June 7, 2021 “Rock Sugar” (*1/2 out of four) was a limp melodrama about a timid 12-year old (Jacinta Klassen) who stands up to the neighborhood bully (Lulu Fitz) who has been tormenting her but this leads to a chain reaction and butterfly effect throughout her family and the neighborhood which she never imagined. Lifeless attempt at making a serious statement about the harming effects of bullying. Decent performances aren’t enough to counter the dry and sour taste the film leaves behind. Continue reading →
June 7, 2021 “Rebirth” (** out of four) was a congenitally derivative horror show about two brothers (Roger Conners and Bradley Michael Arner) who visit their family’s gravesite which turns into a night of terror when they are confronted by the return of the living dead and they have to take refuge in a farmhouse and fight back (does this sound at all familiar?). Umpteenth imitation of “Night Of The Living Dead” and “The Walking Dead” and pretty much anything else with “Dead” in its title. Director Conners (who also starred) even dares to have one of the characters say “they’re coming to get you Barbara” at the beginning! Moves fast enough to make it watchable but it’s about time that horror filmmakers themselves had a “rebirth” of different ideas and new plots. Continue reading →
June 7, 2021 “Final Stop” (*1/2 out of four) was an amateurish psychodrama about an Uber driver (Vince Rodriguez) whose years of emotional problems and PTSD come to the surface when he meets a passenger (Kelly McCart) who is the love of his life and her psychotic and abusive boyfriend (Kamy D. Bruder) and he has to transport both and make life-altering decisions before their stop. Promising story for an intense and exciting melodrama is bungled by low-rent production and weak acting. Might have worked better as a three-character play but at feature-length you’ll likely hit the “stop” button after about 30 minutes. Continue reading →
June 6, 2021 “Blind Ghost” (*1/2 out of four) was an unsightly melodrama thriller about a beautiful young woman (Alix Villaret) who was left blind by a tragic accident; she is then preyed on by attackers who want to seek out her $500 million inheritance and she has to use her senses to fight back to stay alive. Hard to believe that a story like this could be so nonsensical and dull but seeing is believing. Colorful cinematography from Marcello Altieri can’t save film from being a blinding bore. Continue reading →
June 6, 2021 “American Badger” (**1/2 out of four) was a reasonably well-done pulp action thriller about a cold-blooded hitman (Kirk Caouette who also wrote and directed) who is assigned to befriend a call girl (Andrea Stefancikova) who he starts to fall for but he finds his own sense of purpose and professionalism at a crossroads when he is then assigned to kill her and has to turn on his criminal underworld family in order to keep her alive. Better-than-average for this type of thing with both fierce action scenes and some strong dialogue and character development; not a total success (story wanders at various points) but Caouette does overall good work on both sides of the camera. Continue reading →
June 6, 2021 “The Carnivores” (*1/2 out of four) was a bizarre and boring melodrama about a young couple (Lindsay Burdge and Tallie Medel) whose dog is dying and this leads to a disturbing series of suspicions, self-doubts, and consumption of ground beef within the family (hence the title). As strange as it sounds but also disjointed and dull. By the end you’ll likely wonder what the hell the point was. Attempts to be sexual and luridly incisive but film sorely lacks any dramatic meat or filling. Continue reading →
June 6, 2021 “Death In Texas” (**1/2 out of four) was an occasionally stirring melodrama about an ex-con (Ronnie Gene Blevins) just released from prison who returns home to Texas to find his mother (Lara Flynn Boyle) dying of liver failure. Since she is low on the transplant list and they are low on resources, he eventually returns to crime on the other side of the border while an elderly mob enforcer (Bruce Dern), a determined cop (John Ashton), and a mysterious figure (Stephen Lang) from the past all emerge. Leisurely story never quite soars but holds you in its grip thanks to a strong cast (with its first notable roles in years for both Ashton and Boyle) and good location photography from Jonathan Hall. Continue reading →
June 6, 2021 “The Box” (*1/2 out of four) was a curiously glum and flat psychodrama about a struggling actor (Andrew Ableson) who is haunted by a recurring dream that he is trapped in a house with impenetrable mirrors which causes him to psychologically and personally unravel. Writer/director Sasha Sibley works in a style that harks back to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Paul Anderson’s “Event Horizon” but it all adds up to……..nothing, since the central story and character are so uninvolving. By the way- this is not a remake of the 2009 James Marsden/Cameron Diaz thriller of the same name. Continue reading →
June 5, 2021 “Flashback” (** out of four) was an ambitious but limited melodrama about a high-school loner (Dylan O’Brien) who has a chance encounter with a man (Emory Cohen) forgotten from his youth and this leads him to literally and metaphysically journey into his past but will this alter his present and future? Writer/director Christopher Macbride utilizes an eerie and elegiac style that is at times hypnotic but also at other times (most of the time) aloof and flat. Film has story fragments from “Donnie Darko” and “Memento” but fails to congeal as a satisfying whole. Haunting music score by Anthony Scott Burns Pilotpriest. Continue reading →
June 5, 2021 “Triassic Hunt” (** out of four) was a flimsy action thriller about a group of mercenaries (Sienna Farall, William Jeon, and others) who are hired to stop and kill two genetically bred dinosaurs who are on the loose and have turned into man-eating killing machines while various sinister governmental operators (Michael Pare and Linnea Quigley) monitor things from afar. Yet another low-budget knockoff of “Jurassic Park”, no better nor no worse than others, but utterly routine and by-the-numbers. Special effects and dinosaur scenes aren’t bad considering film’s threadbare budget but story, characters, and script are all in need of extinction. Continue reading →
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