“Bad Hombres” (** out of four) a muddled and muffled suspense melodrama about two undocumented immigrants (Diego Tinoco and Hemky Madera) who are in financial desperation and take a job digging holes in the desert but soon find that their various employers (Thomas Jane, Tyrese Gibson, and others) are psychopaths who will bury them in the desert if they don’t stay in line. Passable filmmaking and acting hold your interest for a little while but after a while the ugliness and sordid storyline start to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Film attempts to be meaningful and topical about immigrants and their financial struggle but it’s hindered by film’s mediocre framework.

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“You Should Have Killed Me” (*1/2 out of four) was a slatternly pulp melodrama about a violent criminal (Demian Alan Mancino) who plans on leaving the criminal underworld and is betrayed and left for dead by his double-crossing best friend (Matty Weiland); upon coming back from the brink of death, he swears vengeance at any and all cost. Violent and unpleasant underworld thriller full of beatings, sadism, and empty threats. Film is warmed-over wannabe Scorcese but the film it most may remind hard-core film lovers is “Payback.” You should watch that again instead of this.

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“Murder At The Country Club” (*1/2 out of four) was a stagnant mystery thriller about the assistant manager (Alex Mitchell) of a luxurious country club who finds nefarious financial dealings and corruption involving murder going on behind its picture-perfect veneer and finds this places her own life in danger. Opening scenes are laughably bad and film improves marginally after that but continues with overall coarse predictability. When will producers learn that a murder mystery means little when you don’t care for anyone who has been murdered?

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“Blind Waters” (** out of four) was an obviously derivative shark-shock thriller about a couple (Meghan Carrasquillo and Noam Sigler) stranded at sea and forced to fight for their lives when an unrelenting shark starts to besiege them but this leads to them to turn on one another and suspect one another’s initiatives and identities. Mostly plays as a greatest-hits amalgram of the “Jaws” series but the film this most remind hard-core film lovers like me is 1988’s “Midnight Crossing”. Far from the worst of its ilk but far from the best either.

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“Club Zero” (*1/2 out of four) was a terminally weird and wan melodrama about a free-spirited teacher (Mia Wasikowska) who takes a job at an elite boarding school and forms a relationship with various students (Samuel D. Anderson, Florence Baker, and others) that takes a dangerous and obsessive turn that later endangers all of them. Whimsical yet aloof in equal measure and has an ironic title since it registers almost zero in terms of laughs or emotional resonance and diminishes any impact with its never-ending length. Avoid, unless watching a character throw up and eat their vomit with dinner is your idea of a good time.

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“Hubcap” (* out of four) was the film equivalent of a flat tire about a small-town sheriff (Holly A. Morris) in a mountain town who is investigating a supernatural serial killer but at the same time has to juggle her love life and various eccentrics (Adam Boyer, April Tweedy, and others) in her life. Jumbled and incoherent film can’t decide whether it wants to be a witless comedy or a ridiculous thriller and winds up stalling (and failing) at both. The kind of movie that cries out for the offbeat touch of the Coen Bros and is in serious need of a tuneup.

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“Wonka” (** out of four) was a disappointing musical prequel to the 1971 blockbuster classic showing the young and poor Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) with dreams of opening up a shop for his one-of-a-kind chocolate but finds himself in continuous battle with various rival chocolate companies and owners (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, and others) who want to shut him down. Opening number is nicely done and there are some dazzling visuals along the way but neither the music, nor the staging, nor film’s screenplay are all that special. Certainly watchable but overall unnecessary. Chalamet is pretty one-note in the lead and won’t make anyone forget Gene Wilder anytime soon.

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“Sunrise” (** out of four) was a maundering, meandering horror melodrama about various animals in a small town that are turning up dead and a creature of the night (Alex Pettyfer) wanders in the midst carving his plans for vengeance against the town preacher (Guy Pearce) who years earlier killed his family. Well-lensed by Ivan Abel and directed with flair and mood by Andrew Baird but story and characters never gel and film remains plodding and pretentious. Pearce chews up the scenery and adds whatever style he can as the main villain.

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“Woman With The Red Lipstick” (* out of four) was a lame suspense melodrama about a woman and her boyfriend (Rebecca Liddiard and Marshall Williams) who are looking to spice up their relationship so they assume fake names and engage in role-playing for the first time at a bar but she subsequently finds out that the same name she used is the name of a missing person and she begins to for some reason suspect her boyfriend of this. Incredible lapses in logic abound in this clunky and forgettable thriller. Some howlingly bad dialogue and overripe acting turn this into a real laugh riot but unfortunately film isn’t meant as a comedy.

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“Cult Killer” (*1/2 out of four) was a cold-hearted psychodrama about a protege (Alice Eve) of a renowned private investigator (Antonio Banderas); when he is murdered, she becomes obsessed with finding his killer and this brings her into a dangerous alliance with the killer himself and various other powerful figures in town who don’t want the truth exposes. Eve does what she can with a cardboard role but Banderas is wasted and film doesn’t garner enough suspense or character development to make it involving. Hardly the “cult” movie that its filmmakers had in mind.

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