August 1, 2017 “Girls Trip” (**1/2 out of four) was a lively and uneven comedy about four lifelong friends (Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish) who reunite and travel to New Orleans for the annual Essex Festival and havoc (i.e. plenty of sex and booze jokes) ensue. Raucous female version of “The Hangover” ranges from extremely funny to extremely dumb; either way, it goes on too long at more than two hours but should definitely satisfy its target audience of girls who may want to improve my rating by 1/2 or 1 star. Continue reading →
August 1, 2017 “Atomic Blonde” (**1/2 out of four) was a diverting action thriller set in 1989 during the waning days of the Cold War as an undercover MI6 agent (Charlize Theron) goes to Berlin to find out the murder of an agent and recover a missing list of double agents but finds treachery at every turn. Story is slight and often makes no sense but movie is so full of style, over-the-top action, and electric ’80’s music (New Order, Depeche Mode, etc) that it’s fun to watch just the same. Obviously inspired by the “Bourne” series (and also “John Wick”) but still sleek and entertaining. Propulsive ’80’s synth score by Tyler Bates. Continue reading →
July 28, 2017 “The Wrong Mother” (*1/2 out of four) was a slapdash, predictable time-waster about a mother (Vanessa Marcil) who finally achieves her dream by having twins from an in-vitro procedure but she soon finds out that the kindly nurse (Brooke Nevin) who she has hired to take care of her and her family was the egg donor who turns out to be a psycho who wants to reclaim “her family”! Can we now please put an end to movies with the word “wrong” in its title (there have only been four that I have reviewed over the last 2 months)? Either way, this is the wrong movie to watch. Continue reading →
July 28, 2017 “Wildflower” (** out of four) was a mushy and pretentious psychodrama about a troubled college student (Nathalia Ramos) who begins to have recurring nightmares of an unresolved childhood incident which lead to her confronting her faith and subsequently confronting her sanity. Fittingly enough, the screenplay and story of this seem unresolved as well. Some interesting plot threads and scenes about child psychology and developmental problems are lost in film’s overall bland murkiness. Ramos is good in difficult lead role. Continue reading →
July 28, 2017 “Awaken The Shadowman” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary horror thriller that will struggle to keep the audiences awake about two brothers (James Zimbardi, Skylar Caleb) who join forces to find their disappeared mother and soon realize they are combatting (yawn) a mysterious and evil force. Interesting opening soon goes astray and leads to another boring story involving paranormal activity and a haunted house. Yet another horror movie that offers no fun and makes you wish horror filmmakers would dispel their evil forces and come up with some original ideas. Continue reading →
July 27, 2017 “The Horse Dancer” (*1/2 out of four) was a treacly coming-of-age drama about a young gymnast (Sophie Bolen) who finds out she doesn’t make the Olympics team and then goes off for the summer to a horse-back riders camp. When financial cuts threaten to shut the camp down, she then takes it upon herself to use her gymnast talent to start a horse-dancing team to save the camp! If Nicholas Sparks had begun writing kids stories, it might have looked something like this. Strictly for very young girls who might like it but bad writing, directing, and acting and juvenile dramatics make it tough riding for anyone else. Watch “The Horse Whisperer” instead. Continue reading →
July 25, 2017 “Illicit” (*1/2 out of four) was an overlong and underdone melodrama about a successful but distant married couple (David Ramsey and Shireen Crutchfield) who begin having affairs to restart their sexual engines but don’t realize the effects that this will have on their happiness and how this will wreck their relationship. Lurid premise provides not enough heat or sparks or thrills and goes on so long that it ends up a fizzle. Lush photography and Ramsey’s solid performance are definite plusses but end up drowning in film’s excesses. Vivica Fox has a key role as Ramsey’s boss but the video of “You’re Making Me High” was steamier and more entertaining in 3 minutes than all of this film’s 2+ hours. Continue reading →
July 25, 2017 “The Gracefield Incident” (** out of four) was a serviceable found-footage horror movie that rips off “The Blair Witch Project” for the umpteenth time and also “The Evil Dead” and too many others to mention; in a Midwestern town Gracefield, three couples are spending the weekend in a cabin which is suddenly crashed by a meteorite and an alien who one-by-one hunts them all down. Director Matthieu Ratthe shows some talent and style in his filmmaking and staging but his own derivative story does this in. Far from the worst of its kind but once you’ve seen one alien crashing a party, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Continue reading →
July 25, 2017 “Tonight She Comes” (* out of four) was an abysmal horror show about two friends and a group of redneck strangers (are there any other kinds in movies like these?) who search for one of their friends and are drawn to a mysterious cabin in the woods where (yawn) they encounter the living dead. George Romero may have died last week but he’s probably already turning over in his grave that filmmakers are still ripping him off. Only freaks and masochists need to “come” to this party. Continue reading →
July 22, 2017 “Cop And A Half: New Recruit” (*** out of four) was a pretty cute sequel to the 1993 Burt Reynolds monstrosity about a burned out cop (Lou Diamond Phillips) who teams up with a precocious grade-school kid (Lulu Wilson) for her help on a case which fulfills her dream of becoming a cop. Naturally, he hates it at first but then…..For a movie that’s completely unnecessary and a sequel to a movie that was dreadful to begin with, this is surprisingly entertaining and is carried along by some funny lines and deft interplay between Phillips and Wilson. A little of this goes a long way but still fun. Continue reading →
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