June 10, 2018 “211” (*** out of four) was a jaggedly tense action thriller about a retiring police detective (Nicolas Cage) and his rookie son-in-law (Dwayne Cameron), who finds out that morning that his wife (Sophie Skelton) is pregnant, soon find themselves in the midst of an escalating bank heist involving international sharpshooters and terrorists. Nail-biting story never lets up and features one of Cage’s better roles and performances in a while. Refreshingly lean and short also, at only 86 minutes. Continue reading →
June 9, 2018 “Ocean’s 8” (*** out of four) was a fast and loose female reboot of the heist series about a recently released convict Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) who gathers an all-female crew (Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, and others) to attempt a daring heist at the yearly meeting at the NYC Met Gala involving a prime target (Anne Hathaway). Director Gary Ross ably duplicates the style and ease of director Steven Soderbergh from his previous “Ocean’s” films and the first-rate cast acquits themselves nicely. Blanchett is a standout as usual and Rihanna proves her acting flair in a dynamic supporting role. Continue reading →
June 8, 2018 “The Toxic Avenger: The Musical” (** out of four) was a mildly amusing musical (!) adaptation of the 1984 cult classic about a meek nerd who is thrown into toxic chemicals and becomes a crime-fighting avenger on the streets of New Jersey. One of the all-time strangest movies to possibly remake as a musical, this won’t win any Tony awards but isn’t nearly as bad as you might think. Some laughs and some decent musical numbers but it eventually runs out of steam. Come to think of it, though, this is better than the original movie which was a toxic mess. Continue reading →
June 8, 2018 “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (*** out of four) was a supremely entertaining sequel in which the two adventurers from the last entry (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) mount an expedition to rescue the remaining dinosaurs when a dormant volcano threatens their extinction but naturally things don’t go as planned and havoc ensues. By now, the basic plotline of all the “Jurassic” entries are familiar and predictable but this one more than entertains with first-rate visual effects and action scenes and plenty of hair-raising moments along the way. Both Pratt and Howard are superb and Jeff Goldblum makes a brief return as original scientist Ian Malcolm. Some sequences are strikingly similar to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original. Continue reading →
June 8, 2018 “Two Steps From Hope” (*1/2 out of four) was an embarrassingly awful religious drama about a seemingly perfect family whose life begins to crumble when their teenage daughter (Tara Vandenberger) is diagnosed with an incurable brain disease leading them all to question their purpose and faith in life. Hard-core Christian fundamentalists may be the only ones who find any substance here but even they will likely be put off by the heavy-handed acting and maudlin dramatics which will make you question your patience instead of your faith. Full of good intentions but resembles an endless Sunday in church. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018June 3, 2018 “Field Study” (* out of four) was a horrendously inept horror show that’s basically a study in poor filmmaking and acting. Multi-character story provides multiple headaches regarding contestants on a gameshow, a morally conflicted businessman, and other swell folks you can’t wait to get away from. Almost completely incoherent movie gives low-budget horror movies a worse name than they already have. Plenty of blood and gore but otherwise you’ve been warned. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Future World” (*1/2 out of four) was a muddled pastiche of “Mad Max”, “Resident Evil”, and also bizarrely “The Book Of Eli” about a young man (Jeffrey Wahlberg) searching a deserted futuristic wasteland for a cure for his dying mother (Lucy Liu) while eluding a villainous hitman (James Franco) and then aided by a spiritual mentor (Milla Jovovich). Wearily derivative movie is just a series of ideas borrowed from other and better movies. Franco actually co-directed this! Why him and Jovovich and others wasted their time on this claptrap is film’s biggest mystery. Snoop Dogg and Method Man have small roles Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Thoroughbreds” (*1/2 out of four) was a losing proposition that was all-too-obviously originally intended as a play about two upper-class Connecticut girls (Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor Joy) who rekindle their friendship after years apart and take their frustrations in life and exact revenge on a drug-dealing friend (Anton Yelchin). Bizarre and off-putting drama never gets going and has no real story to tell. Performances are mostly one-note as well. Many critics highly praised this when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but I’m not one of them. Yelchin’s final film but it’s sadly one of his weakest roles. Continue reading →
June 3, 2018 “Hometown Hero” (*1/2 out of four) was a saccharine love story about a divorce mediator (Brooke Nevin) having to care for a client’s dog whom she has to take to a local vet (Jake Sandvig) and the two soon fall in love and thaw one another’s hearts. The kind of movie that gives the word “contrivance” a bad name; romantic comedy fans may like it but it’s awfully gooey and cheesy. You may want to watch “Must Love Dogs” instead. Continue reading →
June 2, 2018 “Flight 666” (**1/2 out of four) was a diverting Redbox action thriller about passengers and crew (Jesse James D’Angelo, Sharon Desiree, Liz Fenning and other) aboard a flight that are attacked by unseen forces that threaten everyone’s sanity and threaten to crashland the plane. Sewn together from pieces of “Snakes On A Plane”, “Turbulence”, and “Final Destination” but it moves briskly and features a solid quota of thrills and scares. Mostly forgettable but entertaining enough while it lasts and better than most direct-to-Redbox junk. Continue reading →
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