June 26, 2018 “Sweet Country” (* out of four) was a boring Western set in the 1920’s in which an African-American farmhand (Hamilton Morris) shoots his owner in self-defense and then is forced to go on the run when a group of lawmen (led by Bryan Brown) attempt to track him down. Potentially affecting story of injustice and lawlessness in the old West but is worthless on almost every level. Film is so molasses-moving and inert that it itself seems to fall asleep at times and that goes double for the viewer. Sam Neill is wasted in a small role at the beginning as a property owner. Continue reading →
June 26, 2018 “The Wrong Bed: Naked Pursuit” (*1/2 out of four) was a confusing, contrived dud about an insurance saleswoman (Jewel Staite) and a firefighter (Corey Sevier) who wake up handcuffed in bed next to one another and find out their lives are in danger and they have to piece together the last 24 hours on how they met before it is too late. Neither sexy nor funny nor suspenseful, this one is simply a wrong movie. Staite and Sevier might have made an engaging team but they are handcuffed by film’s witless screenplay and execution. Continue reading →
June 23, 2018 “Distorted” (*1/2 out of four) was a distorted mess about a young woman (Christina Ricci) suffering from numerous mental health issues who moves into a luxurious new apartment building with her moron husband (Brendan Fletcher) and begins to suspect that the apartment complex is using its tenants as guinea pigs for experiments with global ramifications. She then turns to a mysterious stranger (John Cusack) for help. Absurd story goes nowhere after a promising beginning, A real waste of Ricci’s talent and Cusack is sorely miscast. It’s about time he went back to the nice-guy roles he’s best remembered for. Continue reading →
June 22, 2018 “Apocalypse Rising” (*1/2 out of four) was a cheesy, silly zombie horror thriller that seems like it was made by zombies in which a group of warriors (Johanna Rae, Justin Lebrun, Mason Parker, and others) from a doomed world come to Earth to save us from the same fate but find themselves back in combat and attempting to save the world from being overtaken by a new breed of ruthless zombies. Strictly for those who thought any of the “Resident Evil” movies were robbed at Oscar time. A few minor chuckles but otherwise this is a real timewaster. Continue reading →
June 22, 2018 “Dark River” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary story about a young woman (Ruth Wilson) who returns home to the English countryside to her home village after a disappearance of 15 years to reclaim her family farm but she doesn’t count on old bitter wounds reopening with family feuds. Pretty scenery full of lush grass and hills reminds one of Ireland but otherwise this is pretty much of a bore. Wilson’s strong performance is unable to enliven or enrich the material. A real disappointment from director Clio Barnard whose previous works were “The Arbor” and “The Selfish Giant.” Continue reading →
June 21, 2018 “Joel” (** out of four) was a frustratingly remote and off-putting biographical crime drama of serial killer Joel Rifkin (Arnold Odo) who terrorized New York and murdered over seventeen prostitutes in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s. Film is told in flashbacks after he’s arrested and being interrogated by police. Oppressively unpleasant film shows in gory detail his interactions and murders with the prostitutes and makes us get to know a sick killer’s mind more than we need to. Aside from this, film doesn’t tell you much else about Rifkin or his personal life. Odo is OK in the lead role. Continue reading →
June 20, 2018 “Darkness Reigns” (** out of four) was a not-bad horror thriller about an amateur film crew (Ford Fanter, Jennifer Wenger, Zachary Mooren, and others) whose film set is ravaged by an unseen demon who is seeking vengeance for a past deal they made that promised them fame and fortune. Casper Van Dien is amusingly cast as himself as an actor starring in their low-budget project. Film gets going after a slow start and has a sufficient amount of scares and jolts but is too derivative of “The Exorcist” and “Alien” to really make a mark. Still, better than most of its kind and better than “Exorcist” sequels. Continue reading →
June 20, 2018 “Triassic World” (*1/2 out of four) was a low-rent knockoff of the “Jurassic” movies (hence the clever title) set in the future in which dinosaurs are used to grow organs for human transplants; at an underground facility, the dinosaurs naturally escape causing the scientists that created them (Joel Berti, Greg Furman, and others) to fight back and end their species once and for all. The kind of shoddy movie that is only made to capitalize on the success of a much larger one. Special effects aren’t bad considering films threadbare production budget but this is strictly for those who will rent anything in the Redbox machine Continue reading →
June 19, 2018 “Life Of The Party” (** out of the four) was a mild, middling comedy about a middle-aged mom (Melissa McCarthy) who returns to college with her daughter (Molly Gordon) to finish her degree after her lout husband abruptly asks for a divorce. Slapdash comedy has some scattered laughs but never excels or takes off. McCarthy’s likeability and charisma has to carry this a long way. Rodney Dangerfield had a far more entertaining and funny semester when he went “Back To School” in mostly the same movie in 1986. Continue reading →
June 18, 2018 “Set It Up” (*1/2 out of four) was an irritatingly stupid and contrived Netflix romantic comedy about two corporate executives (Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell) who hatch a plan for their bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) to fall in love which leads to numerous complications for all of them. Any resemblance to these people and actual human beings is strictly coincidental. Good cast can only do so much with lame and silly material and they should have set themselves up with a better script. No relation to “Set It Off” but that movie had more realism and laughs than this does. Continue reading →
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