Category: Film Review

Before my showing of “Bob Marley: One Love,” there was a brief video message from Ziggy Marley, one of Bob’s sons, offering a quick word about the family’s pride in the picture. There’s nothing inherently wrong with such promotion, but with such estate approval comes some skepticism about the movie, as the production needs the cooperation of Marley’s relatives to use his music in the feature, which doesn’t bode well for at least a passably authentic bio-pic. Suspicions are confirmed in “One Love,” with four screenwriters remaining incredibly careful with the details of this existence, ignoring most of it to highlight a few years in the life of the iconic singer and his battles with marriage, management, and declining health. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (who also played loose with life details in 2021’s “King Richard”) is more interested in the aura of Bob Marley than the man himself, crafting a shallow understanding of behavior while emphasizing the music to please fans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sony is determined to do something with their rights to the Spider-Man Universe, emboldened to explore the comic book space after the massive success of two “Venom” pictures, which managed to entice the fan base back into theaters. 2022’s “Morbius” had the opposite effect, with the feature dismissed and fully ridiculed, identifying that name recognition alone isn’t enough to tempt the faithful. Sony takes another swing with “Madame Web,” which also plays in the “Spider-Man” sandbox without actually including the web-crawler, offering an origin story for a character with limited superhero appeal in a movie that makes every conceivable wrong move. From script to screen, “Madame Web” is a dire endeavor, with co-writer/director S.J. Clarkson in over her head with this stunningly clumsy exploration of strange powers, motherhood, and villainy. The film won’t be the death of superhero cinema, but it’s a good reminder that greater care is required when bringing these strange worlds to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We’ve had films about drone pilots before, and “Land of Bad” is in no mood to debate the moral and political choices involved in the service. Co-writer/director William Eubank (“Underwater,” “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin”) is in Michael Bay mode with the endeavor, which delves into a mission gone wrong, finding a surviving soldier depending on his drone support to help escape a deadly situation in a foreign land. It’s more of a B-movie than a thought-provoking thriller, but Eubank does try to keep the endeavor technical and emotional in some ways, retaining human qualities between explosions and gunfights. “Land of Bad” is suspenseful for its first half, as the screenplay creates a sense of personality and stakes before the helmer cranks up the explosions and villainous hostility, which eventually diminishes the feature’s unusual intimacy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“No Way Up” is being marketed as a shark attack picture, which, no matter the quality, usually finds their way to a certain audience and their insatiable need to watch creatures of the deep devour humans. The feature has sharks in it, but predator experiences are exceedingly rare in the film, which is more focused on the survival event for a small handful of passengers stuck inside an airplane that crashes into the water, making its way to the ocean floor. Screenwriter Andy Mayson offers the usual in personalities and crises with “No Way Up,” but there’s not much of a budget in place to go wild with the premise, and director Claudio Fah is stuck trying to make a film about panicked people conversing feel exciting. The endeavor isn’t always static, but it definitely lacks a killer instinct when it comes to B-movie entertainment, feeling a little too slack when it comes to providing big thrills. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriters Chad Law and Garry Charles aren’t going for originality with “Lights Out,” which carries a story that basically lines up with most VOD/streaming titles these days. There’s an ex-military man weighed down with heavy PTSD, an opportunity to prove himself in a physical way, and a community of dirty cops and bad dudes trying to shorten his life. It’s basic stuff handed to director Christian Sesma, who’s seasoned in the ways of disposable entertainment with generic names (previously helming “Take Back,” “The Night Crew,” and “Vigilante Diaries”), and “Lights Out” is certainly similar to many of these releases. And yet, there’s something wonderfully weird about the feature, which works very hard to be hostile and dramatic during its first two acts, almost achieving a real personality before the usual orgy of violence begins in the end. It’s not a terrible way to spend 90 minutes, especially for fans of B-movies and those capable of shutting off the film at the 60-minute mark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Players” was shot nearly three years ago, finally landing a Valentine’s Day release to help lubricate warm relationship feelings for viewers on the hunt for something soft to watch. However, the feature, scripted by Whit Anderson, doesn’t have much of a gooey center. It’s a sillier picture about hostile people lying their way into the pants of unsuspecting partners, with the main characters practiced deceivers, presented here as lovable scamps. For a movie about intense planning and foresight, “Players” doesn’t seem to understand its own unpleasantness, marching forward with comedy that doesn’t connect and character chemistry that never appears. It's a misguided shot of romantic vibes from director Trish Sie (who shot another film, “Sitting in Bars with Cake,” after this, which was released last year), who doesn’t bring a sense of gentleness to feelings, and she’s clumsy with funny business, pitching everything broadly in an effort to register the endeavor as “cute.