Category: Film Review

There are turns and twists in “Companion,” and for those especially sensitive to spoilers, it’s probably best to avoid reviews, commercials, trailers, social media posts, word of mouth, and the poster for the picture, as everything tends to expose what’s really happening in the feature. Writer/director Drew Hancock has a bit of sinister business in mind with the material, presenting a study of a relationship that’s not entirely built on a foundation of honesty. Robotics is a more accurate origin story for “Companion,” which transforms a tale of love into an odd situation of survival involving a character newly exposed to a harsh reality that’s carried on without her knowledge or consent. Hancock doesn’t have enough drama to really pack the run time, but he comes armed with solid ideas, strong performances, and fantastic visuals, crafting a mostly involving thriller that zigs and zags with some authority. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writers/directors Alexi Pappas and Jeremy Teicher were previously focused on the wide world of sports. They explored the troubles of a long-distance runner in 2016’s “Tracktown,” and spotlighted an outbreak of love for a cross-country skier in 2020’s “Olympic Dreams.” They ditch athleticism for a different kind of competition in “Not an Artist,” which follows the general anxiety and collision of personalities that occurs at a retreat for creative minds and all the insecurities they can carry. It’s another winner for Pappas and Teicher, who do very well with characterization and mood, exploring the semi-comical ways of the getaway and all the internal chaos it inspires. “Not an Artist” eventually moves too far away from humor, but up to this point, it connects, presenting an amusing take on self-imposed pressures and life woes, sold with terrific performances that capture a few complex emotions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1988’s “Mac and Me” was a film presented by McDonalds, finding the hamburger chain looking to reach its target demographic (children) with a movie that played to their interests and, hopefully, strengthened brand loyalty. “Green and Gold” is not another “Mac and Me,” but it does share a similar interest in merging entertainment with fast food, as Culver’s sponsors the feature, trying to offer its target demographic (senior citizens) a study of midwestern living, and perhaps encourage a post-showing burger run. Both pictures also share a common, and unexpected, darkness, as co-writer/director Anders Lindwall explores the death of the American dream in “Green and Gold,” going where many filmmakers have gone before during his study of farmland aches and pains. The offering isn’t original, and Lindwall is determined to hit every cliché he can, but he has a strong cast to help sell the effort’s emotional beats, making performances the most compelling aspect of the endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I want to believe that writer/director Barry Jay is trying to do something important with “Like Father, Like Son.” There’s a message buried deep in the picture about cycles of abuse, even reaching into hereditary traits to spotlight the continuation of evil, and Jay looks to use such simmering rage to inspire a horror film of sorts. It’s a psychological take on slasher cinema, striving to be a bit more menacing than the usual in serial killer tales. However, the execution of “Like Father, Like Son” is completely botched, as Jay has no real clue how to deliver this study of generational pain without turning the whole thing into a cheap looking, poorly acted, and roughly crafted feature that doesn’t possess a single scene of profound feelings. Jay oddly goes for trashiness with the endeavor, and it’s a painful sit, watching the movie fumble every idea it has. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Presence” is a ghost story. However, it’s a ghost story from director Steven Soderbergh, who’s usually not interested in giving viewers exactly what they expect, endeavoring to mix things up with his indie-minded ways. His latest is no different, but Soderbergh isn’t in an esoteric mood with the feature, heading in a more observational direction in a story about a spirit studying a dysfunctional family’s life inside an old house they’ve recently moved into. Scary business isn’t the focus of the offering, as screenwriter David Koepp is primarily interested in broken relationships and domestic issues, gradually working on a developing mystery involving a roving phantom. “Presence” isn’t going to please horror junkies used to more pressurized haunted house tales, but those with patience and some appreciation for Soderbergh’s filmmaking ways are offered an engrossing puzzle of death and household distance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nine years ago, Mel Gibson managed to slip past many personal problems and publicity nightmares to make “Hacksaw Ridge,” earning