Category: Film Review

“Unsung Hero” is a movie produced by the Christian group For King & Country, with singer Joel Smallbone taking co-writing and co-directing credits, also starring in the feature, playing his own father. And yet, the endeavor is not about the formation of For King & Country. The material attempts to provide an origin story for the whole Smallbone gang, with the Australian family’s move to America in 1991 used as the plot for the picture, which is primarily about the development of singer Rebecca Smallbone (a.k.a. Rebecca St. James). “Unsung Hero” is a faith-based effort, with the celebration of God important to the production, but Smallbone and co-writer/co-helmer Richard Ramsey are also interested in making a commercial for Smallbone family projects. The film is labeled a “true story,” but all the rough edges of life have been sanded down, with the writing unwilling to supply the target demographic with a more substantial understanding of sacrifice and faith. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The future is dire in “Breathe.” Screenwriter Doug Simon creates a dystopian tomorrow using all the cliches of B-movies from today, delivering a climate disaster drama that takes place around a single bunker, populated with irritable characters dealing with issues of life and death. The material is small in scale despite a plot that deals with the destruction of Earth, finding Simon trying to use a series of confrontations as a way to increase suspense. He’s also crafting a family drama, hoping to make the whole thing a little more human. Intentions are clear, but the execution of “Breathe” is dismal at times, with director Stefon Bristol (2019’s “See You Yesterday”) offering a clumsy drama that’s limply performed by the cast. Thriller elements are even more unappealing, finding suspense nonexistent in this study of relationships and survival, which always struggles to land emotional beats and generate heated moments of conflict. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Boy Kills World” apparently began life as a short film, co-created by Moritz Mohr. He’s been handed an opportunity to develop the effort, with screenwriters Tyler Burton Smith (2019’s “Child’s Play” remake) and Arend Remmers creating a feature-length take on the concept, which follows a deaf and mute young man as he undertakes the challenge of vengeance against a crime family with plenty of protection. It’s the stuff of simple cinema, and perhaps it once was. However, the new “Boy Kills World” feels the need to fatten its plot with needless complication, trying to offer viewers an epic study of revenge instead of merely remaining a hyperactive action endeavor. Mohr creates a confusing viewing experience along the way, with the general sugar-rush tone of the opening hour eventually traded for a heavier, slower study of family pain, making for a disappointingly uneven movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/directors Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart look to offer a human touch to the comedy “Suze.” The material examines the bizarre relationship between a mother and her daughter’s ex-boyfriend as they’re brought together by the strange ways of fate. While the premise is something out of a sitcom, Clark and Stewart don’t take the bait, endeavoring to make the tale as real as possible while still providing some laughs and interesting challenges to relationships. The real power of the movie is found in its cast, with lead Michaela Watkins offering career-best work in the feature, which asks her to play a variety of emotions as a mother caught up in the ways of parental obsession and physical changes. Watkins is outstanding, joined by co-star Charlie Gillespie, with the pair gracefully realizing the delicate ways of “Suze,” which does very well staying grounded and hitting periodic beats of hilarity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1998’s “Half Baked” would never be mistaken for a grand achievement in moviemaking, but the stoner comedy did things right when it came to assembling bits of nonsense to best entertain its intended audience. Silliness dominated the offering, with star Dave Chappelle putting his once-fresh comedic presence to good use for director Tamra Davis, who never pushed too hard when it came to plotting or character, simply content to make some brightly lit goofiness. 