July 9, 2017July 9, 2017 “Any Day” (*** out of four) was an endearing story of an ex-con (Sean Bean) released from prison after 12 years who moves in with his sister (Kate Walsh) and tries to pick up the pieces of his life with a new woman (Eva Longoria) he meets but finds happiness is a rocky road to start over. Bean’s commanding performance forms the heart of this imperfect but compelling drama. Starts to meander at times but features enough effective and powerful moments. Tom Arnold is also unusually strong as a restaurant owner with his own checkered past who befriends Bean. Continue reading →
July 9, 2017 “Spider Man: Homecoming” (*** out of four) was a dynamic reboot of the Spider Man series showing Peter Parker (Tom Holland) trying to balance out being an ordinary teenager in high school with his newfound superpowers, falling in love with a new classmate (Garcelle Beauvais), and doing battle with Vulture (Michael Keaton) who is out for revenge against New York City. Third retelling of Spider Man is told in the vein of a John Hughes teenage melodrama; awkward at first but it soon gets going and is full of spectacular action scenes and visual effects and makes better use of NYC locations (the Staten Island ferry scene is a wow) than previous entries. Kudos also for incorporating other members of The Avengers and previous members of the Marvel universe into the story and for giving Keaton his best role in years. Welcome back home! Continue reading →
July 7, 2017 “Blood Hunters” (*1/2 out of four) was an anemic horror thriller about a young mother (Lara Gilchrist) who wakes up in a medical facility having no idea how she got there and finds out that everyone else is dead, she’s 9 months pregnant, and it’s apocalypse now. Naturally, an evil priest (Julian Richings) figures into this story and there are religious and exorcism plot points. Naturally also, this time-waster bypassed theaters and went directly to Redbox but it’s hardly worth “hunting” for. Continue reading →
July 7, 2017 “Car Dogs” (**1/2 out of four) was a sporadically funny comedy about the car business and how one salesman (Patrick J. Adams) is offered the opportunity of a lifetime to obtain his own car dealership but this means selling his soul- and his own car team- in the process to his overbearing and greedy father (Chris Mulkey). Occasionally clever and incisive but never as sharp or ruthless as it should have been, and suffers from an uneven script. No Edsel but could have used a tuneup. Regardless, both “Used Cars” and “Boiler Room” covered same territory with more sting and laughs 15 – 30 years ago. Continue reading →
July 7, 2017 “The Night Shift” (*1/2 out of four) was a ho-hum horror thriller about a security guard (Vincent Rivera) who is hired to guard an empty mansion but soon realizes he has been hired as a human sacrifice for the various demons who live in the house and he has to fight to escape and fight for survival. Opening shot is spectacular but from then on- film is visually ugly and tacky, and becomes claustrophobic and boring. No relation to the 1982 Henry Winkler/Michael Keaton classic of the same name which took place in a morgue but this is still a real stiff. Continue reading →
July 6, 2017 “The Wrong Crush” (** out of four) was a plastic Redbox thriller about a high-school girl (Victoria Konefal) attempting to start her life over again after accidentally killing her best friend and meets a new student (Ricardo Hoyos) who falls in love with her but they soon both realize there may be more to each other than meets the eye. Unfortunately, there’s not much more to the eye in this routine and instantly forgettable story. Aging but still beautiful Vivica Fox has a supporting role as a sympathetic nurse but this will hardly “set it off” for her for a career comeback. Continue reading →
July 6, 2017 “Executor” (**1/2 out of four) was a respectably done story about a cold-hearted street assassin (Markiss McFadden) who inadvertently becomes the surrogate father to a young child (Aiden Wind) he encounters through work and becomes a parent for the first time which helps him to re-examine his own life and where it is going. Unusual and uneasy mix of hard-core street melodrama, stylized action, and sentimental father-son story doesn’t fully gel but has some surprisingly touching moments between McFadden and Wind that make it worth watching. Paul Sorvino has a minor but key role as a priest who McFadden often goes to for confession. Continue reading →
July 6, 2017 “Bad Frank” (* out of four) was a bad movie about a guy named Frank (Kevin Interdonato) whose various conflicts cause him to unravel and leads him back to the violent criminal past he thought he left behind but this threatens him and his family. Ironically, for a movie with its character in its title- it tells you little about Frank nor little reason to care about him and neither does Interdonato’s one-note performance. Ugly underworld melodrama just about cries out for the virtuosity of Martin Scorcese or Michael Mann in their prime. Film’s second half is particularly tough to endure. Continue reading →
July 4, 2017 “Blue Line” (*1/2 out of four) was a flat-lining mystery thriller starring Tom Sizemore as a small-town detective who investigates a woman (Nikki Moore) and her best friend (Jordan Ladd) who go on a crime spree of robbery to escape the town and escape their marriages. Standard issue collection of cops, lowlifes, thieves, and other various charming individuals. One-time great character actor Sizemore could play this role in his sleep by now and does at times. Inauspicious directorial debut for producer-writer Jacob Cooney. Continue reading →
July 4, 2017 “Security” (** out of four) was a not-bad action thriller about a down-on-his-luck former soldier (Antonio Banderas) who takes a job as a security guard at a decrepit shopping mall which is besieged by terrorists (led by Ben Kingsley) searching for a missing witness who escaped into the mall. Yet another “Die Hard” clone and also yet another movie within the last few weeks which liberally rips off “Assault On Precinct 13”. At least offers Banderas and Kingsley to play off one another but doesn’t give them enough cat-and-mouse material and doesn’t utilize its mall setting as much as it could have. Continue reading →
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