February 14, 2023 “The Girl Who Escaped” (*** out of four) was a stirring suspense melodrama based on the true story of Kara Robinson (Katie Douglas) who was abducted by a serial-killer and sex abuser (Kristian Bruun) until she made a daring escape from his lair which led to a nationwide manhunt to finally bring him into custody. Skillfully done story neatly intertwines character exploration with nail-biting suspense and also deftly incorporates themes of PTSD on kidnapping victims and also their families. Douglas is strong and absolutely believable in the lead and Bruun is exceptionally well-cast and creepy as her abductor. Continue reading →
February 14, 2023 “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (** out of four) was a mild third entry in this series showing Mike (Channing Tatum) who has to return to the stage after going bankrupt but meets a wealthy socialite (Salma Hayek) who provides him with an irresistible international opportunity to fulfill his dream in performing in an extravagant musical. Smashing musical number finale ends this on a strong note but until then it’s pretty by-the-numbers and ordinary fare. Tatum obviously knows his role by now but even he seems to be mostly going through the motions. A definite improvement over the last entry but most viewers will be happy this is the “final” dance for Mike. Continue reading →
February 13, 2023 “She Comes From The Woods” (*1/2 out of four) was a rudderless horror movie set in 1987 that instead feels like a really bad movie from 1987; a group of camp counselors (Spencer List, Cara Buono, Clare Foley, and others) spend the last night of the summer partying but accidentally unleash (yawn) an ancient evil that leads to all Hell breaking loose. Tired anthology of horror cliches and routine scare gimmicks. Great character actor William Sadler has a minor supporting role but even he’s starred in virtually the same story and characters previously in “Bordello Of Blood”, “Demon Knight”, and “Disturbing Behavior.” Continue reading →
February 13, 2023 “The Huntress Of Auschwitz” (*1/2 out of four) was a grueling pulp revenge thriller about a young woman (Lowri Watts-Joyce) who travels to Europe to seek vengeance on an escaped Nazi guard (Jeffrey Charles Richards) responsible for the murder of her great-grandparents and thousands of others. Intriguing subject matter and themes of vengeance and the Holocaust are stopped cold by Watts-Joyce’s dreadful performance. Rula Lenska as one of her family relatives and (especially) Richards are much better but film flattens out once she finds him. Same story told much more powerfully and vividly in “Remember” and “Killing Season.” Continue reading →
February 12, 2023 “Signs Of Love” (*** out of four) was an affecting melodrama about a young man (Hopper Penn) from the streets who sees no way out of his dead-end life with selling drugs and engaging in crime until he meets and falls in love with a young deaf woman (Shannan Wilson) and this puts him at a crossroads in his life for the first time for himself and also his drug-addicted father (Wass Stevens) and his alcoholic and troubled sister (Dylan Penn). Flavorful and gritty story immerses you right into the character’s lives and desperation and holds you in its grip. Not a great film but well-told and well-acted especially by Hopper Penn who’s the son of Sean; this film resembles his father’s earlier work in “At Close Range” and also “White Boy Rick.” Continue reading →
February 12, 2023 “Prisoner Of Love” (*1/2 out of four) was a muffled melodrama about a lonely corrections officer (Nicholle Tom) who falls in love with a convicted murderer (Adam Mayfield) and helps him to escape from prison and they wind up on the run even as their feelings of love and distrust simultaneously make them closer and more weary of one another. Screenwriter Guy Nicolucci based this story on actual events but who cares? Both lead characters are unlikeable and unconvincing and film follows too much in the mold of similar lovers-on-the-run melodramas “Gun Crazy” and “Mad Love.” Film’s ending provides only emotional impact but viewers will likely feel like “prisoners” themselves by the time this is finally over. Continue reading →
February 12, 2023 “5G: The Reckoning” (*1/2 out of four) was a wretched horror thriller set at the beginning of a global pandemic in which 8 students (Oliver de la Harpe, Stina Duval, Jason Lee Fraser, and others) are in lockdown at their college dorm facility and are virtually unable to connect with the outside world but find that an otherworldly presence has invaded their dorms and threatens to overtake their reality and endanger their lives. Promising beginning soon leads nowhere as film becomes both visually and thematically ugly and structurally routine. Can’t someone make a good horror movie about the COVID pandemic??? Continue reading →
February 11, 2023 “Look Into The Fire” (** out of four) was a diffuse suspense psychodrama about a neurology student (Artie Shase) who starts experimenting on himself on unlocking the inner workings of the brain but soon finds that he uncovers dangerous and repressed memories linked to a friend (Nina E. Jordan) that lead to haunting visions that threaten his present and future. Intriguing themes of cerebral and psychological duress aren’t fully realized and film is stalled by its muddled script and characters you don’t really care about. An ambitious directorial debut from camera operator Tim Morrill but not worth taking a “look” at. Continue reading →
February 11, 2023 “Vacation Home Nightmare” (*1/2 out of four) was a banal suspense melodrama about a woman (Aubrey Reynolds) away on vacation with her friends (Felisha Cooper and Yolanthe Cabau) who is brutally attacked in an air b & b rental when the maintenance manager (Grant Wright Gunderson) tries to help but she begins to wonder whether he can be trusted or is he really the one who has been stalking her? (You get two guesses and the first one doesn’t count). Yet another Lifetime mystery thriller without any mystery or thrills and seems prefabricated out of a computer. It’s timewasters like these that make you want to go on a “vacation” of your own from the movies. Continue reading →
February 11, 2023 “Transfusion” (** out of four) was an obtuse emotional melodrama about a former special forces solider (Sam Worthington) whose wife (Phoebe Tonkin) dies and he has to do everything possible to keep his young son (Edward Carmody) from being taken from him, even if this means returning to his former lifestyle in the criminal underworld. Film never really connects emotionally and never has the compelling power it needs, despite some scattered effective moments. The usually dynamic Worthington is monochromatic and one-note here. Writer/director Matt Nable has a key supporting role as an underworld enforcer. Continue reading →
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