26 years later, there’s a sequel, “Half Baked: Totally High,” and there’s no way Universal Pictures is going to bring back Chappelle, electing to manufacture a cheap follow-up that essentially recycles the story from the first feature with a new cast of characters. Screenwriter Justin Hires (making his debut) and director Michael Tiddes (previously partnering with Marlon Wayans for several projects, including “A Haunted House” and “Fifty Shades of Black”) are facing an uphill battle with “Totally High,” but some effort would be appreciated. Instead we get this flaccid endeavor, which contains no laughs and looks oppressive, unable to revive the strange appeal of the original film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The credited director on “Cash Out” is someone named “Ives.” This person has no previous credits and information about the helmer isn’t available. It’s certainly not impossible for someone to come out of nowhere to make a movie, and perhaps Ives is a lucky newcomer to the business, handed a feature with a known star (John Travolta) to manage. News reports suggest someone else made the picture, with a few stories mentioning Randall Emmett as the man behind the camera, with the infamous producer of crummy VOD thrillers returning to, well, generate another crummy thriller. The real creative force behind “Cash Out” is a mystery for now (Emmett’s mother does appear in the film), but the reality here is the general nothingness of the endeavor, which doesn’t have any action, sharp dialogue, or dense plotting. Instead, there’s argumentative behavior in a bank for 80 minutes, with screenwriters Dipo Oseni and Doug Richardson out to manufacture a puzzle of crime and punishment that’s not worth solving. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s a big year for killer spider pictures. A few weeks ago, there was “Sting,” which failed to conjure much in the way of horror or drama. Now there’s “Infested,” which heads to France to explore a chaotic outbreak of arachnids, with a collection of young characters trying to maintain their focus on survival as danger develops all around them inside an apartment building. Co-writer/director Sebastien Vanicek certainly has the opportunity to make a slick B-movie with creepy visuals, but he’s after a more human take on the creature feature, putting his time into generating reasonably deep characters with interesting emotional issues and conflicts. The effort is laudable, and while Vanicek can’t find a steady pace to “Infested,” he’s pursuing a sensitive tone to the slaughter, aiming to elevate the endeavor away from a straightforward fright film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Downtown Owl” is based on a 2008 novel by Chuck Klosterman, who took 275 pages to realize his vision for conflict and quirk involving the residents of a tiny midwestern town. Screenwriter Hamish Linklater (who co-directs with Lily Rabe) only has 90 minutes of screen time to cover the complications of these relationships and the intensity of a few secrets. It’s not enough elbow room, leaving the feature an increasingly messy understanding of people and their problems. The endeavor tries to have some fun with eccentricity and local color, and “Downtown Owl” is at its most appealing when taking in the oddballs of the area, watching how the main character deals with her newfound position as a curiosity. It’s the rest of the picture that slowly falls apart, with Linklater struggling to manage personalities and motivations, gradually trading a story for psychological splatter that’s likely more interesting to the filmmakers than the audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Part of the “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” viewing experience is trying to remember what happened in “Part One – A Child of Fire.” The first movie was released just five months ago, but it was a completely unremarkable endeavor, with co-writer/director Zack Snyder aiming to create his own version of “Star Wars,” only to end up with a laborious space opera filled with glum characters trying to impart personal history and paths of revenge in a hurry, while villainy was presented in cartoon fashion. “The Scargiver” isn’t a sequel, but a continuation of “A Child of Fire,” and it’s more of a war film, with most of the run time devoted to battle scenes and infiltration plans. It’s meant to be a grand, screen-bleeding payoff, but there was very little build-up to begin with, turning this picture into a noise machine with Snyder indulging all of his love for visual excess. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before they entered the “Scream” zone in 2022, making two sequels for the popular slasher franchise, director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (a.k.a. Radio Silence) scored a minor success with 2019’s “Ready or Not.” The bloody take on hide and seek was a creative highlight for the helmers, who offered a somewhat fast and funny study of survival. Instead of taking a creative step forward after spending years in Ghostface Country, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are back with another small-scale battleground endeavor in “Abigail,” which, in many ways, resembles “Ready or Not.” Another offering of scary stuff and funny business, “Abigail” has more difficulty finding its tone, struggling with a weaker ensemble and editorial indecision, making for a longer sit with a fairly thin idea for a big screen bloodbath. It’s fun at times, with a charging opening act, but Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett don’t know when to quit with the effort, which slows down as it unfolds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I suspect something happened to Guy Ritchie after he completed work on 2019’s “Aladdin.” The Disney remake went on to become the