“The Cutter” (*1/2 out of four) was a cut-rate action melodrama about a former cop (Chuck Norris) turned world-weary private investigator who is hired by a beautiful woman (Joanna Pacula) to help an aged diamond cutter (Bernie Kopell) with thugs who have extortion ties going all the way back to the Holocaust. Made in 2005 and being re-released now and was Chuck’s final action role before he understandably went into retirement. Norris is good as usual but story is seedy and exploitative and even the action scenes are clumsily staged.

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“A Weekend To Forget” (*1/2 out of four) was a flimsy melodrama about a group of friends (Neo Akpofure, Daniel Etim Effiong, Erica Nlewedim, and others) who reunite for a weekend getaway at an exclusive resort but soon find that old problems and tensions still exist which soon rise to the surface and result in consuming passions that affect all of them. Film might remind you in some ways of “The Big Chill” but meanders nowhere with histrionics and character relationships that make no sense. You’d best “forget” checking this one out.

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“The Bricklayer” (** out of four) was a ho-hum action suspense thriller about an ex-CI.A. agent (Aaron Eckhart) who now works as a bricklayer who is called back into action when an international terrorist (Clifton Collins, Jr.) targets the agency and he has to re-team with his former partner (Nina Dobrev) to save his identity and simultaneously save the world. The kind of film that might have seemed fresh 20+ years ago before “The Bourne Identity” and now seems tame and stale, despite a good cast. Another disappointing showing for one-time action stalwart Renny Harlin who in better days directed “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger.”

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“Jack And Diane” (*1/2 out of four) was a muddled, oppressively obtuse melodrama about a young girl named Jack (Riley Keough) who meets a girl named Diane (Juno Temple) and they fall in love with one another but their relationship becomes progressively obsessive leading to both of them being in emotional hot water. Hazy and synthetic characters and script and directed with stilted aloofness by Bradley Rust Gray. Made in 2012 but being re-released now. Allegedly inspired by the classic John Mellencamp song but other Mellencamp song titles “Nothin’ Matters And What If It Did”, “The Full Catastrophe”, and “Down In The Bottom” are more apt descriptions of sitting through this.

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“Race For Glory: Audi vs. Lancia” (** out of four) was a studiously solemn biography set in the 1983 World Championships showing the intense rivalry between Audi from Germany (Volker Bruch) and Lancia from Italy (Gabriele Portoghese) and this drove both men and their respective countries into fierce competition with one another. Reverent but never revelatory and never shifts into high-gear. In the last year, there have been perhaps too many biographical and historical race-car movies and the genre is starting to run on exhaust fumes. Decent car-race footage is film’s main virtue.

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“Hunted” (**1/2 out of four) was a pretty gripping suspense melodrama about a woman (Lucie Debay) who is kidnapped by 2 sociopath/psychopaths (Arieh Wolthather and Ciaran O’Brien) and dragged out into the middle of the wilderness where she has to re-discover her own inner beast and turn the tables on them and battle them to the death. Ultimately too derivative of too many other similar psychodramas (“I Spit On Your Grave”, “Mother’s Day”, “Wrong Turn”) but very stylishly directed by Vincent Paronnaud and ravishingly shot by Joacquim Philippe that makes this worthwhile. Goes overboard with grim violence towards the end but overall good of its kind.

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“Secret Love Triangle” (*1/2 out of four) was a shapeless suspense psychodrama about a woman (Brianna Cohen) who is falsely imprisoned for the murder of her best friend’s husband but then breaks out of prison and goes on the run with her own husband (Jonathan Stoddard) in attempt to unravel the web of mystery and also clear her own name. Shades of “Double Jeopardy”, shades of “Fatal Attraction”, and pretty much every other synthetic thriller you can think of compacted into this unwieldy mess. Film marks the third film together of Cohen and Stoddard but the third time definitely is not the charm here.

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“Body In The Attic” (*1/2 out of four) was a ludicrous suspense thriller about a woman (Abigail Hawk) stuck in an unhappy relationship with a creep who happens to be the town mayor (Donny Boaz) and begins to have an affair and convinces her lover (Marc Hermann) to move into their upstairs attic (!) but when he winds up dead, everyone starts to suspect one another and find their worst instincts rising to the surface. Laughably dumb and silly and made even worse by ham-fisted direction and acting. Make sure to bury this one far in your “attic” where it won’t be re-discovered.

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