June 14, 2023 “Wicked Game” (* out of four) was a wicked awful horror thriller about two paranormal investigators (Saint Heart and Crajiece Danielle) who are filming their own podcast when they are terrorized by “demonic forces” after attempting to make paranormal contact with the victims of a brutal serial killer. Allegedly inspired by the classic Chris Isaak song of the same name but other Isaak titles “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing”, “Nothin’ To Say” , and (especially) “Goin Nowhere” are more apt descriptions of this garish misfire. Brutal, in all senses of the term. Continue reading →
June 13, 2023 “Clock” (*1/2 out of four) was a dour suspense melodrama about a woman (Dianna Agron) who is about to turn 39 and desperately tries to fix her broken biological clock and goes to a fertility doctor (Melora Hardin) but finds a host of violent hallucinations and psychological problems as a result. Moody cinematography from Martian Vian is one of film’s only merits as it is otherwise listless and glum. Writer/director Alexis Jacknow adapted this from her own 2020 short film of the same name; viewers will likely be all-too-tempted at looking at their own clock and counting down the minutes till this trifle is over. Continue reading →
June 13, 2023 “The Raker House” (* out of four) was a nearly unendurable psychodrama about a disoriented man (Alex Javo) with severe memory loss who begins to suspect that his mortician wife (Whitney Lavaux) may be behind it and he has to question his sense of trust and sanity in his life. Writer/director John Covert co-stars himself as a clown but his own movie takes the form of an unwatchable freak show. More of a film experiment than anything else but result is fragmented and dull. “House Of Pain” would have been a more apt title for this timewaster. Continue reading →
June 12, 2023 “Darkeplica” (*1/2 out of four) was a stiff horror psychodrama about a woman (Melisa Sandlin) who encounters all kinds of PTSD and mental health struggles upon the disappearance of her children leading her husband (Devin Laster) to think she has lost her mind and her to question her own sanity and state of reality. Yet another horror film with too much mumbo and too much jumbo and hardly any scares. Also yet another rehash of “The Shining” which told similar story much more stylishly and scarily over 40 years ago. Continue reading →
June 11, 2023 “Kandahar” (*1/2 out of four) was an insipid action melodrama about a C.I.A. operative (Gerard Butler) and his translator (Navid Negahban) who find themselves on the run after their cover is blown and they uncover a sinister conspiracy in Afghanistan involving both the Afghan and U.S. governments. Attempt to inject topicality into a standard Butler action thriller is an almost complete bore; by the time you sort out the muddle, film is too far gone for it to matter and final third (when film finally picks up) looks like outtakes from “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Even Butler just seems to be going through the motions here. This was the second American film to be filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading →
June 11, 2023 “Spider Man: Across The Spider-Verse” (*** out of four) was a visually dazzling sequel to the 2018 original showing the hero Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) who catapults across the multiverse and encounters Spider Woman (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) and Spider Man (voice of Jake Johnson) and has to unite with them as a team to overcome the deadly threat of The Spot (voice of Jason Schwartzman). Full of psychedelic visuals and color designs that are eye-popping and spectacular at times and easily envelop and sweep you along and help you overlook story and script weaknesses. A bit long at nearly two-and-a-half hours but fun for kids and “Spider Man” fans. Continue reading →
June 11, 2023 “You’ll Never Leave Me” (*1/2 out of four) was a vaporously generic suspense thriller about a woman (Christie Leverette) who survives a severe car accident that leaves with overwhelming grief and anxiety and soon meets a new Mr. Charming (Cameron Jebo) and is swept off her feet until she realizes there may be more to him underneath his smooth veneer. Plastic and predictable thriller seems like it was synthetically spit out of a machine. Jebo’s character is bizarrely named Jimmy Conway (same as Robert De Niro’s character in “Good Fellas”) but to put it mildly this trifle will “never” be in the same leagues as that masterwork. Continue reading →
June 10, 2023 “Stab! Kill! Die!” (* out of four) was a rockbottom horror clinker about a woman (Laura Leone Hancock) who soon finds that she’s being manipulated and overtaken by a violent alien parasite and then (as if this wasn’t bad enough) encounters a group of cannabalistic cheerleaders (Danielle Korda, Janessa O’Hearn, and others) who are stalking and killing their way through the woods. Yet another cheezoid horror thriller that looks like it was filmed and edited on someone’s cell phone. Laughably dumb dialogue is matched by awful acting which turns this into an unintentional laugh riot but please don’t misconstrue that as a recommendation. Continue reading →
June 10, 2023 “The Warrant: Breaker’s Law” (*1/2 out of four) was a lumbering follow-up to the 2020 Western showing Marshal John Breaker (Neal McDonough) and his deputy Bugle Bearclaw (Gregory Cruz) who have to travel cross-country to deliver a dangerous criminal (Dermot Mulroney) but plans go astray when he escapes in a small mining town and they have to track him down and put a stop to his reign of violence once and for all. By-the-numbers Western with usual vistas, gun standoffs, and gruff empty threats; the usually dependable McDonough is one-note and blank here. For die-hard fans of the genre only. Continue reading →
June 10, 2023 “97 Minutes” (*1/2 out of four) was an unwieldy action potboiler about a 747 plane that becomes overtaken by terrorists but an undercover interpol agent (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) tries to thwart their efforts and save the passengers while a crew officer on the ground (Alec Baldwin) tries to navigate the whole situation and bring them home. Cleverly titled film plays out in real time but all ingenuity ends there; film has nothing that “Air Force One” or “Nonstop” or even “Executive Decision” didn’t do better years ago. Both Rhys-Meyers and Baldwin do what they can with murky roles but this still isn’t worth your “minutes” of time. Continue reading →
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