highest grossing picture of his career, but Ritchie’s attitude and work ethic changed greatly after its release. He’s been on a tear recently, completing four movies in the last five years, and they’ve all been strong, enjoyable offerings, finding intended beats of humor and heart. “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is Ritchie’s latest film, providing a fictionalized take on “Operation Postmaster,” a World War II event involving a secret mission to destroy Nazi U-boat supplies. Ritchie doesn’t go the History Channel route with the effort, choosing to resurrect a jaunty, hyper-violent “Inglourious Basterds”-style vibe to the feature, which delivers outstanding pace for the most part, and does well with its casting choices. “Ungentlemanly Warfare” is Ritchie playing to his strengths, but he’s alert here, bringing a spaghetti western atmosphere to a WWII endeavor, making for an energetic, enthralling ride. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

David and Nathan Zellner make very strange movies. That’s what they’re known for, trying to bend and twist indie cinema expectations with their oddball takes on genres and performances. Over the last decade, they’ve made “Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter” and “Damsel,” and now they attempt to pull off perhaps their most divisive idea with “Sasquatch Sunset,” which is literally 90 minutes of watching a family of creatures navigate the world around them and the storms of behavior within. There is no dialogue, just grunting, and human characters are nowhere to be found, with the siblings concentrating on this semi-remake of “Bambi,” only here the seasons change and life goes on for bigfoots on the move in the big, beautiful world. There’s no recommending “Sasquatch Sunset,” with warnings more appropriate, as the Zellners really go for it here, trying to make something almost absurd with the picture, giving those willing to strap in a ride of strangeness that doesn’t come around much these days. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2017, writer David Ebeltoft and director Rod Blackhurst collaborated on “Here Alone,” a zombie story with an incredibly sluggish pace, sucking all the tension out of the picture. The men reunite for “Blood for Dust,” which also seems hesitant to invest in any kind of heightened rhythm capable of embracing thriller cinema, but the duo are in much better shape this time around. They have an interesting story to share about mistakes and survival, detailing the concern of a man who can’t seem to keep out of criminal activity while on a quest to make some money the honest way. “Blood for Dust” serves up a collection of hard men and blazing guns, which certainly isn’t an original take on desperation, but the writing generates some decent complications for the characters, and Blackhurst manages to snap the feature out of its thousand-yard stare on occasion, hitting a few pockets of suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1991’s “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” didn’t do much damage at the box office during its summer run, but home video was very kind to the teen comedy. A cult following developed, creating a sort of secret handshake cinema event with movie quotes, but little was done with the brand name over the decades. The team at BET have finally cracked the seal on a remake, supplying an update of the now 33-year-old picture (ouch), largely retaining the plot of the original endeavor while adding a more modern take on humor. The ’91 film wasn’t fantastic, but it offered some edgy touches and a few strong performances. The do-over doesn’t even reach those modest achievements, with writer Chuck Hayward (TV’s “Dear White People”) and director Wade Allain-Marcus (“Die in a Gunfight”) delivering a largely lifeless and laugh-free viewing experience, failing to improve on the earlier feature. I wasn’t permitted to screen “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” for review this week, and now I understand why. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1991’s “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” didn’t do much damage at the box office during its summer run, but home video was very kind to the teen comedy. A cult following developed, creating a sort of secret handshake cinema event with movie quotes, but little was done with the brand name over the decades. The team at BET have finally cracked the seal on a remake, supplying an update of the now 33-year-old picture (ouch), largely retaining the plot of the original endeavor while adding a more modern take on humor. The ’91 film wasn’t fantastic, but it offered some edgy touches and a few strong performances. The do-over doesn’t even reach those modest achievements, with writer Chuck Hayward (TV’s “Dear White People”) and director Wade Allain-Marcus (“Die in a Gunfight”) delivering a largely lifeless and laugh-free viewing experience, failing to improve on the earlier feature. I wasn’t permitted to screen “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” for review this week, and now I understand why. