January 16, 2021 “Goodbye Butterfly” (** out of four) was a muddled psychodrama about a middle-class suburban parent (Jeremy London) whose young daughter is murdered and soon becomes suspicious that an oddball neighbor (Andrew Lauer) is guilty but he has to prove this, even at the risk of his psychological/mental health and safety. Competently made and acted but lacking the compelling fire and grit that a story like this needs. 2013’s “Prisoners” with Hugh Jackman told virtually the same story with much more mood and character richness and mesmeric intensity. Continue reading →
January 16, 2021 “The Lost” (** out of four) was a lukewarm crime melodrama about two detectives (Kris Johnson and Farah Ahmed) who investigate the disappearance of a young girl who vanishes during a family birthday party but they soon find that the clues take them in multiple different directions all at once. Writer/director Peter Stylianou holds you in his grip with his storytelling and stylistics but his focus wanders too much as film goes on and it subsequently begins to lose its grip and thus it’s impact. Certainly watchable but not especially memorable. Continue reading →
January 16, 2021 “Relentless” (* out of four) was a relentlessly boring melodrama about a woman (Rachael Weber) struggling with depression and a variety of other problems who is locked alone in a house and has to come to terms with her problems on her own, just as a major thunderstorm begins to flood the house and starts to erode her life. Predominantly one-character movie consists of Weber spending most of the film on her own with no dialogue or action; flood sequences towards the end finally give film some life but by then you’ll likely want to swim to shore. More of an experiment than an actual film and a real time-waster either way. Continue reading →
January 16, 2021 “On-Site” (* out of four) was a haphazard mess about the obsessive-compulsive manager (Gabi Alves) of an apartment building who starts to become increasingly fixated on a new couple (Ryan Poole and Daphne Tenne) who move in which leads to her gradual obsession and subsequently leads to psychosis and murder. Incredibly slapdash movie changes moods and themes with almost every scene but it all goes nowhere slowly. Film stops rather than ends but believe me no one “on-site” will be complaining. Continue reading →
January 16, 2021 “Bloody Hell” (* out of four) was an incoherent dreck about a man (Ben O’Toole) with a mysterious past who flees the country to escape his own personal and private Hell only to arrive in a more extreme form of Hell which challenges his numerous psychological and private demons in an attempt to retain his sanity and stay alive. Garish and pretentious but (worse than that) stupid and tedious; a mess in short. The scariest thing about this movie is that it is promised to be the first in a trilogy. Count me out. Continue reading →
January 14, 2021 “American Thief” (** out of four) was a preachy and shallow melodrama set in 2016 in which a teen hacker (Xisko Maximo Monroe) seeking revenge for his father’s murder becomes a pawn in a plot to derail the 2016 Presidential election and he has to question his own moral beliefs along with those of many of his friends and family (Khadim Diop, Ben Becher, and others). Film awkwardly mixes in live footage of the elections and from 2016 with actual movie which becomes off-putting after a while; not quite a docudrama, not quite a full movie, so it comes close to being nothing at all by the end. Continue reading →
January 14, 2021 “Redemption Day” (**1/2 out of four) was an adequately done action melodrama about a former war hero (Gary Dourdan looking here an awful lot like Mario Van Peebles) who has to return to action when his wife (Serinda Swan) is kidnapped by international terrorists; meanwhile government operatives (Andy Garcia and Martin Donovan) have their own shadowy political agenda. Reasonably fast-moving and entertaining mixture of pulp action and war story is enhanced by strong cast and a stirring music score by Sacha Chaban although it never quite fully detonates. Garcia stands out as usual in a juicy supporting role. Continue reading →
January 13, 2021 “Bright Hill Road” (** out of four) was an unrelentingly grim melodrama about an alcoholic young woman (Siobhan Williams) who survives a workplace shooting and checks herself into a rehab solace but is soon confronted by multiple reminders of her sordid and bleak past that result in breaks from reality. Give director Robert Cuffley and Susie Moloney points for trying to earnestly deal with the effects of alcoholism and PTSD but results are overly cerebal and unnecessarily unpleasant so film is cold to the touch. Even Williams’ performance is pretty one-note and repetitive. Continue reading →
January 12, 2021 “The Devil In The Room” (** out of four) was a paint-by-numbers horror thriller about a young couple (Darlin Barry and Chris Cox) who attempt to prevent (yawn) a supernatural evil spirit in their house from trapping their souls in the murky area between sleep and reality but soon find that this is a more cerebral and integral battle than they initially realized. Far from the worst of its disreputable genre, with decent performances and colorful cinematography, but is hindered by its derivative and hokey story told countless times before. By now, once you’ve seen one devil in a room or house you’ve pretty much seen ’em all. Continue reading →
January 10, 2021 “The Wrong Fiance” (** out of four) was a numbingly predictable thriller about a photographer (Jessica Morris) whose sent out of town on a job assignment by her editor (Vivica A. Fox) but is followed and stalked by her nightmarish ex-fiance (Jason Shane-Scott) who wants her back and wants to ruin her life by whatever means possible. The type of movie you can easily predict simply by it’s title! Neither the best nor the worst of its genre but seriously guys- just watch “Fatal Attraction” again instead. It’s nice to see that Fox has carved a niche for herself with this series but timewasters like these indicate her career is going in a “wrong” direction. Continue reading →
dlepikcom 