August 27, 2021 “Tides” (**1/2 out of four) was a moderately compelling but muted melodrama set in the distant future in which Earth has become a giant wasteland and a shipwrecked female astronaut (Nora Arnezeder) struggles to fight for survival and must decide to save the planet or save herself as she tries to make sense of what has happened since she was gone. Yet another bleak futuristic story in which Earth has become desolate and debauched, dressed up with striking and moody cinematography from Markus Forderer and held together by Arnezeder’s strong lead performance, but story never builds much momentum and actually gets slower as it goes along. Originally titled “The Colony” until the filmmakers likely realized there was a 2013 film of the same name and with a similar story. Continue reading →
August 26, 2021 “No Loss, No Gain” (*** out of four) was an entrancing melodrama about a malicious, multi-million dollar bank that is robbed and a mysterious, modern-day Robin Hood (John Valley) gives the victims of this robbery a valuable opportunity to recoup their money while various bank administrators and law enforcement try to make sense of all this. Writer/director Christian Rousseau neatly weaves suspense into social commentary about capitalism and consumerism and holds your attention throughout. Offset by a sense of aloofness that is possibly intentional showing the film’s themes of corporate misanthropy and greed. Continue reading →
August 26, 2021 “Jurassic Shark 2: Aquapocalypse” (*1/2 out of four) was a lame and low-rent sequel that I don’t think too many were waiting by the Redbox machine for about the return of the megaladon shark from the original who terrorizes a local fishing village and a series of oil rig workers and town members (Jamie Morgan, Jeff Kirkendall, James Carolus, and others) who band together to try to stop it once and for all. Maybe it’s about time low-budget horror filmmakers stopped ripping off “Jaws” and also stopped putting the word “Jurassic” in their film titles in an attempt to elicit filmgoers. Pretty cut-rate and toothless, even by the low standards of these things. Continue reading →
August 26, 2021 “Buckley’s Chance” (** out of four) was a pleasant but minor children’s adventure about a mother (Victoria Hill) and son (Milan Burch) who relocate from NYC to Australia to start a new life; unhappy there, the boy runs away from home to the outback where he faces certain death but befriends a young dingo and they form an unlikely bond and relationship that saves both of them and brings him back home. Beautiful Australian scenery and a very cute dog do all that they can to enrich a very predictable storyline. Aimed squarely at young kids. Continue reading →
August 26, 2021 “The Forever Room” (** out of four) was an overly cerebral and unpleasant horror melodrama about a young woman (Samantha Valletta) who awakens chained in a basement and soon finds to her horror that her captor and tormentor is her own mother (Vickie Hicks) and she is soon beset by frightening hallucinations and ruminations that begin to blur the delirious line between reality and insanity. For anyone who’s longed to see a cross between “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Saw” with elements of “The Shining” sprinkled in, look no further; this isn’t bad and does have some good acting and provocative elements but it becomes numbing after a while. Co-star Hicks also wrote the script. Continue reading →
August 26, 2021 “It Came From Below” (** out of four) was a middling derivation of “The Descent”, “The Cave”, and too many others to mention about a group of friends (Becca Hirani, Megan Purvis, Tara MacGowran, and others) who go exploring in a subterranean cave and find themselves stalked and preyed upon by a creature not of this Earth who makes leaving the cave impossible. Far from the worst of this genre with some decent acting and occasional jolts but an overwhelming sense of deja-vu hangs over the entire proceedings. Feature-film directorial debut of noted short-film creator Dan Allen. Continue reading →
August 25, 2021 “Free Guy” (**1/2 out of four) was a reasonably diverting action comedy about a meek bank teller (Ryan Reynolds) who suddenly realizes that his life is a video game and that he has to save his friends or else they will be deleted by the game’s owner (Taika Waititi) and he has to embrace his role as an everyman superhero! Cleverly done amalgam of elements of “Ready Player One”, “The Matrix”, and “The Truman Show” except those movies were all better and this one starts to skid off into incoherency after a while. Still, it throws in everything but the kitchen sink to never stop moving and give fans their money’s worth. Alex Trebek actually pops up in his final film cameo ever. Continue reading →
August 24, 2021 “The Green Knight” (** out of four) was a lumbering medieval fantasy of the re-telling of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) showing his relationship with his lover Lady Essel (Alicia Vikander), his mother (Sarita Choudhury), his father (Joel Edgerton), and the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) and how the fates of all are intertwined in adventure. Director David Lowery tells story with a grand paintbrush in a throwback to the medieval adventures of Hollywood’s Golden Age but results are hollow and muted as film meanders too slowly and too long. After a while- you will likely long for some swashbuckling and some action. Re-watch “The Dark Knight” again instead. Continue reading →
August 24, 2021 “Bleed With Me” (** out of four) was a sterile horror thriller set in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness in which a hard-living young woman (Lee Marshall) becomes convinced that her concerned best friend (Lauren Beatty) is stealing her blood. Moodily shot by Rene Arseneau and well-acted by the two leads but film moves at a leaden pace and becomes arbitrary and overly bizarre after a while. Writer/director Amelia Moses deserves points for trying to make an artful horror thriller but this still feels in need of a transfusion of fresh blood. Continue reading →
August 23, 2021 “Midnight In The Switchgrass” (** out of four) was a lurid suspense thriller about a tough-as-nails undercover cop (Megan Fox) who teams up with an over-the-hill F.B.I. agent (who else but Bruce Willis) and a local Florida officer (Emile Hirsch) to stop a brutal serial killer (Lukas Haas) who has been abducting and killing young women but things get more hair-raising when she herself is kidnapped and imprisoned by him. Solid filmmaking and acting (especially by Fox) are defeated by film’s overall unpleasantness and routine structure. Willis filmed his role in just one day. Continue reading →
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