stone In The Water” (*1/2 out of four) was a meandering psychodrama about a reclusive old biddy (Bonnie Bedelia) who abducts a pregnant woman (Melissa Fumero) to steal her soon-to-be-child but doesn’t count on a ruthless murderer being on the prowl who is already out to kill the young mother which leads to numerous complications for all of them. Result turns into a ridiculous mixture of “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” and “Misery” but that may make this sound more entertaining than it really is; this cheaply made claptrap isn’t even within a “stone” throw of those classics. Continue reading →
January 23, 2021 “Crazy 2 Crazy” (* out of four) was an unbearable psychodrama about a psychopath (Mark Ashworth) who stumbles into the household of a family of psychopaths (Robert Pralgo and Maria Malcolm) who turn the tables on him and try to torment him and they have to match psychopathic and sociopathic skills to outwit one another. Potentially intriguing story of intellectual and criminal minds going against one another is sorely bungled by ham-fisted direction, unpleasant storytelling, and failed attempts at black humor and irony. For a sharper and more stylish look at virtually the same story, watch 1998’s “Suicide Kings” instead. Continue reading →
January 22, 2021 “Slayed” (* out of four) was a slayingly awful horror show set five years after a previous Christmas Eve massacre in which a mass murderer in a Santa Claus outfit returns to a water treatment facility to start terror up again and start killing but the sole survivor (Mike Capozzi) from his last murder spree and a new security guard (Jim Klock) are waiting for him which leads to a horrific showdown. Utterly stupid and unpleasant; the in-your-face acting and direction is no help. Both Klock and Capozzi directed and Klock also wrote the script making this their Christmas present equivalent of a lump of coal. Continue reading →
January 21, 2021 “Born A Champion” (*** out of four) was a robust melodrama about a middle-aged jujitsu expert (Sean Patrick Flannery) who is suddenly pulled away from everything he loves and is given a chance for a rematch in an underground MMA tournament against the martial arts fighter (Edsen Baboza) who illegally disfigured him decades ago! Thoroughly predictable movie covers all the obvious bases but does it with such passion and conviction engrained in Flannery’s fervent performance that it’s a powerful watch just the same. Plus as a bonus- the MMA and fight scenes are very tense and well-captured and were not used with any stunt doubles. Flannery also scripted. Dennis Quaid has a minor role as a fight promoter. Continue reading →
January 20, 2021 “Run Hide Fight” (**1/2 out of four) was an efficiently done action melodrama about a precocious 17-year old (Isabel May) who has to fight for her life and rise to the challenge of saving her friends and other students when a group of live-streaming shooters come in and terrorize the school and subsequently the local media and police (led by Treat Williams) become involved. Tension-to-action sequences keep you watching and on the edge of your seat but film is hindered by mediocre production values, and its cheap-looking cinematography in particular. First film ever produced by conservative media company The Daily Wire. Continue reading →
January 19, 2021 “Don’t Tell A Soul” (***1/2 out of four) was a striking, sinuous melodrama about two thieving teenage brothers (Fionn Whitehead and Jack Dylan Grazer) who steal money to help their ailing mother (Mena Suvari) who are found out by a security guard (Rainn Wilson) who falls to the bottom of a well; one tries to help him while the other wants to kill him to erase any involvement in their crime but all is not what it seems. Captivating story is complex and intricate and enhanced by a razor-sharp screenplay, Guillermo Garza’s rich and moody cinematography and superb, dynamite acting all across the board. A bullseye effort from writer/director Alex McAulay in his directorial debut. Continue reading →
January 18, 2021 “Outside The Wire” (*** out of four) was a slick, intensely visceral pulp action thriller set in the not-too-distant future in which a drone pilot (Damson Idris) is penalized for disobeying orders that resulted in a military attack and is sent to a war zone and paired with a highly trained android officer (Anthony Mackie) who is on a mission to stop a nuclear attack involving Russia that could result in World War III. Explosive movie gets a little overcomplicated in its second half making it a little hard to follow but it never stops moving and giving you action and breathless set pieces to watch and take in. Both Mackie and Idris are first-rate and make up for film’s sometimes derivative origins and ideas. Continue reading →
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