Category: Film Review

Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen like the dark stuff. They’ve explored human misery and troubled relationships in features such as “Villains,” “Body,” and “Significant Other.” They graduate to a more visceral level of body horror in “Novocaine,” as screenwriter Lars Jacobson (“Day of the Dead: Bloodline”) cooks up a special recipe of pain that’s sold as something of a romance with bits of superhero cinema as well. It’s the tale of a man who can’t feel pain faced with a seemingly impossible task of rescue, marching into danger for love, only to encounter extreme violence from those who don’t understand what keeps him upright. It’s a formula for a vicious night at the movies, and “Novocaine” gets most of the way there, thanks to a charming lead performance from Jack Quaid. Berk and Olsen launch the picture with enthusiasm and surprises, and while they can’t keep up this momentum, it’s enough to secure an entertaining viewing experience, but not a film for the squeamish. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2019, writer/director Bong Joon-Ho escalated an already lauded career with the release of “Parasite.” The feature managed to break free of art-house control to become a mainstream hit, even making its way into the Awards Season gold rush, claiming several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The helmer was put into a special position of permission, as Hollywood was ready to back whatever he wanted to make as his follow-up. And now there’s “Mickey 17,” which is an adaptation of a 2022 book by Edward Ashton, playing to Bong’s storytelling strengths as the material covers human and animal concerns, especially exploitation during a time of corporate control. “Mickey 17” has a lot of bold ideas and a budget to bring them to life, but in a career filled with fascinating projects, this is arguably his least effective offering, unable to find narrative clarity as the whole endeavor drags from one scene to the next. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Less than a year after the release of “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,” the SpongeBob SquarePants Universe receives another spin-off in “Plankton: The Movie.” It’s a sudden SpongeBobbing that’s a little disorienting, as someone, somewhere is determined to increase media ubiquity of the franchise and its cast of characters. “Sandy Cheeks” wasn’t entirely successful, but it remained an entertaining cartoon event, handling the presentation of a supporting player as she’s granted a starring role. “Plankton: The Movie” does away with heroism, electing to extend screen time with a villain, albeit one who never seems to have much success when disrupting daily life in Bikini Bottom. Thankfully, Plankton is an amusing irritant to follow, and while the production still maintains trouble with final acts, the offering is spirited and humorous, gifting co-writer/star Mr. Lawrence an opportunity to shine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s recently been some internet debate over the quality of movies made by director Paul W.S. Anderson. He’s a divisive figure in film fan communities, and his oeuvre isn’t exactly inspiring, and while he’s managed to create a few passably entertaining pictures (such as “Resident Evil” and “Even Horizon”), most of his work is dire, forever chasing B-movie highs with a limited vision for style, performance, and action. The last 15 years hasn’t been especially kind to Anderson, and he lands another career thud with “In the Lost Lands,” an adaptation of a 1982 George R.R. Martin short story. Anderson and screenwriter Constantin Werner set out to create a world for the endeavor, but there’s not much to explore in this ultra-processed dud, which doesn’t connect at all as a fantasy epic, and looks like a CD-ROM game from 1996. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Scripted by Ivan Diaz, Dan Scheinkman, and Meghan Brown, “F Marry Kill” is a tale about the perils of modern dating, amplified through a serial killer story. There should be some level of panic involved, and since the feature is also a comedy, perhaps a few laughs found along the way. However, the material doesn’t get anywhere with its ideas, swinging wildly from a study of female liberation to a detective story, asking viewers to care about thinly drawn characters experiencing an easily avoidable threat. Director Laura Murphy endeavors to create something madcap and perhaps a little bit scary, but she mostly crafts a terrible episode of television, aiming to go as lightweight as possible with material that carries no cinematic weight. “F Marry Kill” is a rough sit, and its leaden way with cutesiness and edginess wears on the senses long before the first act passes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Rule of Jenny Pen” is an adaptation of a short story by author Owen Marshall, giving screenwriters Eli Kent and James Ashcroft (who also directs) a challenge to expand a tale that’s explored in a limited location, following a small number of characters. It’s a study of insanity in many ways, also taking on the indignity of aging, but Ashcroft is ultimately after something sinister in the material, which sinks into the muddiness of senior care nightmares. “The Rule of Jenny Pen” is a memorable offering of torment, watching the helmer work very hard to generate a visual experience with the film, exploring unreality and the confines of the central location. He’s also blessed with a tremendous cast, as stars Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow absolutely sink their teeth into their roles, clearly embracing the wild sense of torture the material develops throughout. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Eephus” is the feature-length directorial debut for Carson Lund, who previously provided marvelous, evocative work as a cinematographer for 2024’s “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.” He brought the craziness of an extended family holiday to life in the spirited film, and he immediately returns to the nuances of relationships and the atmosphere of an event in “Eephus,” which is named after a specialized pitch in baseball. Lund (who co-scripts the offering with Michael Basta and Nate Fisher) takes a long look at the game and players in a recreational league, eschewing plot to remain in The Hang with two teams spending a full day working out the details of the last game hosted inside a ballpark scheduled for demolition. Lund doesn’t put dramatic pressure on viewers, preferring a more observational understanding of aging men and their relationships to one another and the spirit of baseball. And he sells it all with humor and detail, creating an unexpectedly charming picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Atom Egoyan almost treats “Seven Veils” like a happy accident. The feature was created while Egoyan mounted a stage revival of the opera “Salome,” inspired by the restrictions he faced during his creative process, triggering a need to explore what he previously couldn’t on stage. It’s an unusual point of departure for the script, but Egoyan is an unusual guy, and while his filmography is littered with ambitious offerings of mediocrity, especially in recent years, he returns to a semi-alert state in his latest, which covers a range of topics and spaces of psychological distress. “Seven Veils” comes withing striking distance of becoming a mystery, following a director’s efforts to oversee a new production of “Salome” while inspecting all of the emotional baggage, which returns to view during the rehearsal process. Egoyan creates a mood for the endeavor, and his pursuit of behavior is fascinating to watch at times, infusing the film with a few surprises as it balances the process of making art and the development of manipulation that’s often paired with creativity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s a certain level of surprise when encountering “Night of the Zoopocalypse,” especially as the picture is being sold as “inspired by a concept” from Clive Barker. The famed horror/fantasy novelist and filmmaker (responsible for “Hellraiser” and “Nightbreed”), Barker isn’t someone typically associated with family entertainment, and while he doesn’t have anything more than an executive producer credit on the feature, his love for the macabre remains in the animated movie. Not that “Night of the Zoopocalypse” is frightening, but it does try to remain a little spooky while still welcoming young viewers to this survival picture. Directors Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro find a proper balance of comedy and threat in the endeavor, which is a mostly spirited exploration of animal panic, sold with interesting budget animation and a charming voice cast who help to bring the offering to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Queen of the Ring” explores Mildred Burke, or at least certain parts of her life. Burke is credited as helping to bring “lady wrestling” to the masses, using her “Kansas cyclone” personality and physical gifts to break through industry barriers during a time when such pro-wrestling events were actually illegal. It’s an incredible life boiled down into a frustratingly mediocre movie, as writer/director Ash Avildsen (son of John G. Avildsen) tries to replicate his father’s “Rocky” formula for the endeavor, pushing too much melodrama at times. There’s a story to share about the origin of women in professional wrestling, and “Queen of the Ring” should’ve been it, presenting Burke with more than soap opera-adjacent woes. However, there’s star Emily Bett Rickards, who’s absolutely vibrant in the lead role, giving the offering a wonderful energy that taps into Burke’s professional and personal drive. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Visual effects artist James Madigan makes his feature-length directorial debut with “Fight or Flight,” and he’s chosen quite a storytelling challenge. It’s an actioner, but one set in an airplane, tracking the growing chaos inside a Bangkok flight bound for San Francisco that’s teeming with all kinds of killers and targets. Perhaps there’s some similarity to 2022’s “Bullet Train” and a few other bruisers cut from the same cloth, but Madigan brings a brighter sense of entertainment value to the violent film, largely able to juggle all the hurt coming for the main characters and dark touches of comedy, which is employed to make the whole thing palatable. Screenwriters Brooks McLaren and D.J. Catrona create an interesting gladiatorial arena for the endeavor, and while they can’t always sustain the sugar rush elements of the picture, they mostly nail excitement and oddity in this rough and tumble movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Bloat” is a “screenlife” movie, similar to features like “Searching” and “Missing,” where viewers are offered the POV of a character struggling to conduct an investigation using only computers and phones. The creative approach has its limitations, requiring a filmmaker willing to stick to the rules of screen engagement to best generate a sense of reality in this digital world. “Bloat” isn’t a thriller, but more of a mystery with horror seasoning, following the efforts of a father stuck in a remote location trying to keep tabs on his son, who experienced a traumatic incident that gradually becomes something unexplainable. Writer/director Pablo Absento hopes to scare his audience through such parental pressure, but it’s unlikely he’ll even be able to keep them awake with this wildly unsatisfying offering of screen-based detective work. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2019, “Last Breath” was a British documentary about an undersea disaster involving saturation divers conducting business in the North Sea. The feature received positive reviews and decent viewership, but co-director Alex Parkinson wasn’t quite done with the tale of search and rescue. The helmer returns with “Last Breath,” which offers a dramatization of the crisis, trading genuine footage and communication for a more cinematic understanding of the stakes and the players in this urgent situation. It’s a little strange to revive the tale again, but it’s quite an experience to relive, and Parkinson (who co-scripts with David Brooks and Mitchell LaFortune) does an excellent job restoring suspense and emotionality to the emergency, and he has a diverse cast of actors to help bring such tension to life, offering passionate performances for a well-done movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Dito Montiel has enjoyed a very strange career. He’s never had a hit, yet he’s managed to make eight films, somehow convincing producers to keep gambling on his artistic vision, which typically covers rough characters involved in troubling business. “Riff Raff” is his ninth endeavor, and it’s mostly more of the same from Montiel, who works to keep his budget low as most of the story is