August 25, 2023 “Dark Windows” (**1/2 out of four) was a sporadically effective horror psychodrama about four teenagers (Anna Bullard, Rory Alexander, Annie Hamilton, and Grace Binford Sheene) who are all involved in a devastating car crash; when one dies, the surviving members all go on a weekend getaway where they are besieged and stalked by someone who may or may not be one of the deceased girl’s family members who blames them for the accident. Good performances and some chilling and dark irony regarding PSTD and survivor’s guilt elevates this a cut above most of its genre but is eventually dwarfed by film’s routine framework and story. Not all that different actually from “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Continue reading →
August 25, 2023 “Haunting Of The Queen Mary” (** out of four) a jumbled horror thriller set on Halloween night in 1938 in which two families (Alice Eve, Tim Downie, Joel Fry, and others) are aboard a doomed ocean liner and soon realize that their fates have become intertwined and they have to struggle to make it off the ship alive when a sinister force is out to kill all of them. Too long and features too many loose plot threads and characters that make film difficult to follow; some creepy images and scenes to be sure but most are derived from “Event Horizon” which in turn was obviously derived from “The Shining.” Continue reading →
August 24, 2023 “Blue Beetle” (**1/2 out of four) was a likeably done adaptation of the DC comic-book series about an alien organism that chooses a young man (Xolo Mariduena) to be its symbiotic host and bestows him with a suit of armor that enables him with extraordinary sensibility and superpowers and turns him into the title hero the Blue Beetle who battles with various villainous forces (Susan Sarandon and Raoul Max Trujillo) who want to use his powers for their own good. Fast-paced and engaging and gives fans their money’s worth with action scenes and visual effects but it becomes somewhat mechanical after a while and starts to seem interchangeable with various other DC/Marvel adaptations. Film marks the 14th in the DC adaptation universe. Continue reading →
August 24, 2023 “Mommy’s Stolen Memories” (** out of four) was a glossy but empty thriller melodrama about a successful businesswoman (Tammin Sursok) whose life goes sideways when her young son (Easten Dacosta) is drawn to a mysterious young woman (Maia Mae Fields) who causes him to unravel. Slickly done but overly familiar and derivative story is too predictable to carry much in the way of surprise or shock value. Title is somewhat ironic since film itself seems “stolen” from a half-dozen other better films of its genre. Continue reading →
August 22, 2023 “Trapped In The Cabin” (*1/2 out of four) was a numbingly monotonous and predictable thriller about a successful romance novelist (Tiffany Smith) who goes to a remote cabin in the wilderness to start writing her new novel where she is suddenly terrorized and held by a deranged lunatic (David James Lewis) and has to utilize her survival skills to escape. Passable beginning soon fizzles out once she is held hostage and it turns static and stupid. Smith is sincere in the lead role but viewers will likely feel “trapped” themselves by the end of this clunker. Continue reading →
August 22, 2023 “Catfish Murder” (** out of four) was a tame suspense melodrama about a single mom (Gina Holden) whose life is turned upside down when her young son (Quinten James) is arrested and accused of murdering a girl (Zoe Christie) that he met online and she is unsure of whether to immediately support him or to uncover whether or not he actually did it. Beautifully shot by Robert Rindeau and has an intriguing initial framework but descends more into the routine by the time of its predictable conclusion. Inauspicious English directorial debut of noted Kurdish director Soran Mardookhi. Continue reading →
August 21, 2023 “Bad Things” (** out of four) was a muffled horror psychodrama about a group of young women (Gayle Rankin, Hari Nef, Annabeth Dexter-Jones, and others) who go to a hotel for a weekend getaway and find that strange occurrences are happening. Could there be a serial slasher on the loose or is it actually one of them who is the killer? Marginally better than most of its genre thanks to some stylish touches from writer/director Stewart Thorndike but still pretty routine and takes too long to get going. Not quite a “bad” movie but mediocre; watch “Very Bad Things” again instead. Continue reading →
August 21, 2023 “The Engineer” (** out of four) was a pretty mild action espionage thriller based on true events about a former C.I.A. agent (Emile Hirsch) who is called back into action for one of the biggest manhunts in history to find criminal mastermind Yahya Ayyash (Adam Haloon) who oversaw multiple suicide bombings and mass destruction in Israel in the mid-90’s. Initially strong and engrossing with some sharp dialogue and topical plot details but film gradually sputters and loses its momentum and focus more as it goes along. Robert Davi has a small but key role as an Israeli businessman; him and Hirsch also starred in this week’s “Inside Man” together. Continue reading →
August 20, 2023 “Abducted By My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story” (** out of four) was an ersatz story about the title girl (Summer H. Howell) who was groomed and then kidnapped by her high-school teacher (Michael Fishman) who loved her as his own. Film is based on true events but has been sanitized and synthesized into a by-the-numbers mystery potboiler which rings false. Decent acting tries to give this some conviction but film doesn’t stand out from dozens of other stories about kidnapping and runaways. Continue reading →
August 20, 2023 “Inside Man” (** out of four) was an uninvolving true-crime potboiler about a disgraced NYPD detective (Emile Hirsch) who seeks personal and professional redemption by going undercover to expose a violent crime syndicate affiliated with the mob (Robert Davi, George V. Andreakos, and others). Overly familiar and derivative story of police corruption, mob ties, and fake NYC accents. Hirsh is atypically unconvincing in the lead as a tough NYC cop. Bo Dietl who was a real life undercover cop here plays an NYPD captain. Incidentally, this has no relation to the far superior Denzel Washington/Spike Lee 2006 film of the same name. Continue reading →
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