February 14, 2021 “Calm Before” (* out of four) was a dreadful horror story about a husband and wife (Michael Lombardi and Vanessa Ore) on the brink of divorce who go to a lake house for their anniversary and are trapped there as they are besieged by personal/psychological/physical demons that test the fabric of their relationship and their sanity. Ludicrous story is both over-and-under cooked and mosies on way too long. One more horror film derived from “The Shining” (and also “The Strangers”) but can’t hold a candle by comparison. Continue reading →
February 13, 2021 “Snow Black” (* out of four) was an inept action melodrama about a former special-ops soldier (Sarah V. Buckner) who returns home to bury her mother and subsequently gets sucked into a whirlpool of trying to rid her hometown of drugs, gangs, and crooked politicians (Robert D. Parham, Ron Van Clief, Royal Harbor, and others). Potentially juicy material is rendered worthless by slipshod filmmaking, confusing storytelling, and some terrible acting. “Snow Job” would have been a more apt title for this mess. Parham also co-wrote. Continue reading →
February 13, 2021 “Paradise Cove” (** out of four) was a hollow suspense thriller about a young couple (Todd Grinnell and Mena Suvari) who move to Malibu to renovate his mother’s beach house where they are harassed and subsequently terrorized by a deranged homeless lady (Kristen Bauer von Stratten) who lives underneath their house. Reasonably well-made and well-acted but too predictable and familiar to substantially catch fire. Both “Pacific Heights” and “Cold Creek Manor” covered this same terrain with more mood and intensity years earlier. Continue reading →
February 13, 2021 “Willy’s Wonderland” (** out of four) was a gaudy futuristic horror thriller about a stoic drifter (Nicholas Cage) who takes a job as a janitor at the title amusement park when many of the demonic animatronics come to life and he has to fight them out to make it out of the park alive. Fast-paced and colorful enough to make it a watchable view but a little of this goes a long way, as film starts to wear out after a while. Cinematographer David Newbert’s candy-colored cinematography is alluring at first but even that becomes garish and tiresome after a while. Cage’s character has absolutely no dialogue although in fairness- he has done far worse paycheck movies than this! Continue reading →
February 11, 2021 “The Evil Twin” (*1/2 out of four) was a joyless suspense thriller about a woman (Emily Piggford) who escapes a violent and abusive relationship by returning to her hometown only to discover she has a long-lost twin sister (also Piggford) who it turns out may be (what else?) a sociopathic murder. Competently made and acted but can’t compensate for the dearth of originality or any thrills or suspense here. Piggford does what she can in her dual role. Continue reading →
February 10, 2021 “Kill Plan” (**1/2 out of four) was an overly derivative but diverting action-spy potboiler about a seasoned F.B.I. agent (Jason Toler) who is thrown into a multilayered deception involving a covert government plot to unleash a deadly drug on humanity and thus lead to a pending apocalypse. Too many twists and turns and secondary characters which unnecessarily thicken film’s murk but overall slick and entertaining with enough gunplay and martial arts to make it worthwhile for genre fans. Toler is rock-solid in the lead and helps make up for film’s other weaknesses. Continue reading →
February 9, 2021 “Quarantine Girl” (* out of four) was a trashy, boring potboiler about a woman (Nicole D’Angelo) who starts to mentally/physically deteriorate after placing herself in quarantine during the pandemic; the rest of the film shows her in isolation gradually losing her mind but by the end of this disaster you’ll know just how she feels. Yet another movie that exploitively utilizes the COVID pandemic without anything meaningful. A vanity production for D’Angelo who also wrote and co-directed but might want to place herself in quarantine until she develops better filmmaking skills. Continue reading →
February 8, 2021 “The Day Of The Living Dead” (* out of four) was a stultifying dud about an insurance investigator (Ray Capuana) who seemingly disappears during a routine claim and his fiancee (Natalie Victoria) investigates in the midst of a worldwide zombie apocalypse and finds that others he was investigating have also disappeared and this may only be the beginning of the end of the world. Anemic movie has almost no thrills or scares and is more of a throwback satire than a horror film; even with little zombies in the story, this film still will practically suck the life out of you. Continue reading →
February 6, 2021 “Fear Of Rain” (**1/2 out of four) was an earnestly done melodramatic thriller about a teenager with schizophrenia (Madison Iseman) who begins to suspect that her next-door neighbor (Eugenie Bondurant) is a murderer; her parents (Harry Connick Jr and Katherine Heigl) don’t believe her and the only one who does is a boy from school (Israel Broussard) who she’s not even sure actually exists! Is this all real or a form of her hallucinations? Well-intentioned attempt to mix a Hitchcock-like thriller with a treatise on mental illness doesn’t fully gel but maintains its grip thanks to strong cast and direction. Continue reading →
February 6, 2021 “Payback” (*1/2 out of four) was a dominatingly unpleasant melodrama about a young stockbroker (Matt Levett) at a Wall Street firm controlled by the mob who is betrayed and sent to prison for 6 years and upon his release seeks revenge and to take them down, no matter what the cost. Fairly rote and routine story of retribution is really sunk by Levett’s unlikeable character (and mannered performance) and thus has no payoff. Byetheway- this is not a remake of the 1999 Mel Gibson melodrama of the same name and similar story. Continue reading →
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