award season attention for his work on the World War II feature. He didn’t capitalize on the success of the film, with “Flight Risk” his first helming assignment since the release of “Hacksaw Ridge,” returning behind the camera to make a B-movie that almost entirely takes place inside a small plane. It’s a serious downgrade in terms of creative ambition, as Gibson eschews his penchant for epic moviemaking to organize a bland trip of terror in the skies. “Flight Risk” is underwhelming work, finding the script by Jared Rosenberg largely uneventful, primarily focused on psychological battles and brief blasts of violence. It’s difficult to understand what Gibson is trying to achieve here, as he adds little to the effort, missing an opportunity to give this Randall Emmett-style production some real teeth. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Sasha Rainbow makes her helming debut with “Grafted.” The film comes armed with all kinds of ghoulish imagery tied to the concept of stolen identity through the exchange of flesh, and its release timing isn’t ideal, coming so soon after “The Substance” managed to impress critics and do some box office business with its arrangement of body horror. Similarities are noted but not hurtful, as Rainbow tends to find her own personality in the picture, which delivers a gruesome understanding of one Chinese woman’s way with skin grafting science and all the blood that needs to be spilled to find biological success. “Grafted” is graphic and gross, also sharply made by Rainbow, who follows her dark heart in the movie, organizing a mess of evildoing and revenge, looking to deliver a case of the icks with viewers in the mood for something squishy and sick. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Into the Deep” doesn’t have much going for it, with the possible exception of co-star Richard Dreyfuss, who returns, 50 years later, to shark cinema, trying to offer a little “Jaws” magic to the production. Unfortunately, director Christian Sesma is no Steven Spielberg. He’s a B-movie guy typically in charge of pictures with generic titles (such as “72 Hours,” “Take Back,” and “Paydirt”) and limited action, and he continues down this career path with “Into the Deep,” which actually contains very little shark activity. Instead of panic in the ocean, there are dim-witted pirates, diving challenges, and basic screenwriting (credited to Chad Law and Josh Ridgway). Suspense isn’t invited to the endeavor, and while film fanatics might get a charge out of Dreyfuss’s appearance, they probably won’t feel much of anything for the rest of this flat, lifeless chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Brave the Dark” (shot in 2021) shares the story of Stan Deen, a kindly teacher from a Pennsylvania town who showed interest in his students, especially a young, deeply troubled teen named Nathan. The screenplay (by Dale G. Bradley and Lynn Robertson Hay) brings Nathan’s story to life, following this relationship as it develops a level of trust to help investigate the pain of a boy who’s seen too much in his life at such a tender age, lacking the proper guardianship to better understand everything he’s feeling. It’s a good-natured effort, and director Damian Harris (“The Rachel Papers,” “Deceived,” “Gardens of the Night”) tries to keep the picture as deeply felt as possible when dealing with the sensitive subject matter of unprocessed trauma. Harris can’t always get the feature past a television movie atmosphere, but he has family assistance, with co-star Jared Harris (his brother and fellow son of late actor Richard Harris) delivering a lively performance to get “Brave the Dark” to a few emotional spaces it wouldn’t otherwise reach. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Inheritance” arrives on the scene offering a filmmaking gimmick of sorts. The entire feature was shot with an iPhone, giving co-writer/director Neil Burger (“The Marsh King’s Daughter,” “Voyagers,” “The Upside”) an opportunity to take the production anywhere he pleases, as filming was completed without much in the way of crew members. Making movies on a phone isn’t anything new (Steven Soderbergh has done it on multiple occasions), but “Inheritance” aims to become a globetrotting thriller, yet it doesn’t possess much excitement to share with viewers. Stiff, empty, and a good example of European actors unable to manage American accents, the offering is primarily about showing off mobility, as Burger is determined to highlight in-the-moment cinematography for a picture that doesn’t have screen energy to share. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Back in Action” marks Cameron Diaz’s return to the acting game. She hasn’t been in anything since her self-imposed “retirement” ten years ago, and she didn’t exactly leave on good terms, starring in dismal comedies “Sex Tape” and “The Other Woman,” also participating in a misguided remake of “Annie.” She was stuck in sameness, and chooses formula to refresh her star stature in “Back in Action,” joining a streaming actioner that’s similar to most efforts made for home viewing (including “Trigger Warning,” “The Union,” and “Lift”). Diaz and co-star Jamie Foxx try to look excited throughout the endeavor, but the generic nature of the writing (credited to Brendan O’Brien and Seth Gordon, who also directs) flattens the viewing experience, finding violence too glossy and laughs too limited in this spy game that resembles many other secret agent adventures. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

