Category: Film Review

“Who will survive and what will be left of them?” was the famous tagline for 1974’s horror classic, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” and such a question of survival also applies to “Dolly.” Co-writers Brandon Weavil and Rod Blackhurst (who also directs) are obviously huffing “Chain Saw” fumes with the endeavor, which follows a collection of characters spending time in the middle of nowhere coming into contact with a special, brutal kind of evil. Blackhurst isn’t messing around with the picture, which is incredibly violent and often gross, hoping to bring viewers back to the wilder days of exploitation cinema from the 1970s with its displays of bodily harm and functions, coming pretty close to fetish film territory. “Dolly” is often caught trying to fill a short run time (77 minutes before end credits), but it’s vividly sold with all kinds of gruesomeness, putting on a big display of nastiness for those who really enjoy such extremity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of “Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa returned to screens last year with “Anniversary,” taking a timely look at American troubles and the stranglehold of family ties. He’s right back in the thick of distress with “Heel,” which provides an unnerving view of a specialized rehabilitation situation involving a young man chained to a wall and the guardians looking to bring out the potential for good from within him. “Heel” has moments where it plays exactly like an early Yorgos Lanthimos production, hunting for disturbing situations within a seemingly functional setting, but Komasa and screenwriters Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid endeavor to find a more askew emotionality to the offering, looking for some heart to go with all the darkness. It’s an unsettling movie at times, but also one that enjoys playing with perspective and performance, creating a memorable understanding of imprisonment that’s meant to benefit both the captive and the captor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Youngblood” was originally released in 1986. Do you remember it? Probably not, but the feature did some business at the box office before becoming a pay cable staple for viewers of a certain age. The picture starred Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze (Keanu Reeves appeared as well), and provided a capable take on the “Rocky” formula, bringing sporting action to the world of hockey, tracking all the team interactions and game conflicts involved in the underdog story. “Youngblood” has now returned, with director Hubert Davis overseeing a remake that recycles some of the characters and behavioral issues from the earlier film, but peels off most of the 1980s from the production. Davis supplies a cooler, more internalized “Youngblood” for younger audiences, and he hits a few spots of dramatic authority along the way, also delivering plenty of rough hockey action as the endeavor tries to get steelier with basically the same plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Andrew Stanton is primarily known as the director of animated features. He’s had tremendous success with titles such as “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E,” but he’s also attempted to launch a live-action helming career. 2012’s “John Carter” was intended to be an epic study of adventure, but it didn’t connect with audiences (it remains a wildly underrated film), forcing Stanton to return to the ways of animated fish (“Finding Dory”) and toys (the upcoming “Toy Story 5”). He gives flesh and blood filmmaking another shot with “In the Blink of an Eye,” which has endured a long road to release. Shot in 2023 and copyrighted in 2024, the picture finally emerges to reveal Stanton’s (joined by screenwriter Colby Day) vision for another epic study of adventure, this time taking on the very nature of life itself. It’s a big swing of a movie, and it remains an unwieldy sit, but for patient viewers, there’s a good amount of sensitivity to experience here as the endeavor seeks to inspect the power of emotional connections and the movement of time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The “Scream” franchise was rebooted in a way in 2022’s “Scream,” which provided a new, but not exactly fresh direction for the series, eventually rewarded with major box office returns. Another sequel followed the very next year, making it abundantly clear that fans weren’t all that interested in the highly pretzeled logic of the ongoing story, they merely wanted young characters to follow as Ghostface went about his business killing them off. It’s a mystery series without much mystery, but even a highly publicized behind-the-scenes disruption in casting after “Scream 6” can’t stop the big screen massacre from continuing, with “Scream 7” once again rewiring the saga to bring the pain, with original star Neve Campbell and screenwriter Kevin Williamson returning to action, with the latter taking on directorial duties as well. “Scream 7” hopes to get by with the usual