April 6, 2016 “The Night Before” (** out of four) was a middling comedy about three lifelong friends (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie) who reunite on Christmas Eve looking to find the Holy Grail of Christmas parties. By the admittedly very low standards of Seth Rogen comedies who I am not a fan of, this isn’t bad and has some laughs and is a throwback to “Half Baked” and Chech and Chong movies. Still, it’s awfully thin stuff and gets too repetitive and dumb after a while. Gordon Levitt and Mackie show off some of their comic skills but viewers will likely forget this by the night afterwards. Continue reading →
April 6, 2016 “Pandemic” (*** out of four) was a fast and furious horror thriller set in the near future where a deadly virus is spreading and one doctor (Rachel Nichols) races to find a cure and save the infected. Yet another zombie/apocalypse/infection/outbreak movie in the vein of “World War Z” and also “Resident Evil” but is well-made and never stops moving. Not groundbreaking or original but better than most of its caliber. Continue reading →
April 6, 2016 “The Bride” (*1/2 out of four) was an ugly, nearly unwatchable rip-off of the even worse “I Spit On Your Grave” about a bride (Henrietta Riddervold) whose raped and murdered by a group of hillbilly thugs but returns from the grave to enact revenge. Dispiriting to anyone who remembers when movies like these were fun and entertaining. Riddervold is good in the lead but other performances are pretty wooden Continue reading →
April 6, 2016 “Time Rush” (*** out of four) was an adrenalized thriller set in the seedy streets of Bangkok where a man (Dean Alexandrou) is stuck in a repeated time loop with all kinds of agents and thugs out to kill him for reasons he doesn’t know. His only solution is to run and fight for his life. Breathless movie doesn’t have much story or characters to hold onto but it never stops moving, with nonstop hand-to-hand combat and violent action. Definitely worth the “time” for action junkies and martial arts fans. Continue reading →
April 6, 2016 “True Deception” (** out of four) was a true disappointment about a writer (James Franco) wracked with personal problems who becomes involved in trying to aid a man (Christian Slater) on trial for murdering his wife, as his own life gradually falls apart around him. Scenes between Franco and Ed Harris as his estranged father are potent and effective but film is otherwise scattered, meandering, and not very involving. Not all that different from “True Story” which had similar title and also starred Franco and covered some of the same themes- and better Continue reading →
April 6, 2016 “Stealing Cars” (** out of four) was a well-meaning but limited story of a rebellious teen (Emory Cohen) who gets arrested for stealing cars and placed in the juvenile court system and a detention center where the tough administrator (John Leguizamo) takes an active interest in him. Interesting story about the difficulties that youth and their social workers face is also dour and sluggish. Since the boy is never really likeable, it’s tough to get involved in him or his plight. Director Bradley Kaplan even has him watching “A Bronx Tale” in a few scenes, a reminder of the fire and conviction missing from his own movie Continue reading →
March 26, 2016 “They’re Watching” (*1/2 out of four) was an umpteenth found-footage horror movie that is not worth watching. In Eastern Europe, an American home improvement tv show visits a village but things naturally go haywire when they accidentally disrupt the village’s superstitious religious ritual. Disappointing directing debut for noted graphic novelists Jay Lender and Micah Wright who fail to inject their story with much thrills or scares. “No One Is Watching” would have been a better title for this dud Continue reading →
March 26, 2016 “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” (**1/2 out of four) was a pleasant sequel to the 2002 smash hit about the Portokalos family reuniting for another big Greek family wedding. Nice to see all the original cast members back together and there are some laughs but this lacks the freshness and bite that the original had. Worth checking out for fans of the original but others would do better watching the first one. Still, this is far better than most comedy sequels and is far better than Nia Vardalos and John Corbett’s last collaboration “I Hate Valentines Day.” Continue reading →
March 26, 2016 “Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice” (** out of four) was a hugely disappointing action comic book movie about the Dark Knight (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) who are pitted against each other by the evil Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg). Cavill is still bland as Clark Kent/Superman, Affleck is miscast as Batman, and let’s just say the annoying Jesse Eisenberg won’t make anyone forget Gene Hackman or Kevin Spacey anytime soon. Film is jammed with visual effects but never develops a sense of awe or wonder as the original “Batman” or “Superman” did. Fight scenes between Batman and Superman are disappointingly brief but film still manages to go on too long. Hardcore comic fans should still probably take a look but this comes up empty Continue reading →
March 26, 2016 “Smothered” (* out of four) was a dreadful horror comedy without any horror or comedy in which five horror movie icons (Kane Hodder, Donald Shanks, R.A. Milhailoff, Bill Moseley, Dane Rhodes) play themselves as washed-up actors going to an unsuccessful autograph signing who then decide to haunt a trailer park instead but they end up the ones being both haunted and hunted. It’s hard to imagine anyone besides lifetime subscribers to Fangoria Magazine getting worked up about the prospect of seeing these people play themselves but even still, the movie is inept and dumb Continue reading →
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