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 →
July 1, 2017 “Hot Tub Party Massacre” (0 stars out of four) was an absolutely worthless horror show that looks like someone’s bad home movies; some annoying sorority sisters win a free weekend at a luxurious hotel spa and are dismayed when an escaped serial killer crashes the party. But believe me- you’ll be rooting for him to put each one of them out of their (and the audience’s) misery. The kind of inept horror movie that gives the term “low-budget” a bad name. Grade Z acting and filmmaking turn this into a real massacre. Continue reading →
July 1, 2017 “Z/Rex: The Jurassic Dead” (*1/2 out of four) was a brainless bore about a loony scientist (Cooper Elliott) who uses a toxic zombification gas to unleash the world’s greatest killing machine – the Z-Rex- but a team of military troops try to stop it before they become dinosaur brunch. With a title like that, you at least expect some low-rent thrills but you don’t even get that in this jurassic monstrosity. Not scary enough, thrilling enough, or- frankly- bad enough to be entertaining. Looks like an Ed Wood version of “Jurassic Park.” Continue reading →
July 1, 2017 “Inconceivable” (** out of four) a well-made but obvious, empty melodrama about a couple (Nicholas Cage and Gina Gershon) unable to have kids of their own who turn to a friendly new neighbor (Nicky Whelan) to be their surrogate mom but they soon grow suspicious of her and realize she may not be who she says. What’s really inconceivable is so many good actors were attracted to this mediocrity. Competent direction can’t enrich routine story and script, which is predictable at every turn. Faye Dunaway is wasted in a supporting role as Cage’s mom; Cage and Gershon first starred in the much more electric “Face/Off” 20 years earlier. Continue reading →
July 1, 2017 “The Beguiled” (*1/2 out of four) was a ponderous adaptation of the historical novel about a fallen Confederate soldier (Colin Farrell) who is taken in at the plantation of several women (Nicole Kidman, Kristen Dunst, and others) and things begin to stir when they all develop feelings of eroticism and love for him. Molasses-moving story is completely devoid of sparks or fire, and is even drably photographed and designed. A real bore, despite the efforts of fine cast. Many fans of director Sofia Coppola highly praised this movie but they’re the ones who are really beguiled. Continue reading →
July 1, 2017 “The House” (** out of four) was an occasionally funny but mostly dumb comedy about a married couple (Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler) who set up an illegal casino business in their home after losing their daughter’s college money and not wanting to disappoint her. Fans of Ferrell and Poehler may want to check this out but it’s an empty house for the rest of us. Jeremy Renner has a key cameo towards the end but it’s hardly worth sticking around for. Continue reading →
