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 →
April 6, 2020 “Aquaslash” (** out of four) was a pointless horror thriller about a group of high-school partiers (Brittany Drisdelle, Paul Zinno, Samatha Hodhod, and others) who have their graduation bash at a water amusement park but someone has murder on their agenda and sets out to systematically kill them off using the rides as a weapon. Professionally directed and acted but takes too long to get going and then wraps up pretty quickly. One scene involving blades on one of the water rides provides the only real thrills in the movie. Continue reading →
April 4, 2020 “Garden Party Massacre” (0 stars out of four) was an absolutely worthless horror movie that looked like someone’s bad home movies about a gathering of friends (Andy Gates, Nichole Bagby, David Leeper, and others) at a garden party that is suddenly disrupted when an uninvited guest shows up and starts massacring everybody. Dreadful acting and filmmaking, however, turn this into an even more terrifying massacre for the audience. Even at only an hour and 10 minutes, this is still a brutal watch. Film’s title vocals are by Peter Stormare (from “Fargo”), of all people, but he may have been better off doing more Volkswagen commercials instead. Continue reading →
April 4, 2020 “Detroit Driller Killer” (* out of four) was a bottom-of-the-barrel yuckfest about a struggling screenwriter (Chris Heikka) who slowly descends into insanity by the noise and violence in decaying Detroit and starts prowling on the loose and killing anyone and everyone who gets on his nerves with an electric power-drill! Ugly and unpleasant movie doesn’t even offer any cheap thrills or scares and just manages to be gory and disgusting. Director/writer/co-producer/and co-star Matt Jaissle bears almost all the blame for this mess which is an alleged reimagining of Abel Ferrara’s 1979 “The Driller Killer.” Continue reading →
April 4, 2020 “Clover” (*1/2 out of four) was an unlucky melodrama about two none-too-bright Irish brothers (Mark Webber and Jon Abrahams) who find themselves in hot water when they both owe money to the same short-tempered mafia boss (Chazz Palminteri) and are subsequently pursued by two female assassins (Erika Christensen and Julia Jones) and have to attempt to re-obtain the money to pay back and stay alive. Misguided mix of violent underworld melodrama and black comedy runs on empty after a while. Palminteri adds some style as always and more-or-less seems to be playing Sonny again from “A Bronx Tale” but there’s no Robert De Niro in sight here. Continue reading →
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