May 20, 2023 “Maid For Revenge” (** out of four) was a competent but unexceptional suspense thriller about a young maid (Kathryn Kohut) who wakes up in a pool of blood and no memories of what happened and has to struggle to regain her memory and piece together what really happened so she can save her life. Director Alexandre Carriere gives this a glossy sheen and surface and Kohut is solid in the lead but Hitchcock and “Memento” this is not. Clever title but this overall is “made” for those who will watch any thriller that pops up on television. Continue reading →
May 18, 2023 “Adventures In Game Chasing” (*1/2 out of four) was a dum-dum comedy about two lifelong friends named Billy and Jay (Billy Chaser and Jay Hartfield) who go on an adventure to track down their original NES system to play it one more time because it’s an invaluable element of life to them. Enthusiastically performed by the two leads but “Half Baked” and Cheech & Chong did this thing better and funnier decades ago. Naming the two actors Billy and Jay was probably the most clever thing in the one-note script. Watch “Adventures In Babysitting” again instead; based on the “Game Chasers” series but this is for die-hard fans only. Continue reading →
May 18, 2023 “Stay Out Of The Basement” (* out of four) was a dreadfully dull horror melodrama about a woman (Ariella Mossey) who takes a job babysitting for a lonely young girl (Emma Pearson) but soon finds that there are a lot of sinister and subversive elements going on in her house and that she has to choose between her feelings of closeness to the girl and her own safety. Plodding and predictable thriller with no voltage of surprise or scare value. Horror fans would best “stay” as far away from this timewaster as possible. Perhaps it’s best the haunted-house genre was put to rest for a while. Continue reading →
May 17, 2023 “The Rise Of The Beast” (*1/2 out of four) was a lackluster horror thriller about a group of young animal activists (Peter Jeffries, Sian Altman, Erina Mashate, and others) who break into a government facility as means to expose them but soon find themselves face-to-face with terror when an unhinged beast breaks free and slaughters them all one by one. Drably done and by-the-numbers thriller without much spark or scares; even the creature looks pretty bored when he’s doing his killing and dismembering but at least he’s more lively and engaging than the human characters. Continue reading →
May 17, 2023 “Crossfire” (** out of four) was a limp action melodrama about a retired federal agent (Louis Mandylor) whose past catches up with him when a violent gang he put away kill his wife and then attempt to hunt down his daughter (Samm Wiechec) and they realize the only way to stay alive is to strike back and hunt them. Starts off promisingly but then fizzles out as story gets hokey and banal as it veers off into a father-daughter reconciliation story. One-time “Heat” co-star Kevin Gage shows up as a thug but this is sadly unlikely to give his career the rejuvenation and firepower it needs. Continue reading →
May 17, 2023 “Marry Fu— Kill” (*1/2 out of four) was a pretty lame horror thriller that does nothing but kill your time about five friends (Jedidiah Goodacre, Maxine Denis, Robbie G.K., and others) who play the title game after their friends funeral and find themselves luridly unraveling. By the end of this clunker, you may wish they had played Sorry or Monopoly instead. With that title, you know not to expect a masterwork but film hardly provides any scares or cheap thrills. Continue reading →
May 17, 2023 “The Day After October” (** out of four) was a whimsical horror comedy about two doofus stoners (Danny Schluck and Brandon Delaney) who discover a corpse in their bathtub and have to unravel the circumstances behind it and what happened. Too silly and disposable to have much impact but film has a cheeky sense of humor and is directed with some amusing flair by Chad Ostrum. Not exactly memorable but far better than most of its kind. Continue reading →
May 17, 2023 “The Irish Mob” (**1/2 out of four) a relatively well-done underworld potboiler about a violent Irish crime boss (Rob McCarthy) whose turf is invaded and threatened by ruthless police detectives (Pauline O’Driscoll and Liam Griffin) who are determined to bring him down. Imagine “The Departed” remade by the Guy Ritchie of “Lock, Stock, And 2 Smoking Barrels” and you have a good idea of what to expect here. Film is as blunt as its title and stuffed with blood and blarney but having said that is fast-paced and somewhat fun, especially for fans of the genre. Continue reading →
May 15, 2023 “The Organ Trail” (** out of four) was a colorless Western melodrama set in 1870’s Montana in which a young woman (Zoe Da Grand Maison) fights for her retrieval of a precious family horse and has to encounter a group of bloodthirsty bandits (Mather Zickel, Lukas Jann, and others) in order for them both to stay alive. Title is an allusion to the blockbuster computer game “The Oregon Trail” but this inert film doesn’t have that game’s excitement. Good muzak score by Craig Brethren and solid production values still can’t make this a “trail” worth traveling down. Continue reading →
May 14, 2023 “Transmutators” (*1/2 out of four) was a slapdash action thriller set in another futuristic wasteland in which a rebel group of survivors (Kenneth Ang, Jairus Aquino, Cathy Bautista, and others) who have to embrace mega-fighting machines in order to combat intergalactic invaders threatening humanity and mankind as we know it. Cheesy “Transformers” wannabe with weak script and even weaker acting. Final third finally delivers some good action scenes and decent visual effects but it’s still pretty formulaic and forgettable. Continue reading →
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