They’re calling it “The Twisted Childhood Universe.” For creators Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey (who’s also credited as Scott Chambers), the TCU is a chance to make a little money in the movie business, quickly building on the ever-so-slight success of “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” which was followed by “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.” Frake-Waterfield and Jeffrey/Chambers are using recent debuts to the public domain to attract attention to terrible, low-budget horror features, going full-gimmick while putting in next to no effort when it comes to conjuring scary business. The boys are back in business in “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” turning their attention to the perversion of J.M. Barrie’s famous character and his world, contorting childhood fantasy into a grisly, grimy horror offering that’s incredibly bleak and artless. Jeffrey/Chambers takes the helming credit this time around, and it's difficult to understand what’s being directed in the endeavor, which is entirely aimless and repetitive, unable to summon even cheap scares with its lack of genre imagination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s been plenty of horror centered around the physical changes and fury of the Wolf Man. The creature has been very good to Universal Pictures over the decades, and the studio keeps trying to reintroduce the character to audiences, perhaps most recently in 2010’s big budget “The Wolfman,” while the hairy menace is set to receive his own roller coaster ride at Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, opening this summer. Until such thrills are offered to the public, viewers are going to have to make do with “Wolf Man,” which brings co-writer/director Leigh Whannell’s take on the menace to the big screen. For some viewers, Whannell did wonders reworking “The Invisible Man” for modern audiences, and he tries to do the same with “Wolf Man.” Unfortunately, while the concept behind this rethinking of body horror is sound, the execution is surprisingly lethargic, as Whannell doesn’t exactly want to make a scary movie with the material, but he doesn’t have much else to share in this inert semi-chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Michiel Blanchart makes an impressive helming debut with “Night Call,” which is one of the sharpest thrillers to come around in recent memory. Also handling the screenplay, Blanchart delves into the heat of survival as a man in the wrong place at the wrong time spends one desperate night trying to clear his name as a bag of money goes missing. It’s not an especially fresh concept, but the execution of the endeavor is outstanding, putting the main character on the move as he dashes around Brussels during a hectic evening of social upheaval. “Night Call” doesn’t bite off more than it can chew, remaining focused on the mission at hand, keeping the players on the move while tension increases as a bad situation always manages to get worse. It’s accomplished work from Blanchart, who has something to say with the material, but he’s also committed to the pure cinematic movement of the effort, which is nail-biting stuff. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Spirit carries most of the “One of Them Days” viewing experience. Screenwriter Syreeta Singleton doesn’t have a novel idea for the feature, which follows two friends as they stumble around Los Angeles in need of quick cash, getting into trouble and shenanigans while meeting an assortment of strange people. What Singelton lacks in originality she makes up for in personality and idiosyncrasy, creating a semi-wild journey for the main players as they attempt to handle their business on a particularly painful day. “One of Them Days” is a highly amusing picture with a few laugh-out-loud moments, and while it doesn’t maintain consistency when it comes to insanity, there’s an effort to get a little wild at times, which is most welcome. And weirdness is capably handled by the cast, finding stars Keke Palmer and SZA enjoying sharp chemistry and playfulness in this scrappy endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Michael Polish has been stuck in B-movie mode for quite some time, working with tiny budgets to make action entertainment (“Force of Nature,” “Terror on the Prairie”) and ridiculous dramas (“American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally”). He’s even tried a faith-based picture on for size (“90 Minutes in Heaven”). Nothing’s caught fire, and his streak of dour, lifeless features is sustained in “Alarum,” which is Polish’s attempt to create a spy game highlighting double-crossing characters, twitchy government figures, and violent encounters. There’s promise in the endeavor’s first act, setting up a plan of action following elusive personalities, but once details start coming into the effort, screenwriter Alexander Vesha gets lost. “Alarum” has sequences of mayhem, but they’re limited, as the offering prefers to deal with conversational and confrontational moments, which Polish can’t turn into riveting cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Something must’ve happened on the set of 2022’s “Orphan: First Kill.” In that movie, stars Julia Stiles and Isabelle Fuhrman were tasked with battling each other as evil deeds were traded between their characters. And now, Stiles is directing “Wish You Were Here,” putting Fuhrman in the lead role of a romantic drama. Clearly the two get along, and their second collaboration is quite different than their first, as Stiles (who co-scripts) oversees an adaptation of a 2017 Renee Carlino novel, which tries to get soft and tragic while following the problems of a woman attempting to find love and a future for herself. “Wish You Were Here” isn’t classified as a YA book, but Stiles tends to treat the material as such, out to explore an overly simplistic relationship between two people who fail to secure much of a connection to begin with. It’s not challenging work, and it lacks essential warmth, as Stiles (making her feature-length helming debut) can’t figure out how to accurately measure Carlino’s melodrama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While it wasn’t a major cinematic achievement, 2023’s “Bank of Dave” managed to deliver the right amount of feel-good filmmaking when dealing with a potentially depressing subject matter. The feature shared the “true(ish)” tale of Dave Fishwick and his battle against the English banking system, laboring to create a place of financial fairness for those struggling to pull themselves out of a hole. There were mild charms, pleasant performances, and plenty of love for the band Def Leppard. Money was clearly made on the picture, as now there’s “Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger,” which revisits this “true(ish)” realm to detail Dave’s fight against the payday loan industry. Writer Piers Ashworth and director Chris Foggin return to duty for a sequel that’s slightly less appealing than the original, getting a little too grabby when inventing drama for the follow-up. While it remains likable enough, “The Loan Ranger” spends too much time away from its core message on monetary dangers, missing the overall educational value of the 2023 release. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2021, Jean-Claude Van Damme returned to the spotlight in “The Last Mercenary.” The picture offered a brighter side to the action star, allowing him to get a little silly in the French production, creating one of his best performances in years. While not a sequel, “The Gardener” is meant to sustain such goodwill, putting Van Damme back in a comedy from returning director David Charhon, who hopes to score again with a mix of violence and goofiness. Lightning doesn’t strike twice for the production team, which visibly struggles to handle the tone of the effort, periodically unsure just how serious to get with the screenplay as it dips into heavy emotion and dark aggression. “The Gardener” seems like a farce for the taking, but Charhon doesn’t lean into the comedic possibilities of the premise, and the small-scale endeavor just isn’t funny, fumbling gags while Van Damme rises up every now and then to take out bad guys. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If you’re a fan of 2018’s “Den of Thieves,” it’s been a long wait for a continuation. If you’re not an admirer of the feature, it hasn’t been long enough. Writer/director Christian Gudegast wanted his own version of Michael Mann’s “Heat,” cooking up a heist thriller made with similar steeliness and a lower grade of actors. The first film managed to find an audience, and while it wasn’t a smash hit, apparently there’s enough interest in a follow-up, as “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” sets out to recapture the spirit, length, and machismo of the original endeavor. Gudegast doesn’t push himself here, out to basically remake the first offering with a location change to Europe, aiming to class up the continuation with a flashier sense of crime and planning. “Pantera” has the benefit of some fresh cast members and a new view, but the material doesn’t escalate the franchise, happy to enter recycle mode as it looks to tempt old fans to return to theaters seven years later. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com