in character revival and whodunit activity, but the batteries are noticeably run down in the latest chapter as strange ideas compete with bad ones for screen time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Mikey Kvamme is after a specific speed of comedy in “Operation Taco Gary’s.” He’s in cartoon mode, hitting viewers with a rush of jokes, character interactions, and crazy situations of survival, barely stopping for a breath as the madcap nature of the material is prioritized more than anything else. The hits keep on coming in the feature, and there’s something admirable about Kvamme’s dedication to the lightning speed of complications and dangerous situations facing the main characters. However, is any of this actually funny? That will be a source of debate for most viewers of “Operation Taco Gary’s,” with its furious way with silliness never producing any real laughs. Kvamme keeps his picture brief and mostly contained to goofiness, but he’s short on wit, or even enjoyable nuttiness, out to win over his audience with velocity instead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Undercard” is a boxing movie, playing into the formula of sporting films, but it’s probably going to attract more attention as a vehicle for star Wanda Sykes, who offers a rare dramatic turn in the endeavor. The longtime comedian is usually set with supporting parts, often playing wisecracking characters with her distinctive voice and delivery, but she opts for a challenge this time around, taking center stage portraying an ex-fighter battling to hold things together as financial issues, substance abuse challenges, and boxing pressures conspire to dismantle her life. Sykes is capable in the part, trying to work with a screenplay (by Anita M. Cal and Tamika Miller, who also directs) that offers plenty of emotional issues for the performer to communicate. “Undercard” eventually slips into “Rocky” mode, but before the expected occurs, Miller generates some involving life struggles and personal relationships to follow, helping the effort get past complete predictability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While Disney continues to figure out how to keep the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise afloat, “The Bluff” arrives to fill the gap with its tale of pirates in the Caribbean. Co-writer/director Frank E. Flowers elects to get a little more violent with this study of revenge and survival, striving to add some intensity to a fairly routine story. It’s a small-scale offering concerning a woman’s quest to defend her family from a bloodthirsty captain on the hunt for his missing gold, largely sticking to island-based conflicts, and Flowers endeavors to jazz up the usual in domestic defense with harder hits of brutality, keeping with the true pirate way. “The Bluff” is supported by periodic aggression, as dramatic interests aren’t exactly thrilling, making the viewing experience more enjoyably visceral than engrossing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The actual title of “The Napa Boys” is “The Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier’s Amulet.” Don’t worry, you don’t have to see the previous installments of this series to keep up with the ongoing story, simply because there are probably no other “Napa Boys” adventures. Co-writer/director Nick Coriossi has been creating meta comedy for quite some time, scoring a few viral hits over the years, and he brings his special love for madness to the screen again with “The Napa Boys,” following the misadventures of middle-aged men trying to enjoy life, love, and competition at a Napa Valley wine festival. This is extraordinarily niche silliness, but for those who’ve enjoyed Funny or Die, Tim and Eric, and Andy Kauffman in the past, Coriossi tries to tap into the same vibe of anything goes humor. The helmer has no idea when to quit, but he lands many laughs in the “sequel,” periodically finding inspired goofiness to help support the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Morgan Evans goes the mockumentary route with “Micro Budget,” which examines the troubled production of a low-budget disaster movie inside a Los Angeles rental home. Humor is the star here, with Evans overseeing a troupe of actors trying to find the funny with filmmaking setbacks and personality conflicts. There’s not a lot to the endeavor beyond riffing and increasing woes for the characters, but Evans tries to maintain a sense of humor throughout the feature, which really isn’t hilarious, but consistently amusing, following small issues of incompetence that snowball into larger displays of stupidity, providing a chance for the talent to find their way around awkwardness and the messiness of production mishaps. “Micro Budget” certainly has its moments, though the endeavor could definitely cut a little deeper with its comedy and interest in the difficulty of moviemaking, especially when a complete idiot is calling the shots. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Anderson .Paak is a musician who’s been working on his craft since he was a teenager, achieving some degree of success in the music industry. He uses such history to help inform “K-Pops,” which marks his directorial debut (also scripting with Khaila Amazan), using elements of his life to inspire a dramedy about a man with a recording dream finding a different kind of education when he encounters his son during a career-making stay in South Korea. It’s not an original tale of understanding and bonding, but .Paak tries to give the endeavor a defined sense of culture and character, helping to move the material away from straight formula. “K-Pops” isn’t going to stun, but .Paak goes easy on the senses with the movie, searching for some laughs and tenderness, while music also plays a significant part in the effort, keeping the feature moving along when a stale sense of drama threatens to slow it to a full stop. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Amy Landecker has been an actress of note for the last two decades, making memorable appearances here and there in television and movies, consistently working, which is no easy task. She assumes a little more control over her creative output with “For Worse,” making her feature-length debut as a screenwriter and director, and the endeavor certainly resembles a first film, remaining small in scale and completely attentive to characterization. “For Worse” is a comedy about post-divorce experiences, with Landecker taking the main role as a woman in her fifties trying to keep up with new experiences while surrounded by twentysomethings. It’s the stuff of sitcoms, and there’s certainly a touch of network T.V. in the writing, but Landecker wins on charm here, delivering a lively performance in a likeable picture that’s often funny and occasionally real, having a little fun with life’s challenges and humiliations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Scout Taylor-Compton is a veteran actress, maintaining steady employment in B-movies for a long time now. She’s ready for more control, making her directorial debut with “Bring the Law,” selecting material (scripted by Daniel Figueiredo and Josh Ridgway) that’s as generic as most of the films she’s been involved with over the last decade. It’s a crime picture examining corruption and acts of intimidation, and it’s a low-budget endeavor, leaving the helmer with little time and money to really illuminate the details of the story. “Bring the Law” doesn’t hold attention for long enough, but there’s some basic steeliness in the first half that holds potential, and Taylor-Compton has a largely committed cast to handle the workload of tough guy lines and hard reactions. Hopes for a more dramatically involving and active effort aren’t met, but it’s not a complete wipeout, putting Taylor-Compton to work trying to shape something out of a mess of cliches and formula. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriters Elise Allen and Elie Choufany don’t have it easy when trying to figure out just what story to tell with “The Pout-Pout Fish.” It’s an adaptation of a 2008 children’s book by Deborah Diesen, who offered readers 32 pages of simple life lessons and colorful characters. The material has been turned into a 90-minute-long movie, requiring a significant boost in drama and adventure to help support a feature-length version of the literary success story, with Diesen moving on to create dozens of sequels and spin-offs, keeping a good thing going. As a film, “The Pout-Pout Fish” doesn’t have much in common with the book, electing to generate its own saga of lessons and exploration for its film debut, definitely lifting ideas from other animated hits, especially 2003’s “Finding Nemo.” Directors Ricard Cusso and Rio Harrington manage to keep things lively and charming in the offering, finding humor and a sense of discovery, even if fans of the original book might be slightly bewildered by what the endeavor does to reach a sellable run time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1995’s “Seven” put screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker on the map. The feature’s dark obsessions and bleak worldview turned Walker into a go-to man for grim tales of humanity’s viciousness (including work on “8mm” and “Sleepy Hollow”), maintaining employment with harsh material. 31 years later, and Walker is still doing the same thing, creating “Psycho Killer,” which, once again, deals with an obsessive serial killer taking victims on his way to a final solution of sorts, hunted by a cop driven to take him down before he completes his vision for mass destruction. It’s definitely no “Seven,” with anything even remotely disturbing about the story peeled off the project by director Gavin Palone, who has tremendous difficulty juggling several subplots and overall tone. “Psycho Killer” (which was shot three years ago) is dreadful and an editorial mess, doing nothing to conjure a case of the creeps with its study of pain and suffering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“How to Make a Killing” is a loose adaptation of the 1907 