explored in a single location. And there are periodic bursts of violence to help rough up the writing’s assortment of difficult people placed in situations of confrontation. Montiel doesn’t have much spin on his creative curveball, but there’s a better class of actors involved in “Riff Raff,” helping to elevate an otherwise droopy offering of crime cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The title “My Dead Friend Zoe” seems like it should belong to a Touchstone Pictures release from 1993, hinting at a goofy horror comedy to come. Co-writer/director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes makes his feature-length debut with the movie (adapting his 2022 short), and he’s only marginally interested in laughs. The rest of the endeavor concerns the brewing storm of feelings inside an Army veteran working to avoid the details of her past. “My Dead Friend Zoe” carries a slightly bizarre tone for its first half, but Hausmann-Stokes has a final destination in mind for the material, packing quite an emotional punch with the film, which seeks to examine mental health issues facing military veterans. There’s tough love to survey in the offering, and it’s a capably assembled drama with excellent acting to support its message of human connection and self-examination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“I Heart Willie” is the third production to exploit the public domain status of “Steamboat Willie,” arriving after “The Mouse Trap” and “Mouse of Horrors” (a fourth competitor, “Screamboat,” is due out soon) There’s been a race to see who can reach the newly freed Mickey Mouse first, and with such production speed comes substantial filmmaking sloppiness, as little thought or money is put into endeavors looking to coast on the perversion of brand recognition. “I Heart Willie” is a Mexican production attempting to make a mess of Disney history, putting actor/screenwriter David Vaughn (who receives “characters created by” and sole writing credits) on a mission to generate a terrifying descent into the vicious ways of a monstrous “mouse-man” and his endless appetite for human flesh. Director Alejandro G. Alegre gets about as far as torture and suffering in the feature, which isn’t suspenseful, but something created quickly to cash-in on a trend that, so far, viewers don’t really care about. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the quick box office death of 2023’s “Dumb Money,” it’s amazing that another movie about Reddit-born financial horrors would be put into production. “Cold Wallet” turns its attention to the ways of cryptocurrency and some of the manipulation employed to keep certain people rich while others are ruined. However, co-writer/director Cutter Hodierne isn’t interested in the specific financial ways of the industry, instead using the frustrations of the have nots to fuel a thriller, taking things into a “Panic Room” direction, only without Fincher-led precision. “Cold Wallet” is a little lacking when it comes to thrills, but the feature has a few highlights as it focuses on confrontations and the messiness of a hostage situation. Perhaps those invested in this particular monetary realm might get a little something extra out of the viewing experience, but Hodierne delivers a few scenes of intensity to go with the tale’s long night of paranoia. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Rats” comes from the minds of co-writers/directors Carl Fry and Maxwell Nalevansky, who make their feature-length filmmaking debut with the endeavor. And the partners are trying to stuff as much as they can into the offering, out to make a wild, absurdist comedy that follows the everyday insanity of Fresno, TX. It’s a town home to petty crime, unhinged people, and the site of a possible sale of nuclear weapons to terrorists. Those weaned on Adult Swim programming are the target demographic for the effort, which almost exclusively rides along on shock humor and pronounced oddity, putting Fry and Nalevansky on a journey to make an extreme movie on a minimal budget. “Rats” is definitely crazy, and there are laughs to be had along the way, especially when the helmers try for inspired lunacy. But even the most die-hard fans of cinematic nuttiness might find themselves checking the time during the viewing experience, as Fry and Nalevansky can’t quite sustain their vision for this explosion of egos and bodily fluids. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Uppercut” has a slightly bewildering production history. It’s a remake of a 2021 German film, which was written and directed by Torsten Ruether. The helmer returns to create an English-language remake, which may have been originally conceived as two features, presented in “Still” and “Sparkling” versions. Whatever creative ambition was originally in place for the endeavor has been removed for the second stab at the premise, likely edited together from two tales of boxing challenges and relationship difficulties. Ruether hopes to bring some sporting philosophy and intimate characterizations to the effort, but “Uppercut” loses a battle with pacing and performance. It’s more of a theatrical production than a cinematic experience, and Ruether can’t make it come alive, struggling to generate interesting conflicts and concerns as this extremely talky picture frequently crawls to a full stop. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s always room for a “Die Hard” knockoff. The influential 1988 actioner has inspired a whole bunch of imitators using the central idea of one heroic character battling many villainous ones inside a single location. “Cleaner” seems to have the working parts, mostly taking place around a high rise building, and a team of terrorists are interrupting a business celebration, putting the safety of all in the hands of someone who isn’t supposed to be in the building. And yet, the feature (scripted by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, and Matthew Orton) isn’t fully giving into the John McClane way. Perhaps there’s not enough of a budget to really go wild, keeping the physical highlights of “Cleaner” to the final act. While mayhem is limited, the picture remains entertaining, taking on a different kind of antagonistic force, and star Daisy Ridley provides welcome spiritedness, giving director Martin Campbell (who recently fumbled “Dirty Angels”) something to work with as the writing finds its way to more dynamic events. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com