April 3, 2023 “Rooming With Danger” (** out of four) was a stale suspense thriller about a young woman (Camila Senna) who moves in with a new roommate (Daniela Rivera) who develops a fixation on her and starts to turn her life inside-out as strange occurrences start developing both in and out of the house. Professionally made and acted but lacking in any novelty or originality whatsoever and is by-the-numbers all the way through. Yet another thriller made for people who’ve never seen a thriller before. Continue reading →
April 2, 2023 “Respite” (** out of four) was a lukewarm thriller about a down-on-his-luck private investigator (Monte Bezell) who is hired by a family to find their missing child but when various dead bodies start turning up all over the city- he soon realizes their child may have been abducted and/or killed by a serial killer that he has to pursue. Holds your attention with its gritty subject matter and competent filmmaking and acting but never really takes off or shifts into high-gear as it should. A film one can easily watch but easily also forget, since we’ve been down this serial-killer road all-too-many times over the years. Continue reading →
April 2, 2023 “Override” (** out of four) was a belated futuristic thriller about a female A.I. humanoid (Jessica Impiazzi- who is a dead-ringer for Olivia Wilde) whose program is altered by her husband (Luke Goss) to attack the Vice President (Dean Cain) and kidnap his son and execute him on live television unless she can be stopped once and for all. Derivative storyline of yet again the dangers of artificial intelligence and its affects on society as a whole. Far from the worst of its kind but too haphazard and murky to make any substantial impact. The charismatic Goss is wasted again but Impiazzi is rock-solid in the lead. Continue reading →
April 2, 2023 “Small Town Wisconsin” (** out of four) was a slight melodrama about a middle-aged man (David Sullivan) who tries to be a good father to his young son (Cooper J. Friedman) and re-develop a relationship with him but this and every other aspect of his life are encumbered by his severe alcoholism which he refuses to acknowledge or change. Well-intentioned story about alcoholism and its damaging effects on father-son relations but is never as incisive or as moving as it should be and film’s ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. Sullivan tries in the lead role but you just don’t care all that much about his character or his plight. One of the executive producers was Alexander Payne and this is an interesting companion piece to his “Sideways” but nowhere in the same league. Continue reading →
April 2, 2023 “Average Joe” (*1/2 out of four) was a cheesy Marvel/DC/comic-book wannabe about the title avenger (Jason Sedillo) who must defend his home turf of San Antonio when the malevolent Lord Menace (Camden Toy) returns from the dead to wreak havoc once again and he has to round up his other group of friends (Taylor James Johnson, Akasha Villabolos, and others) to get back into shape and get back into the world of crime-fighting. Writer/director Mark Cantu seems to be trying for something in the vein of “Shazam” and “Spider Man” but he’s constricted by a miniscule budget which makes this look shoddy at best. Film’s poster may remind you of “The Avengers” but this is overall a below-average effort. Continue reading →
April 2, 2023 “Lullaby” (* out of four) was a monumentally dull horror show about a new mother (Oona Chaplin) and her husband (Ramon Rodriguez) who discover a lullaby in an ancient book that they find and they at first think this is a blessing but soon realize that this unleashes the ancient demon Lilith and (naturally) all Hell breaks loose. Director John Leonetti recycles much of his ideas and scenes from his previous “Annabelle” and virtually every other religious/exorcism/haunted house movie you can think of to humdrum effect. This is one “lullaby” which is sure to put you to sleep. Continue reading →
April 1, 2023 “Murder Mystery 2” (** out of four) was a fizzled sequel to the very funny 2019 original about the two married detectives (Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) who find themselves swept back up in international intrigue when their friend (Ahdeel Akhtar) is kidnapped at his own wedding in France and a ruthless thug (Mark Strong) threatens the destruction of all of them. Lots of action and a spectacular climax aboard the Eiffel Tower but hardly any laughs this time around; the good chemistry between Sandler and Aniston can only carry this so far. Sandler’s first Netflix sequel and this marks his and Aniston’s third film together. Continue reading →
April 1, 2023 “Tetris” (** out of four) was a glib biographical drama set in the late ’80’s in which fledgling businessman Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) joined forces with USSR game inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) in a historical international business venture to invent the title video game Tetris which became one of the highest-grossing games of all time. What starts out as a lighthearted and bouncy story of business and capitalism soon morphs into an “Argo”-like thriller of espionage and deceit but film just does not have the magnitude or scope to have the epic sweep that it needs. Director Jon S. Baird wants to make you believe that the Tetris game resulted in the eventual fall of the Soviet Union but it’s a bit of a stretch to put it mildly. Unlike the game itself, the bits and pieces and blocks of story in the film don’t fall together into a cohesive whole. Continue reading →
April 1, 2023 “The Unheard” (* out of four) was an unbearable horror thriller about a young woman (Lachlan Watson) who undergoes an experimental procedure to restore her shattered hearing but soon finds that she is having frightening hallucinations about her deceased mother and starts losing her mind. Film is so lifeless and dull that you wish she may have simply gotten ear implants instead…..and it goes on forever at over two hours. Keep this one on your “unseen” list and make sure it stays there. Continue reading →
April 1, 2023 “On A Wing And A Prayer” (** out of four) was an overall bland drama about a devoted husband (Dennis Quaid) and his wife (Heather Graham) on an airplane flight with their children; when the pilot suddenly dies mid-flight, he has to take control of the plane and save his family and lead everyone to safety. Earnestly done Christian-themed melodrama starts off well but starts to peter out ironically when they get in flight, just when the story should be peaking. Quaid is rock-solid and likeable as always but this never quite takes “wing” as it should. Continue reading →
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