June 7, 2020 “Rapture In Blue” (* out of four) was a lackluster bore about a young man (Bryce Lederer) in a conflicted relationship with his girlfriend (Sarah Greenfield) who begins to struggle with both his sexuality and his sanity when a new boy (Tanner Garmon) moves into his new home. Genuinely bizarre movie goes in all different directions, none of which unfortunately are coherent or interesting. Means to be bold and shocking but just comes off as being crude and garish. Continue reading →
June 7, 2020 “Momo: The Missouri Monster” (* out of four) was an abysmal horror movie done in the form of a pseudo-documentary focusing on the title creature who was on the prowl in Louisiana, Missouri in the summer of 1972 and gave many terrified citizens (Cliff Barackman, Lyle Blackburn, and others) the jitters. Unfortunately, viewers themselves won’t get any from this amateurish and inept production which has no scares or thrills. Pretty brutal, even at only an hour-and-22 minutes. Continue reading →
June 6, 2020 “Ouija Blood Ritual” (** out of four) was a lukewarm horror thriller about the recovered film-footage of three filmmakers shooting a web series about several friends (Kayla Elizabeth, Dustin Mills, Rob Grant, and others) who attempt to debunk several famous urban legends summoned by the ouija board but soon find that more evil than they imagined has been released and they are all in imminent danger. Can we please by now put an end to horror movies that think it’s scary or intellectual to focus on a ouija board? And while we’re at it- can we please also put an end to the found-footage horror genre? Not bad by the very low standards of these types of movies but not memorable either. Continue reading →
June 6, 2020 “The Last Days Of American Crime” (*1/2 out of four) was a criminally overlong and incoherent jumble of a futuristic thriller set in a futuristic Metropolis in which the U.S. government is about to send a signal making it impossible for anyone to commit unlawful acts; before this takes hold, a crime czar (Michael Pitt) recruits a master bank robber (Edgar Ramirez) to rob a bank but a lone rogue cop (Sharlto Copley) tries to intervene and at the same time save civilization. Some interesting ideas about criminal justice and governmental control are completely overshadowed by film’s overlength, overplotting, and overall unpleasantness. Flashily directed by Olivier Megaton as usual but it’s all for nothing. Continue reading →
June 5, 2020 “No Apology” (*1/2 out of four) was a tiresome melodrama about a group of young women (Lydia Adair, Fawn Martin, Madison Nyenhuis, and others) who struggle to deal with the death of a friend and causes their various secrets and thus their relationships to start to unravel. Since none of the characters are especially likeable or intriguing, it’s hard to care about their relationships or any of their secrets. “No Story” might have been a more apt title for this misfire. Continue reading →
June 4, 2020 “My Husband’s Deadly Past” (**1/2 out of four) was an above-average suspense thriller about a woman (Sarah Butler) who is haunted by visions of murder which lead to her becoming arrested and imprisoned; subsequently, she realizes that her manipulative psychiatrist husband (Peter Benson) hypnotized her to hide his own role in the murder and that their daughter (Maddy Hillis) might also be in danger. Film cannot escape standard genre cliches and logic gaps but is slickly done with efficient direction from Troy Scott and a sharper-than-expected script by Paul A Birkett. Yet another contemporary attempt at a Hitchcokian story but succeeds more than most. Continue reading →
June 4, 2020 “Equal Standard” (*** out of four) was a searing police melodrama about the intersection of various cops and criminals in NYC and how one seasoned African-American detective (Marc John Jefferies) survives a shooting and tries to maintain his own moral compass as he finds himself at a crossroads in his life involving his career and family. Timely subject matter involving police brutality and corruption is told from numerous points-of-view and gets points for not being a simple pro-or-anti message movie and also (more importantly) being completely believable. Well-acted and well-captured on authentic NYC locations. Only detriment: supporting cast including Ice-T, Treach, and Fredro Starr are underutilized. Continue reading →
June 4, 2020 “They Reach” (** out of four) was a blah horror story set in 1979 in which a young girl (Mary Madaline Roe) stumbles upon a possessed tape player that unleashes a demonic entity that threatens to take her family and her surrounding small town straight to Hell. Tepid mixture of small-town drama, coming-of-age story, and supernatural horror elements. Competently directed and made but lacks the scares and electricity to make this really satisfying. All-too-obviously inspired by Stephen King’s “It” and “Stand By Me”. Continue reading →
June 3, 2020 “The Captive Nanny” (*1/2 out of four) was a pretty stupid horror melodrama which holds the audience captive for nearly two hours in which a young woman (Karynn Moore) is hired as the nanny for a wealthy couple (Michael Aaron Milligan and Austin Highsmith) who turn out to be seriously loony but she finds this out too little and too late in which she then has to survive and defeat them. Passable beginning soon goes haywire as plot goes in a multitude of different directions without making much sense. Fran Drescher could have written a far funnier and scarier nanny story than this. Continue reading →
June 2, 2020 “Danny’s Game” (*1/2 out of four) was an uninvolving melodrama about an ex-con (Joshua Ungaretti) released from prison who owes for his protection in prison and gets lured back into high-stakes gambling and poker games against the mobsters who protected him and other various mobsters who want him killed while his brother (Mike Bredon) and girlfriend (Ava Justin) are all caught in the middle. Bredon is good as his brother but Ungaretti’s unlikeable character and performance and overall plot unpleasantness makes this a losing hand. “The Sting” told almost the same story far more mesmerically about 50 years ago! Continue reading →
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