novel, “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal,” which also served as the inspiration for the 1949 comedy, “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” Writer/director John Patton Ford made a decent first impression with his work on 2022’s “Emily the Criminal,” blending unlawful entanglements and social commentary, and he returns to the same dramatic ground with his follow up effort, reuniting with the dark thoughts and actions of desperate people. “How to Make a Killing” has a solid first hour of complication facing the main character, who’s looking to get ahead in life by killing family members standing in the way of a large inheritance. Darkly comedic action doesn’t sustain for long enough, but Ford achieves an engrossing setup, and star Glen Powell delivers a fine lead performance in a part that demands a balance of good and evil for a story that takes many turns. Perhaps too many. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“This Is Not a Test” can be a strange viewing experience. It’s based on a 2012 YA book by Courtney Summers, who endeavored to mix matters of adolescent concern with a zombie outbreak situation. Writer/director Adam MacDonald (“Pyewacket,” “Backcountry”) attempts to bring such tonal balance to the screen with his take on the source material, though he amplifies the horror angle to help give the picture some edge. “This Is Not a Test” hopes to deliver a “Breakfast Club” meets “Dawn of the Dead” event with its study of teen concern during an apocalyptic situation, and MacDonald brings just enough oddity to help support the effort. There’s blood everywhere and high school concerns, and while the offering isn’t entirely thrilling, MacDonald does a fine job with atmosphere at times as the characters face unusual points of pressure while the world falls apart around them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1985, Stan Woo had a dream. He was a young man in Los Angeles, trying to make his way through college and all the academic challenges it includes, but he had a distraction in “Star Trek,” with the franchise flying especially high during the 1980s. Stan grew up with the show, falling in love with its vision of the future and its inclusion of the character Sulu (played by George Takei), the Asian helmsman, who represented a place for himself in the bigger world. Not merely content to consume the show, Stan wanted to become part of it, eventually organizing the production of “Yorktown: A Time to Heal,” a fan film starring himself, also managing to land Takei for a supporting part as Sulu, instantly elevating his small endeavor. However, the project was never completed, putting directors Timour Gregory and Sasha Schneider on the case with “Beam Me Up, Sulu,” a documentary about Stan’s initial vision for his short film and the long road to a final cut, also making plenty of stops to understand the impact of “Star Trek” and its lengthy history of inclusion, consistently bringing light and hope to the fanbase. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Redux Redux” is a time travel movie, but it’s really not interested in the specifics of such science fiction. The details of adventuring are fairly limited, which might drive some viewers bananas, but thankfully there’s an effort from writer/directors Kevin and Matthew McManus (“The Block Island Sound”) to give this low-budget endeavor a real run of suspense that carries throughout the entire viewing experience. Characterization is the primary focus here, with the tale using the ways of magical travel to boost a story of grief that’s slipped into madness. There’s energy to the picture, along with fine performances and plenty of enigmatic events to keep things interesting, and the helmers are dedicated to crafting an exciting effort. “Redux Redux” really shines at times, using time travel to inspire some twisted turns of plot and a few surprises, staying heated in a way that helps to hold back dozens of questions raised by the time the end credits arrive. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, writer/director Natasha Kermani explored the world of Dracula in “Abraham’s Boys,” taking a slow-burn approach to the horror tale, and perhaps it was too slow for some. The feature retained mood and an appreciation for developing moments of danger, and the helmer remains on the same creative path for “The Dreadful,” which is also careful with its movement but intermittently alert with its violence. Inspiration comes from an ancient Shin Buddhist parable, which also inspired the 1964 Japanese film, “Onibaba,” and Kermani attempts to make her own way with a story of jealousy and suspicion set in the 15th century. “The Dreadful” is in no hurry, with the endeavor working careful to build an atmosphere of strange events and suspicious motives. It’s not a movie that jumps off the screen, but for those who have some patience, Kermani captures stretches of unease as the characters experience something unreal while residing in the middle of nowhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com