May 4, 2022 “Dual” (** out of four) was a joyless character melodrama about a terminally ill young woman (Karen Gillian) who opts for a cloning procedure to ease the pain in her family; when she makes a miraculous recovery, she attempts to have this clone decommissioned but they refuse which results in a court-mandated dual to the death to decide who really deserves to stay alive. Interesting story of cloning and death is halted by grim execution as film is cold-to-the-touch and thus doesn’t engage you emotionally. Even the final showdown is weirdly aloof. Writer/director Riley Stearns is trying for something akin to early David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick but it doesn’t quite translate with this material. Continue reading →
May 1, 2022 “Hustle Down” (*1/2 out of four) was a numbingly ugly underworld melodrama about the driver (Tom Sizemore) for the Baja drug cartel who finds himself on the run for his life from a merciless assassin (Kevin Gage) when he mistakenly steals a car and cash that was meant for his boss (Raymond J. Barry); along the way he crosses paths with a sultry dancer (Bai Ling) who has much more invested in all this than he realizes. Good cast is wasted on a story with more double-crosses and backstabbings than you can count but it all counts for little since you don’t care about any of the characters (or much else). Film marks the reunion between Sizemore and Gage but let’s just be kind and say this doesn’t quite measure up to the artistry or adrenaline of their first collaboration “Heat.” Continue reading →
April 29, 2022 “Corrective Measures” (*1/2 out of four) was a paint-by-numbers action thriller set in the world’s most dangerous maximum-security prison in which escalating tension between the sadistic warden (Michael Rooker at his hammy worst) and some of the various criminals (Bruce Willis, Daniel Cudmore, and others) and the prison guards (Kat Ruston, Matthew Kevin Anderson, and others) threatens to boil over. Virtually nothing you haven’t seen in 1,000 other (and better) prison movies but ridiculous special-effects showdown at the end seems to come out of left field and seems like it was borrowed from an “X-Men” movie! An adaptation of Grant Chastain’s graphic novel but this should have undergone its own “corrective measures” before the cameras started rolling. Continue reading →
April 28, 2022 “Black Crab” (**1/2 out of four) In a post-apocalyptic world, a tough-as-nails soldier (Noomi Rapace) is forced to save her daughter by leading 5 other soldiers on a covert mission transporting a mysterious package across a frozen dessert but naturally- things do not go as planned and they face double-crosses and death at every turn. A film that holds you with its good filmmaking and acting but never fully grabs you and is never as fiery or riveting as it should be. Icy cinematography from Jonas Alarik and Rapace’s usual rock-solid performance definitely command your attention but film still feels empty at the center. Continue reading →
April 28, 2022 “A Happening Of Monumental Proportions” (** out of four) was a tepid comedy about a various group of parents and school workers (Common, Allison Janney, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Whitford, and others) who become mired up in a plot involving sex, dead bodies, and a sabotaged coffee machine! Occasional laughs but story becomes overly silly and contrived after a while leaving its talented cast high-and-dry. Keanu Reeves has an amusing cameo near the end. This marks actress Judy Greer’s directorial debut. Continue reading →
April 27, 2022 “Children Of Sin” (* out of four) was a sinfully dull horror thriller about two mischievous siblings (Lewis Hines and Meredith Mohler) who are sent to a temporary boarding house whose owner (Jo-Ann Robinson) turns out to be (what else? a religious nut whose not quite as nice as she appears and they have to struggle to survive and escape. Result is like a wilted remake of “Flowers In The Attic” but even that movie was stale material back in 1987. Robinson does what she can with a ridiculous role. Writer/director Christopher Wesley Moore has a small but key role as one of Hines’ lovers at the house. Continue reading →
April 27, 2022 “The Northman” (*1/2 out of four) was a lumbering historical action adventure about a young boy whose father (Ethan Hawke) is brutally murdered by his uncle (Claes Bang) who kidnaps the boy’s mother (Nicole Kidman); two decades later, he has grown into a warrior Viking (Alexander Skarsgard) who sets outs on a mission to avenge his father and rescue his mother and kill his uncle. Skarsgard sure packed on some muscles for this film but all that protein may have dulled his persona, judging from his one-note performance here (he barely changes expressions the entire film). Heavy-going all the way and not even the final showdown is particularly gripping or satisfying. Fans of director Robert Eggers’ other work (I wasn’t) may like this better. Continue reading →
April 27, 2022 “Hostile Territory” (**1/2 out of four) was a spectacularly filmed but emotionally sparse Western set in post-Civil War America in which a Union soldier (Brian Presley) is presumed dead and his children are subsequently sent away on the orphan train but he comes back to attempt to intercept the train and reunite his family before it is too late. Beautiful cinematography from Mark David and solid production values make this worth watching for a little while but story and dramatic center are not all that involving, especially as film goes on for over two-and-a-half hours. Continue reading →
April 27, 2022 “Night’s End” (* out of four) was a miserable horror story about a virtual shut-in (Geno Walker) who moves into an apartment with (yawn) paranormal activity and he asks an online stranger (Lawrence Grimm) to perform an exorcism which has a series of foreboding consequences he never expected. Static movie is set entirely in one room and over computers; if that doesn’t sound like much to get excited about, you wouldn’t be wrong. Michael Shannon adds some welcome humor as an online friend but trust to me- you won’t want this to “end” fast enough. Continue reading →
April 27, 2022 “Burn” (*1/2 out of four) was an insipid underworld melodrama about a morally conflicted hitman (Patrick Lazzara) who discovers that his younger brother (Eric Stayberg) killed the wife (Dawn Barber) of a volatile mob boss and he has two days to get him out of town before a contract killer kills the both of them. Sleazy story feels like reheated Elmore Leonard but without his wit and conviction. Lazzara also wrote and directed and his lead performance is decent but Barber is pretty awful as the femme fatale. Continue reading →
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