“My Professor’s Guide To Murder” (*1/2 out of four) was a senseless and stupid suspense thriller about a creative writing graduate student (Rae DeRosa) who becomes the assistant to a new professor (Landon Ashworth) who is a celebrity murder mystery writer but she soon becomes suspicious that he might be a murderer himself and has to watch his every move. Badly acted and staged and is often laughable at times. Director Haylie Duff (sister of Hillary) strains to build tension but based on this effort she’s not exactly a “professor” of filmmaking yet.

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“Run Rabbit Run” (** out of four) was a moody but muted melodrama about a fertility doctor (Sarah Snook) who believes in life after death but starts to experience strange occurrences with her young child (Lily LaTorre) which challenges her own beliefs and leads to her having to confront a ghostly figure (Greta Scacchi) from her own past. Good performances and atmospheric lensing from Bonnie Elliot keep you watching for a while until you realize film is going nowhere and taking you right along with it. Screenwriting debut for Australian novelist Hannah Kent. Film is the third film with the same title in the last 15 years.

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“Eye For Eye” (** out of four) was a lackadaisical Western melodrama about a vicious herder (John Savage) who kills the wife (Bianca Blanco) of a determined farmer (Shane Clouse) in an attempt to intimidate and overpower him to surrender his land but he instead decides to ride against him and his herd for bloodthirsty revenge. Cast of decent performers and solid director do what they can with low-budget production and overall routine material. Die-hard Western fans might want to take a look but it’s pretty forgettable otherwise.

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“Confidential Information” (** out of four) was a competent but unexceptional police melodrama about a police detective (Dominick Purcell) who is dying from cancer who arranges to be killed in the line of duty so his wife (Kate Bosworth) can receive lifetime health benefits but this leads to a multitude of consequences for other cops (Mel Gibson, Nick Stahl) and various underworld figures as everyone finds their worst instincts rising to the surface. Overall well-directed by co-writer/director Michael Oblowitz but film is enervated by its routine story and structure. Film uses the mesmerizing “House Of The Rising Sun” which was used for the classic scene in “Casino” but it just doesn’t have the same conviction here.

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“Resurrected” (**1/2 out of four) was a better-than-average low-budget horror thriller set in another dystopian future in which the Vatican has discovered a supernatural way of resurrecting people; one troubled priest (Dave Davis) discovers a link from the various resurrections to a series of brutal murders that have started occurring and sets to expose them while all the while questioning his own faith and his own path in life. Part standard cliched religious horror hokum but also partially well-done and creepy. A lot of the film takes place online on computer and chat forums but still delivers some jolts along the way.

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“Gabriel’s Redemption: Part One” (* out of four) was a miserable adaptation of Sylvain Renard’s popular series about the continuing personal and sexual adventures of the title character Gabriel (Giulio Berruti) who leaves his prestigious position at the University At Toronto and meets a new girl (Melanie Zannetti) who is a teacher at Oxford but their academic and philosophical ideals clash with one another. Molasses-moving and tedious, just like all the other Renard film adaptations; this makes the “50 Shades” movies look like “The Matrix” by comparison. Film basically boils down to 2 who have different presentations to students and how that manifests their sexual obsession. If that sounds like little to get excited about, you wouldn’t be wrong.

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“The Unseen” (*** out of four) was a stark horror melodrama about a man (Aden Young- who looks an awful lot like Chris Cornell) who is gradually becoming invisible due to a chemical accident at work and risks everything to seek and find out his daughter (Julia Sarah Stone) who is now missing. Mixes equal parts eerie horror with emotional and moving character drama and keeps its grip, thanks to Young’s strong (and believable) performance and crisp cinematography from Stephen Maier. First-time you see him with missing body parts is genuinely scary! Made in 2016 and reminiscent in some ways of “Hollow Man” but definitely worthwhile “seeing.”

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“2025 Armageddon” (** out of four) was an efficient but empty action thriller set in another armageddon end-of-the-world scenario in which a militant alien race launches an attack on Earth using prehistoric creatures and geological disasters that they learned through The Asylum Movie Channel which somehow reached their planet! In response, various militants and officers (Michael Pare, Lindsay Marie Wilson, and others) try to stop them and send them back to their planet where they belong. Fast-paced and features some decent visual effects but by now- you’ve seen it all before and done better and will undoubtedly see it done better again. One of the co-writers was Glenn Campbell who did the noted visual effects for “Tron” and “Life Force” which this movie was clearly influenced by.

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“No Hard Feelings” (*** out of four) was an affectionately done comic melodrama about a hard-nosed twentysomething (Jennifer Lawrence) who is hired by millionaire parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) to bring their introverted son (Andrew Barth Feldman) out of his shell before college but naturally the plans go astray when they start to fall in love. Good vehicle for Lawrence gives her some funny dialogue to chew on and remains entertaining throughout even as it covers predictable and expected bases. Amazingly, this was based on the story of a real-life Craigslist ad.

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“My Husband’s Worst Mistake” (*1/2 out of four) was an inane suspense thriller about a megalomaniacal husband (Scott Gibson) who learns that his wife (Jinesea Bianca Lewis) had an affair and kills her in a fit of rage; he then sets out to destroy the life of the wife (Sarah Cleveland) of the man (Matt Wells) who had an affair with his own wife but soon find that everyone is trying to cover their tracks. Circumstances (read screenwriter’s contrivance) get more and more outlandish and ridiculous by the minute, especially in final third. Glossy lighting and cinematography from Bill St. John can’t save this one from being a huge “mistake” all around.

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