September 23, 2021 “Night Of The Animated Dead” (*** out of four) was a striking animated remake of George Romero’s 1968 zombie classic about a woman (voice of Katharine Isabelle) who is besieged by zombies and takes refuge in a remote farmhouse with other survivors (voices of Josh Duhamel, Dule Hill, and others) as they try to unearth what’s going on and how to stay alive. On the one hand, this is pretty much a scene-for-scene animated remake of the original which makes you wonder what’s the point but on the other it’s fast-paced and well-animated and the underlying storyline and characters are still a grabber. An interesting companion piece to the original and also its superior and underrated 1990 remake. Continue reading →
September 20, 2021 “Final Frequency” (**1/2 out of four) was a brisk suspense melodrama about a phD student (Kirby Bliss Blanton) who realizes it’s apocalypse now after noticing some unusual tremors in Los Angeles and starts snooping around and realizes it’s tied to rogue scientists (Richard Burgi, Lou Ferrigno, Jr., and others) who want to weaponize Tesla’s secrets and are stil searching for his lost notebook but not if she can find it first and save the world. Story is too conventional and too simple-minded to really score but it never stops moving and packs in enough action and suspense to make it a surprising sleeper. Blaton’s strong performance in the lead is a definite plus. Continue reading →
September 20, 2021 “The Card Counter” (** out of four) was an oddly bland melodrama about a former military investigator (Oscar Isaacs) who is released from prison and starts a new career for himself as a gambler and card counter and soon sees where this new life takes him as he falls in love with a fellow high-roller (Tiffany Haddish). Typically moody outing from writer/director Paul Schrader (“Taxi Driver”) but never catches fire and is weakened by lack of substantial storyline. Even the usually strong Isaacs seems muted; Haddish is first-rate, though, in a real change-of-pace role and her scenes with Isaacs are the only time the film hits the jackpot. Similar story was told in Robert Redford/Sydney Pollack’s 1990 “Havana.” Continue reading →
September 20, 2021 “Dark Web: Descent Into Hell” (0 stars out of four) was a worthless horror suspense thriller set online in the mysterious and seamy world of the dark web in which one determined young blogger (Lucas Sarquiz) attempts to enter the Eighth Level of the dark web which is its most disturbing and dangerous but he’s not prepared for how this will mentally and psychologically disturb and alter him. Even by the low standards of these online computer horror thrillers, this one plumbs new depths. Get ready for long patches of monologues straight to the camera and actually some pseudo-religious psychobabble when they run out of other things to do! Continue reading →
September 17, 2021 “Another Girl” (** out of four) was an overly bland teenage melodrama about a disaffected high-school student (Samantha Hanratty) battling depression and anxiety and becomes increasingly obsessed with the female heroine of a novel she’s reading and soon begins to believe this character is real which starts to blur the lines between allusion and reality for her. Some nice directorial touches from director Allison Burnett fail to sustain this story which is just too plodding and odd to come together. Hanratty’s sincere performance is a definite plus but you’d best pick “another” movie. Continue reading →
September 16, 2021 “Royal Jelly” (** out of four) was a genuinely bizarre horror melodrama about a high school outcast (Elizabeth McCoy) who is mysteriously taken under the wing of a mentor (Sherry Latanzi) and finds she is being groomed for the being queen of the local bee-hive which the mentor controls for revenge purposes. Well-acted and certainly has some interesting individual stylistic touches of originality but is too off-putting and weird by the end. Incidentally, this is not inspired by the Ronald Dahl story of the same name despite some similarities also in its story. Continue reading →
September 16, 2021 “Bad Candy” (* out of four) was a stale horror trifle set on Halloween Eve in which two clueless radio DJ’s (Zach Galligan and Corey Taylor) spin a horror anthology on-air which terrifies local residents and leads to most of them meeting their demise. Yet another horror anthology movies made with little skill or scares and makes you appreciate even more how great “Tales From The Darkside” and “Creepshow” were all those decades ago. Galligan is wasted and seems to be wondering what is going on with “Gremlins 3”. Continue reading →
September 14, 2021 “Last Call In The Dog House” (*1/2 out of four) was a meandering NYC melodrama set at a legendary bar called The Dog House in which various patrons (Yance Butler, Judy Geeson, Adam Jacobs, David Chokachi, and others) come in with numerous problems but feel better and feel absolved of their difficulties in life. Practically plotless film feels like superficial and lightweight Woody Allen. This may have worked better as a NYC Broadway play than as a feature film. Viewers would best leave this one in the dog-house and re-watch “Manhattan” or “Annie Hall” instead. Continue reading →
September 13, 2021 “Prisoners Of The Ghostland” (*1/2 out of four) was an incoherent jumble about a legendary criminal (Nicolas Cage- even more wooden and blank than usual) who must break an ancient curse to rescue an abducted girl (Sofia Boutella) from the clutches of a ruthless psycho (Nick Cassavettes) and a sinister governor (Bill Moseley chewing and throwing up the scenery). Cage’s latest paycheck in the form of a disposable action picture is hard to follow and even harder to care about; Sohei Tanakawa’s deliberately garish and candy-colored cinematography provides only entertainment throughout. Director Sion Sono’s first English-language film but something clearly got lost in translation. Continue reading →
September 13, 2021 “Copshop” (*1/2 out of four) was a ludicrous thriller about a slimy con artist (Frank Grillo) who purposely gets himself arrested to hide out from a lethal assassin (Gerard Butler) but plans go awry when that assassin gets himself arrested also and winds up in the same jail cell and (!) another even more nutty assassin (Toby Huss) shows up to kill all of them while the arresting rookie cop (Alexis Louder) tries to make sense of all this and stay alive. Yet another over-the-top and stupid thriller from writer/director Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces”, “Narc”) with his usual nonstop violence and ugliness; this one gets sillier with each new plot twist. Louder’s strong performance is one of film’s few virtues. Another imitation of “Assault On Precinct 13” that’s an assault on one’s intelligence instead. Continue reading →
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