April 22, 2023 “Lola 2” (*1/2 out of four) was an amateurish sequel about the title fighter (Taja V. Simpson) who falls in love and has a child but struggles to leave the rigors of the ring behind her and finds herself enveloped to return for one final fight to the death, regardless of the consequences. Superficial sports drama covers all the routine bases without any resonance or reverberation. Even the fight scenes are pretty by-the-numbers and not that excitingly filmed. Any of the “Rocky” sequels knocks this on its ass, hands down. Continue reading →
April 22, 2023 “You’re Killing Me” (** out of four) was a tired horror potboiler about a young girl (McKaley Miller) who goes to an elite costume party which soon turns ugly when she finds herself entrapped by a creepy costumer (Brice Anthony Heller) and this subsequently worsens when his sadistic parents (Dermot Mulroney and Anne Heche) show up and tighten the immense screws on her even more. Promising beginning soon sputters as film devolves into a routine rehash of “The Purge” and “Desperate Hours.” Miller (who at times resembles a young Drew Barrymore) is solid in the lead but Heche is wasted in one of her final film roles. Continue reading →
April 22, 2023 “Pretty Stoned” (*1/2 out of four) was a pretty lame teen comedy about a devoted pothead (Skye Townsend) and an overachiever (Paris Berelc) who find themselves having to join forces when one of them disperses of a multitude of pot from a drug henchwoman (Kandi Buruss) and find themselves on the run from her and her mob of enforcers and have to somehow make the money back, all the while staying safe and staying happy and high. Throwback to the Cheech-and-Chong comedies of the ’70’s and ’80’s and “Half Baked” is too mindless and silly to give anyone but young viewers even a mild comic high. Spirited performances from the two leads can’t help this from soon turning into a bad trip. Continue reading →
April 21, 2023 “Horror In The High Desert 2: Minerva” (**1/2 out of four) was a proficiently done horror melodrama focusing on a series of tragedies in Nevada in 2018 which could be possibly linked to the events in the original regarding the disappearance of the character Gary Hinge as various townsfolk (Suziey Block, Brooke Bradshaw, C.R. Brough, and others) attempt to sort it out. One more unnecessary horror sequel and found-footage horror movie that the world did not need but having said that- it’s well-made, moodily shot by Dutch Marich on a low-budget, and does feature some scares. A few scenes seem directly inspired by (and rip-offs of) the most influential found-footage horror movie of them all “The Blair Witch Project.” Continue reading →
April 21, 2023 “Drunk, Driving, And 17” (*1/2 out of four) was an exceedingly weak melodrama about a high-schooler (Savannah Lee Smith) who makes a near-fatal mistake of getting intoxicated at a house party and drinking-and-driving and nearly killing a classmate. In the aftermath, the victim and his family and police have to decide is it her fault or the fault of the parents (Michael Michele and David Wright) who hosted the party? Earnest attempt at a serious subject matter is bungled by heavy-handed melodramatics and uneven acting. While far from perfect, “Hit And Run” and “The Crossing Guard” told the same stories with more raw power and conviction. Continue reading →
April 20, 2023 “Chaos On The Farm” (** out of four) was an overly routine suspense psychodrama about a young woman (Brook Sill) who visits the farm of her uncle and aunt (Clare Kramer and Jake Busey) to tie up dangling issues in her deceased mother’s will but soon finds that they have both become nutjobs who want to hold her hostage and she does her best to survive and escape. Wholly predictable movie made for those who’ve never seen “Deliverance” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or any other redneck/psycho/people held in jeopardy movie. Good performances and stark cinematography from Chad Narducci are definite plusses but still can’t harvest this into material worth revisiting. Continue reading →
April 20, 2023 “The Pay Day” (** out of four) was a trifling caper comedy in which almost everyone seems in it for a quick-and-easy pay day; a broke and frustrated IT technician (Kyla Frye) and her boyfriend (Sam Benjamin) decide to throw caution to the winds and steal valuable data worth several millions on the international market but a treacherous underworld figure (Simon Callow) attempts to thwart all their efforts. Both Frye and Benjamin co-wrote this movie in the vein of “Ocean’s Eleven” which is watchable but lacks the fire and flair to really come alive. Lead characters’ names are inspired by the lead actors from “Out Of Sight” which this movie sometimes also resembles. Continue reading →
April 20, 2023 “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once And Always” (**1/2 out of four) was a zippy continuation of the blockbuster series about the Power Rangers (Billy Cranston, Steve Cardenas, Walter Jones, and others) who are confronted with a global crisis and are called on to save the world once again but soon find that this might be a far more dangerous mission than they realized. High-energy movie with lots of action and visual effects but still mostly for fans and young viewers. Come to think of it, though, this is better than the 2017 feature-film adaptation and is probably on par with the previous 1995 version. Continue reading →
April 17, 2023 “Air” (**1/2 out of four) was a pleasant if unexceptional melodrama set in the mid-1980’s in which a determined shoe salesman (Matt Damon) led the company of Nike in signing a then-unknown basketball player named Michael Jordan in a groundbreaking and blockbuster deal that would change the fortunes of the company and led to the explosion of lucrative sports endorsement deals in the landscape since. Sensational opening sequence plunges us right in the heart of the capitalistic decade of the Reagan ’80’s and holds you with its good cast and detail but gradually (no pun intended) the air comes out of the story and it loses its grip. Viola Davis is superb as usual as Jordan’s caring mom and Damon holds the movie together through its various lulls. Continue reading →
April 16, 2023 “If I Can’t Have You” (*1/2 out of four) was a ridiculous suspense thriller about a radio host (Bailey Kai) who becomes targeted by an unknown stalker who turns her life upside down and she does her best to keep her sanity while trying to sort out the clues and go down the list and find out who this might be. Misfired thriller full of plot holes and obvious twists and for anyone who bothers to stay with it, film’s ending is an insulting letdown. Filmmakers obviously watched “Play Misty For Me” a few times but to put it mildly this time-waster “can’t” measure up to that classic. Continue reading →
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