April 19, 2019 “The Professor And The Madman” (*1/2 out of four) was a ponderous adaptation of Simon Winchester’s novel set in 1857 about a doctor (Mel Gibson) who is overseeing the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and forms a relationship with another doctor (Sean Penn) who is a deranged lunatic and in prison. Both Gibson and Penn are good as usual but are unable to enliven or enrich this dry material which meanders in too many different directions and for far too long at over two hours. Made in 2016 and was re-tooled many times to no avail. Director Farhad Siminia successfully sued to have his name removed from the film. Bear McCreary’s rich music score is one of film’s few virtues. Continue reading →
April 19, 2019 “Klippers” (*1/2 out of four) was a disjointed, dumb action potboiler about a hitman (Ofu Obekpa) who is hired by an evil millionaire (Robert Pralgo) to murder his ex-girlfriend (Libby Blanton) and attempts to follow through on this but things go astray when he realizes he starts to fall in love with her! Film begins passably but soon sputters and goes nowhere, as you gradually realize you don’t care about any of the characters or who gets “klipped.” Story borrows a lot from “A Prayer For The Dying” and “Faithful” and is almost as bad as those misfires. Continue reading →
April 19, 2019 “After” (** out of four) was an earthbound love story about a new college student (Josephine Langford) who begins a turbulent relationship with a bad boy (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin) from the wrong side of the tracks which affects their families and their personal lives which causes them both to think if they are going to live happily ever after. Story never takes wing and is never particularly compelling or moving, despite engaging performances. Disappointing adaptation of the much more adult-oriented novel from Anna Todd. Continue reading →
April 19, 2019 “The Pining” (* out of four) was muddled story that audiences won’t be pining for about a detective (Jackie Dallas) who begins to investigate a series of gruesome murders that lead her to a group-therapy leader (Tom Sizemore) who may know more than he is leading on but there are many other suspects and clues from the groups he has been leading. Absolutely incoherent story never builds any tension or suspense and subsides into meaningless and confusing story tangents instead. Dallas is good in the lead and does what she can with a nothing role; Sizemore is well-cast as a drug counselor. Continue reading →
April 17, 2019 “Trust No 1” (*** out of four) was a fairly engrossing action thriller about a determined cop (Douglas Rouillard) who investigates a series of brutal murders which the department thinks is the work of a serial killer but he starts snooping around and soon realizes it involves the federal government and paramilitary operations. Typical cop-and-conspiracy story is put over by Rouillard’s intense and charismatic performance and a well-sustained mood of lurking danger. A good directorial debut by Daron Niemerow and well-produced on a low budget. Continue reading →
April 16, 2019 “Hellboy” (** out of four) was an unimaginative reboot of the graphic novel series showing Hellboy (David Harbour) once again caught between the world of the supernatural and the human and who becomes engaged in a battle with an ancient sorceress (Milla Jovovich) bent on world domination. Film opens entertainingly and the inevitable F/X blowout at the end is fun but film is talky and surprisingly dull in the middle and thus cannot top the two earlier versions and winds up one more unnecessary movie reboot. Harbour is good in the lead and ably duplicates Ron Perlman’s tongue-in-cheek style. Continue reading →
April 15, 2019 “Happy Birthday Hannah” (* out of four) was a lame, amateurish horror story about a girl (Natalie Klein) who is tormented by guilt about letting her younger sister drown years earlier and on the eve of her sister’s birthday- she and her none-too-bright partner (Brandon Burkley) are tormented by sights and sounds of the girl around their house. Practically the definition of the term low-budget horror with photography that looks like it was filmed through someone’s used cell-phone and the film isn’t so much edited as patched! Even besides that, though, this clunker proves to be yet another rip-off of “Poltergeist” and (naturally) “Paranormal Activity”. Sometimes dead isn’t better Continue reading →
April 15, 2019 “Bad Company” (** out of four) was a cheesy action melodrama about a group of troubled teens (Booboo Stewart, Giselle Bonilla, Kyle Massey, and others) at a remote boot camp which is besieged by terrorists and they realize they must fight back to prevent the terrorists from starting a nuclear war. Derivative story is about as unoriginal as its title and lifts story elements from both “Red Dawn” and “Toy Soldiers” but it remains watchable. Not quite bad but a good example of the need for making more creative stories and screenplays by now. Continue reading →
April 13, 2019 “A Dark Place” (** out of four) was a meandering small-town character study about a slow-witted local sanitation worker (Andrew Scott) who begins to investigate the sudden disappearance of a local boy which puts him at odds with local law enforcement and townsfolk but he is still determined to mangle his way through and seek the truth, no matter what opposition he may face. The type of film that David Lynch could have made effortlessly and electrically in the ’80’s but sadly- there’s no blue velvet or twin peaks here. OK for what it is but not memorable Continue reading →
April 12, 2019 “Creep Nation” (** out of four) was a stylish but empty melodrama about a man (Adam Seybold) determined to solve and avenge the death of his sister (Liv Collins) who was murdered while renting from a series of online creeps and this brings him into the descent of the underworld of the internet and organized crime. Well-directed and vibrantly shot and has its moments of flair but is weighed down by its own sordid and tawdry storyline and you’ll eventually become numbed by all the sleaze. Seybold is strong in the lead. Continue reading →
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