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Luca Guadagnino is preoccupied with making sensual, violently charged features, recently on display in 2022’s “Bones and All,” where he sought to create screen poetry with a wild world of young love and cannibalism. There’s a change of setting for “Challengers,” but the material (scripted by Justin Kuritzkes) largely remains with ravenous characters out to devour and destroy one another, doing so in the realm of tennis players and their vicious insecurities. The endeavor is all flesh and fears, and Guadagnino is absolutely determined to draw out a relatively simple study of obsession for as long as possible, even when it hurts the movie. “Challengers” has some valuable ideas to share on the state of relationships and the crushing weight of sporting performance, but the helmer has little feel for dramatic rhythm with the effort, often slipping into soap opera mode when he’s not crafting perhaps the most overdirected picture since Michael Bay’s “Ambulance.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2017’s “Woody Woodpecker” attempted to bring the cartoon creation into the real world with a CGI character messing with human activity. The picture didn’t receive much of a theatrical release, and it was awful, with co-writer/director Alex Zamm working hard to create a crude family movie that generally seemed to misunderstand the animated pleasures of the original Walter Lantz creation. “Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp” also deals with bathroom humor, but there isn’t a scene like one found in the original film where Woody farts out his own theme song. That’s progress, and “Goes to Camp” is generally much better and more in command of Lantz-style entertainment than its predecessor. Director Jon Rosenbaum (“Cop and a Half: New Recruit,” “Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls”) doesn’t radically alter the concept of these new Woody Woodpecker adventures, but he’s somewhat in tune with slapstick mayhem and storytelling, making for a sit that’s easier on the senses and more likely to delight young viewers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nicolas Cage is usually the most dominant element of any feature he appears in. That’s just his natural speed, and it’s served him well, especially in recent years where he’s been tasked with making low-budget films as appealing as possible. For “Arcadian,” Cage remains as committed to the endeavor as possible, but he’s asked to play a parental figure, and one on a mission to keep his children safe from an apocalyptic situation. There’s a real feeling of fatherly concern in the picture, which Cage plays superbly, but “Arcadian” is more than just a vehicle for the star. Writer Michael Nilon creates a small-scale but suspenseful survival story, approaching the expectations for a monster movie from interesting perspectives. And director Benjamin Brewer contributes a dark understanding of threat in a rural setting, maintaining a compelling balance between genre achievements and more heartfelt moments among troubled characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As an actor, Johnny Knoxville hasn’t really achieved much in the way of professional respect. He’s been in a lot of T.V. shows and movies, but he’ll be forever known as the star of “Jackass,” with some of his best acting coming from opportunities to sell the questionable danger of certain pranks. Knoxville finds a meatier role in “Sweet Dreams,” which is a blend of an underdog sports comedy and a study of sober living challenges. Writer/director Lije Sarki doesn’t have grand plans for the picture, electing to work with smaller emotional moments and softball action, gathering a cast of comedians to help find the humor in just about anything. There’s little dramatic muscle to “Sweet Dreams,” but it does provide a few clear-eyed moments of reflection from what’s possibly some type of autobiographical point of view, and Knoxville nails select scenes of confession, showing range and realism in his best performance to date. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s an effort made in “The Greatest Hits” to do something a little different with the concept of the time travel movie. Writer/director Ned Benson (the little-seen “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”) tries to balance the ways of fantasy and the bitterness of reality in the feature, which follows a woman’s drive to disrupt tragedy through the magical powers of music. “The Greatest Hits” takes love and loss very seriously, with Benson creating a melancholy film about desperation and healing. There’s a level of unreality to the endeavor, but the production does much better remaining in the realm of the real, exploring the mourning process and all the mental messiness involved with such a journey. The helmer gets lost when trying to present weirdness to the audience, but powerful feelings are in play throughout the picture, and lead Lucy Boynton does a commendable job capturing the slow drip of an emotional breakdown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com