April 12, 2020 “The Roads Not Taken” (** out of four) was a gloomy melodrama about 24 hours in the life of an elderly man (Javier Bardem) wrestling with older age and health problems and continues to consider alternate lives he could have had while his concerned daughter (Elle Fanning) considers her future and both of their well-being. Curiously unmoving story never really engages your emotions and never reveals much about its principal characters or their past. Both Laura Linney and Salma Hayek are wasted in throwaway roles. Bardem is solid as always but this itself is a road you may not want to take. Continue reading →
April 12, 2020 “Black Hearted Killer” (*1/2 out of four) was a laughably obvious thriller about a yuppie couple (Julie McNiven and Jon Abrahams) in mourning over the tragic loss of their daughter who donate her heart to a young woman (Kelley Jakle) who reaches out to them and becomes fixated on them due to unresolved issues from the past and (yawn) seeks revenge. Yet another rip-off of “Fatal Attraction” that is fatally low on any surprises or scares and is mean-spirited and stupid in equal measure. Oliver Johnson’s sleek production design and Lars Lindstrom’s glamorous cinematography are film’s only virtues. Continue reading →
April 12, 2020 “Sea Fever” (** out of four) was a not-bad sci/fi melodrama about an Irish boat crew (Dougray Scott, Connie Nielsen, Hermione Corfield, and others) who become stranded at sea and soon find themselves under siege by a parasite in their water supply which gradually kills off their crew one-by-one. Reasonably well executed and filmed but horror buffs will note that this is perhaps an all-too-obvious clone of “Alien”, “Event Horizon”, “Virus”, and many others. Has its moments but never fully takes off and becomes satisfying. Continue reading →
April 12, 2020 “We Summon The Darkness” (** out of four) was a mildly amusing horror thriller set in the ’80’s in which three female best friends (Alexandra Daddario, Maddie Hasson, and Allison McAtee) are en route to a heavy metal show in which they meet three aspiring musicians and go back to one of their homes which soon takes a deadly turn as the bodies pile up and both sides have to outsmart (and outkill) one another. Film features enough flashes of style and violence to keep you entertained for a while but not enough for feature length and it soon runs on empty. Johnny Knoxville shows up and has a key role at the very end but he needs to start summoning himself some better roles at this point in his career. Continue reading →
April 8, 2020 “Murder RX” (*1/2 out of four) was a slapdash melodrama about a determined single mom (Ana Alexander) who moves to a small-town with her rebellious teenage daughter (Taylor Rouviere) trying to make a fresh start but don’t realize how overrun this town is with drugs, despair, and deep secrets. Film attempts to fuse a small-town drama with a meaningful statement about the current opioid epidemic and with a mother-daughter reconciliation story but its ambitions far exceed its ability. In dire need of some conviction and emotional power. For a far richer and more complex movie about the current drug epidemic, watch 2000’s “Traffic” instead. Continue reading →
April 8, 2020 “Coffee And Kareem” (*1/2 out of four) was a crude and contrived Netflix comedy about a bumbling cop (Ed Helms) dating a woman (Taraji Henson) and agrees to pick up her son (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) from school but through circumstances too painful to describe- wind up on the run from drug dealers and corupt cops. Some sharp and funny dialogue at the beginning is eventually completely drowned out by Gardenhigh’s obnoxious and stupid character and dumb plot developments. A particularly egregious waste of Henson who spends most of the movie unconscious. Didn’t anybody here learn their lesson from “Cop And A Half”? Continue reading →
April 8, 2020 “Shooting Heroin” (** out of four) was a mawkish anti-drug melodrama about a small-town Pennsylvania tough (Alan Powell) who is filled with rage and despair after the drug overdose of his sister and bands together with a local mother (Sherilyn Fenn) and others to declare war on the local drug dealers and try to take back their town and flush drugs out of their community. Earnest and well-intentioned movie becomes increasingly overblown and unbelievable. Good performances help a great deal but can’t keep film from being preachy and forced. John Honore’s crisp cinematography is a definite standout. Continue reading →
April 7, 2020 “Dead By Dawn” (*1/2 out of four) was a pretty dismal melodrama about a suicidal man (Kelcey Watson) in a remote cabin in the woods who gets a chance for personal and emotional redemption when he has to protect a runaway girl (Drew Lindsey Mitchell) from three attackers and tries to turn the tables on them. Promising opening soon leads nowhere, as film soon becomes sloppy and stupid. Cast of decent actors are let down by weak material and some terrible dialogue. Film doesn’t end so much as stop and final scene has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Watch “Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn” instead. Continue reading →
April 7, 2020 “Skullz” (**1/2 out of four) was an engagingly done sci/fi children’s comedy about a group of kids (Tim Farraday, Logan Blandford, Reid Hillwood, and others) on a school trip at the local museum when one of them starts having a strange connection to a skull artifact which enacts a curse allowing all hell to break loose. Director Deanne Dewey tells this story with a fast pace and a nicely twisted sense of screwball humor but cannot sustain its spell entirely to the end. Still, though an overall nice try and an entertaining family watch. For anyone who was wondering this has no relation to the horror movie “The Skulls” from the early 2000’s. Continue reading →
April 6, 2020 “Final Kill” (*1/2 out of four) was a numbskull action melodrama about an aging protection specialist (Ed Morrone) who is ordered by his boss (Billy Zane) to go on one final job before retirement protecting a couple who stole millions from a ruthless crime family but naturally the job is much more complicated than he imagined. Pretty routine and basic story is full of cliches and is severely handicapped by Morrone’s unlikeable and unpleasant character. Danny Trejo picks up a couple of bucks in a token role as (what else?) a hired killer and Dr. Drew Pinsky has an amusing cameo in the opening scene. Continue reading →
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