“Pocket Dial Murder” (** out of four) was a blandly synthetic melodrama thriller about an unsuspecting wife (Kirsten Comerford) who receives a pocket dial from her husband (Steve Byers) and hears the death of a woman on the other line; when her husband comes home, he says he lost his phone. Is he telling the truth or is he a duplicitous murderer? Slickly made and filmed but obvious at every turn and thus carries no voltage of shocks or surprises. Film has inherent echoes of Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder” (right down to its title) but this is pretty much a wrong number all around.

Continue reading →

“Fear The Invisible Man” (*1/2 out of four) was a drably done adaptation of H.G. Wells’ sci/fi novel about a young widow (Mhairi Calvey) who shelters a former friend (Mike Beckingham) who has somehow managed to make himself invisible and as his fear and isolation increases he gradually descends into sanity and provides a reign of terror for the outside city. Certainly one of the dreariest and least exciting of Wells’ novels to make it to the screen; there were probably more scares and thrills in Chevy Chase’s “Memoirs Of An Invisible Man.” Calvey tries in the lead role but this is still hardly worth “seeing.”

Continue reading →

“Jagged Mind” (** out of four) was a hollow suspense melodrama about a young woman (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) who starts to become plagued by blackouts and hallucinatory visions and begins to suspect that this is all the doing of her girlfriend (Shannon Woodward) who has them both in some sort of time loop or is it also possible she is losing her mind? Well-acted movie never achieves much in the way of suspense and instead becomes jumbled and detached as its cerebral story unfolds. Feature-film directing debut from noted short-story filmmaker Kelley Kali who also has a small role as a hostess.

Continue reading →

“Eradication” (*1/2 out of four) was a grindingly inert and routine futuristic melodrama set in the midst of a worldwide pandemic in which an unknown disease has wiped out most of the Earth’s population and a man (Harry Aspinwall) with unique blood has been isolated for study but has to break quarantine to save his wife (Anita Abdinezhad) and finds himself hunted by monstrous beings and (yawn) a shadowy government agency trying to bring him back in for testing. Just a series of derivative ideas borrowed from many other (and more skillful) movies, specifically “28 Days Later.” Stark cinematography from Alexandra Gilwit and Zachary Ludescher is only virtue. It’s about time these post-apocalyptic/futuristic/end-of-the-world thrillers were “eradicated” themselves.

Continue reading →

“Wicked Game” (* out of four) was a wicked awful horror thriller about two paranormal investigators (Saint Heart and Crajiece Danielle) who are filming their own podcast when they are terrorized by “demonic forces” after attempting to make paranormal contact with the victims of a brutal serial killer. Allegedly inspired by the classic Chris Isaak song of the same name but other Isaak titles “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing”, “Nothin’ To Say” , and (especially) “Goin Nowhere” are more apt descriptions of this garish misfire. Brutal, in all senses of the term.

Continue reading →

“Clock” (*1/2 out of four) was a dour suspense melodrama about a woman (Dianna Agron) who is about to turn 39 and desperately tries to fix her broken biological clock and goes to a fertility doctor (Melora Hardin) but finds a host of violent hallucinations and psychological problems as a result. Moody cinematography from Martian Vian is one of film’s only merits as it is otherwise listless and glum. Writer/director Alexis Jacknow adapted this from her own 2020 short film of the same name; viewers will likely be all-too-tempted at looking at their own clock and counting down the minutes till this trifle is over.

Continue reading →

“The Raker House” (* out of four) was a nearly unendurable psychodrama about a disoriented man (Alex Javo) with severe memory loss who begins to suspect that his mortician wife (Whitney Lavaux) may be behind it and he has to question his sense of trust and sanity in his life. Writer/director John Covert co-stars himself as a clown but his own movie takes the form of an unwatchable freak show. More of a film experiment than anything else but result is fragmented and dull. “House Of Pain” would have been a more apt title for this timewaster.

Continue reading →

“Darkeplica” (*1/2 out of four) was a stiff horror psychodrama about a woman (Melisa Sandlin) who encounters all kinds of PTSD and mental health struggles upon the disappearance of her children leading her husband (Devin Laster) to think she has lost her mind and her to question her own sanity and state of reality. Yet another horror film with too much mumbo and too much jumbo and hardly any scares. Also yet another rehash of “The Shining” which told similar story much more stylishly and scarily over 40 years ago.

Continue reading →

“Kandahar” (*1/2 out of four) was an insipid action melodrama about a C.I.A. operative (Gerard Butler) and his translator (Navid Negahban) who find themselves on the run after their cover is blown and they uncover a sinister conspiracy in Afghanistan involving both the Afghan and U.S. governments. Attempt to inject topicality into a standard Butler action thriller is an almost complete bore; by the time you sort out the muddle, film is too far gone for it to matter and final third (when film finally picks up) looks like outtakes from “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Even Butler just seems to be going through the motions here. This was the second American film to be filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia.

Continue reading →

“Spider Man: Across The Spider-Verse” (*** out of four) was a visually dazzling sequel to the 2018 original showing the hero Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) who catapults across the multiverse and encounters Spider Woman (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) and Spider Man (voice of Jake Johnson) and has to unite with them as a team to overcome the deadly threat of The Spot (voice of Jason Schwartzman). Full of psychedelic visuals and color designs that are eye-popping and spectacular at times and easily envelop and sweep you along and help you overlook story and script weaknesses. A bit long at nearly two-and-a-half hours but fun for kids and “Spider Man” fans.

Continue reading →