September 25, 2019 “Seeds” (* out of four) was an exceptionally dry and dull horror story about a young guy (Trevor Long) whose life is spiralling out of control and retreats to his family home along the New England coast but thereafter is haunted by paranormal activity which further threatens his sanity and safety. More fun may have ensued had he retreated back to a dusty street in the West with, say, Ben Stein and even the New England scenery looks dreary and depressing. Avoid at all costs. Continue reading →
September 24, 2019 “Doom: Annihilation” (**1/2 out of four) was a generally entertaining reboot of the Id video game series about a group of UAC marines (Louis Mandylor, Amy Manson, Nina Bergman, and others) who respond to a distress call on a top-secret scientific laboratory on a martian moon and soon find it has been overrun by ravenous demons and that they’re on the menu. Lots of action and visual effects to give action and video-game fans their money’s worth; just don’t look for too much in the way of character development or a story. Either way, this is a definite improvement over the doomed 2005 disaster with The Rock. Continue reading →
September 24, 2019 “The Wolf Hour” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary, ugly story set in the summer of 1977 in which a woman (Naomi Watts) who was once a counterculture figure has cut herself off from the outside world and is now a recluse in her South Bronx apartment but she continues to look at the escalating chaos and violence that is occurring outside her window and in the outside world. Don’t look for more plot than that or much else. Watts is much better than the material. This may have worked better as a play but it’s awfully tough to take as a feature-length film. Continue reading →
September 23, 2019 “Running With The Devil” (*** out of four) was a harrowing melodrama about the international drug trade as it effects different classes and elements of life; a ruthless C.E.O. (Barry Pepper) who has a lucrative side business involved in cocaine, a restaurant owner (Nicholas Cage) who is trying to be a family man, an operative (Laurence Fishburne) who has been developing a problem with using which is affecting his reliability, and a federal agent (Leslie Bibb) trying to make a difference in society by putting a stop to drugs and their influx. Impefect, as story sometimes wanders and lacks the grandeur and complexity of the similarly themed “Traffic”, but still holds you by the collar with its tense filmmaking and good performances. Cage is particularly strong in an unusual role for him. Continue reading →
September 21, 2019 “The Black String” (*1/2 out of four) was a mumbo-jumbo thriller about a lonely convenience store worker (Frankie Muniz) who has an unexpected encounter with a local girl and contracts a bizarre STD which turns his life upside down and then he frantically tries to locate her as his sanity and grip on reality starts to turn upside down and he feels otherworldly forces start closing in on him. Spooky at first but then soon becomes muddled and pretentious and by the end it will drive you even crazier than its main character. Muniz’ solid performance helps out, at least for a little while Continue reading →
September 21, 2019 “Ambition” (** out of four) was a jumbled thriller about an aspiring musician (Katherine Hughes) preparing for a competition who gets involved in a brain-twisting scenario involving her boyfriend and another friend (Jared Bankens and Giles Matthey) involving deception and murder. Very stylishly directed by New Line Cinema co-founder and CEO Robert Shaye but story is uninvolving and cold and thus has little impact. Ambitious, to be sure, but still too slight and too tepid to recommend. Continue reading →
September 19, 2019 “Rambo: Last Blood” (** out of four) was an unnecessary fifth entry in this over-the-hill series about everyone’s favorite Vietnam soldier (Sylvester Stallone) who has retired peacefully on his farm but is called back into duty after a vicious Mexican drug cartel kidnap his niece (Yvette Monreal) and havoc ensues on both sides of the border. Needlessly ugly and takes too long to get going but final 20 minutes finally provide some jaded thrills. Nice though it is to see Stallone kicking ass at 73 years old, it’s hard to believe him at this stage taking on armies and soldiers who are a third of his age. Continue reading →
September 19, 2019 “Undercover Cheerleader” (*1/2 out of four) was a slapdash melodrama about a transfer student (Kayla Wallace) who goes undercover at her new school to expose the cruel cheerleader culture but doesn’t realize how much trouble and difficulties she is in for and how this will affect her social life. Just a series of ideas from other and better movies repackaged and rewritten. Any one scene from “Mean Girls” or “Clueless” tops this hands down. Continue reading →
September 18, 2019 “Mayday” (** out of four) was a hokey supernatural thriller in which a federal air marshal (Michael Pare) is on board a flight from L.A. to London in which strange occurrences start happening and people start mysteriously disappearing. Are they being murdered or is something demonic occurring that they need to get to the bottom of? Pare is rock-solid as usual and carries the movie with his authority and swagger but story ultimately decays into sheer corn, as all the characters have to read a spiritual possession book aloud. It might be time for Pare to say mayday because his career really could use a comeback. Continue reading →
September 17, 2019 “Candy Corn” (* out of four) was a junky horror movie about a bullied teen (Nate Chaney) who is resurrected on Halloween weekend and havoc and horror ensues as he enacts his vengeance on the bullies and townsfolk who tortured and tormented him. Pretty awful movie even lacks any low-rent scares or thrills and is irritatingly dumb. One-time horror movie stars P.J. Soles and Tony Todd show up but it’s scarier seeing how they look in older age after all these years than anything in the movie. Continue reading →
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