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Bleeding Love” tells the story of two very fragile people trying to make sense of their relationship while on a road trip to an unknown destination. The screenplay (by Ruby Caster, making her debut) sets up a troubled dynamic between a father and daughter dealing with the roughness of estrangement, and the production tries to maintain some performance reality with the casting of real-life relatives, Ewan McGregor and Clara McGregor, who are tasked with portraying the strangeness and hostility of an unexpected reunion. “Bleeding Love” finds its rhythm with the stars, who nail occasional moments of behavioral clarity. The movie as a whole doesn’t quite work, finding the material a little too in love with the quirks of small-town America, and director Emma Westenberg (a music video vet) doesn’t trust her performers to communicate the horrors of addiction and abandonment, turning to distracting camerawork to sell such personal distortion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We don’t get many stone age stories on screen these days, giving “Out of Darkness” a bit of distinction as the production examines struggles from long ago, back when the Earth carried tremendous mystery and its inhabitants were fighting to understand their place in the world order. Though listed as a horror film, the endeavor isn’t really built to generate scares. Director Andrew Cumming goes intensely atmospheric instead, attempting to put the audience in the middle of a tribal fight for survival, where the characters are surrounded by pure darkness and unknown predators. “Out of Darkness” isn’t a thrilling sit, as Cumming takes his time with the effort, occasionally getting lost in his own moviemaking vision. But there are layers of storytelling in Ruth Greenberg’s screenplay that hold attention, creating a suspenseful study of behavior and survival. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Lisa Frankenstein” marks the feature-length directorial debut for Zelda Williams (daughter of the late Robin Williams), who’s been working in short films and music videos for the last eight years. The picture also represents a return to screenwriting for Diablo Cody, who hasn’t been heard from since her excellent work on 2018’s “Tully.” The pair team up to show their favorite genres some love in the endeavor, which blends the dark comedy of “Heathers” with the gothic goofiness of Tim Burton. “Lisa Frankenstein” isn’t a stunningly original creation, with much of the offering pulled from better movies, and it’s surprisingly low on laughs. It’s Cody returning to her “Juno” days with broad dialogue and limp humor, striving to blend gore and goofballery with this disappointing effort, and Williams also struggles to find her own tonal balance, unable to capture a special insanity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director James Bamford is a seasoned stunt professional, supplying physical force for such productions as “Watchmen,” “X2: X-Men United,” and “Final Destination.” Screenwriter Steven Paul is best known for his work on “Baby Geniuses,” “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2,” and “Baby Geniuses and the Space Baby.” This weird blend of talent is put to the test in “Air Force One Down,” which opens like a “Die Hard” knockoff before it evolves into more of a generic actioner. Bamford works to bring the thunder in the endeavor, which really shines in butt-kicking mode, watching star Katherine McNamara take down waves of baddies in the name of presidential protection. The rest of “Air Force One Down” isn’t as compelling, with Paul trying to knot up what should be a simple study of self-preservation, and he makes a creative choice midway through the tale that ruins what little fun there is in the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Molli and Max in the Future” looks to follow everyday relationship woes of today in the world of tomorrow. It’s a blend of “When Harry Met Sally” and “Tron,” with writer/director Michael Lukk Litwak trying to conjure a strange world of alien encounters, high-tech inventions, and robot battles while still tending to universal feelings involved in the experience of love and dating. Litwak doesn’t have much in the way of money to really go bananas with his vision of future world travel and connection, forcing him to go creative instead. There’s a lot of charm on display in “Molli and Max in the Future,” which is mostly held together by cast and crew enthusiasm, with the helmer offering a conversational study of a union tested by outside temptations and time itself. Such complications work to mess with the central relationship between a half-fish person and the highly neurotic space witch he can’t seem to quit, much to her great relief. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Keir O’Donnell is a longtime actor, perhaps best know for his role in 2005’s “Wedding Crashers.” He makes his directorial debut with “Marmalade,” also taking a writing credit on the picture, which follows the planning stages of a young man in love with a wild woman, with their union newly focused on a bank robbery to deal with rising pharmaceutical prices. It’s not an original study of carelessness, but O’Donnell attempts to add some turns to the plot, juicing up its potential as a mystery. “Marmalade” rides the line between quirky and clever, and one really starts to feel the length of the feature in the final act, finding O’Donnell taking his time organizing a way out of the story. But there’s charm in the movie, which is helped along by enthusiastic performances, and technical proficiency is present, adding some style to help digest the unsteady endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Float” is an adaptation of a book by author Kate Marchant. This is not the usual literary translation, with Marchant finding success on a social media platform devoted to Gen Z writers looking for eyeballs on their work. Potential box office success for a project like this was established with the release of 2019’s “After,” which spawned a franchise of heated romantic tales for younger viewers. “Float” is chasing the same idea, only Marchant’s work is aiming for a more tender examination of wounded people finding one another in small-town Canada. Co-writer/director Sherren Lee looks to provide a human story of burgeoning communication, crafting something that’s easy on the senses and possibly relatable for some audience members. It’s not the most stirring viewing experience, but the picture has a welcome gentleness and interest in emotional needs to keep it going. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriters Christine Lenig, Luke Spencer Roberts, and Justin Matthews are challenged to produce an interesting story for “Upgraded,” which is competing with a hundred other movies in the film year that deal with misunderstandings, mishaps, and the tingles and tangles of new love. And they manage to create an interesting professional life for the main character, who works in an art auction house, getting caught up in mistakes and misrepresentation during an assignment in London. There’s a lot to explore with this vocation and ambition, and “Upgraded” finds ways of making this section of the picture involving, offering a riff on “The Devil Wears Prada,” with Marisa Tomei in the Meryl Streep role. It’s the rest of the feature that’s disappointing, as the ways of attraction tend to disrupt what actually works in the endeavor, making moments of passion more of a nuisance in this romantic comedy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Matthew Vaughn enjoys making noisy movies that slip all too easily into overkill. He didn’t start out that way (2004’s “Layer Cake”) but he’s become that way, for most of his career. He’s spent the last decade trying to transform “Kingsman” into a viable franchise (the box office failure of a 2021 prequel didn’t help the cause), and he’s not giving up the fight, returning with a big-budget superspy extravaganza, “Argylle,” which is very much in the same vein as a “Kingsman” sequel, only instead of gentlemanly violence with a collection of heroes and villains, there’s a literary world of characters to untangle here. Scripted by Jason Fuchs (“Pan,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift”), “Argylle” starts off with a spring in its step, only to become a cinematic equivalent of a headache, with Vaughn losing his mind trying to wow viewers with gonzo visuals, turns of plot, and CGI overload. It’s an iffy idea for adventuring turned into a rough 139-minute-long viewing experience, with excess the goal here, not cleverness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s always been some type of rivalry between DreamWorks Animation and Disney, resulting in movies that were similar, perhaps intentionally so, going back to the “Antz” and “A Bug’s Life” collision of 1998. There’s some of that feeling surrounding the release of “Orion and the Dark,” which, at times, plays much like 2015’s “Inside Out,” following the adventure of a child getting used to the reality of the world around him. He’s joined by the creatures in his mind, but instead of emotions, the eponymous character interacts with multi-colored “Night Entities.” There are moments when the pictures are quite similar, but “Orion and the Night” isn’t quite as close to the heart as “Inside Out,” with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (making his family film debut) offering a slightly less enthusiastic understanding of growing pains and phobias. It remains a charmingly animated endeavor with a welcome message on the ways of bravery, but it also feels a little too tired at times, and not because the subject matter involves sleep. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Television writer and actress Laura Chinn makes her directorial debut with “Suncoast.” It’s a semi-autobiographical tale of a young woman’s quest for human connection during a time of tremendous emotional demands and typical adolescent awkwardness, with Chinn using her experience with a dying sibling in Florida to inspire a study of family dynamics and loneliness, with a little real-world headline news of the day helping to add some perspective to the story. Chinn scripts with authority for half of the feature, creating deeply wounded characters who have no idea how to interact with each other, left to manage some kind of routine that’s impossible to follow for long. There are two sides to “Suncoast,” which creates a frustrating viewing experience, with the potential for a sensitive, knowing examination of difficult relationships repeatedly disrupted by the banalities of teen cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Tiger’s Apprentice” is an adaptation of a 2003 YA novel by author Laurence Yep, who created a tale about a boy making contact with the magic that surrounds him, emerging in the form of mythology based on the Chinese zodiac. It’s a tale of adventure and discovery that seems perfectly suited for animation, and certainly the success of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” has influenced the production, with the feature not exactly turning down an opportunity to vaguely resemble the 2018 hit film. While the endeavor isn’t endowed with an enormous budget, the picture remains flashy, with vivid color and smooth action, and the central exploration into zodiac-inspired heroism and history holds attention. It offers younger viewers blasts of creature antics and villainy, bringing select sequences to life as danger increases for the main character, who’s newly exposed to a different level of reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Leah McKendrick has been an actress for over 15 years, appearing in an assortment of shorts and features. She attempts to find more control over her creative outputs with “Scrambled,” going triple threat with the endeavor, claiming credits in direction, screenwriting, and acting for this seemingly personal effort. The story concerns the battle of a single woman in her thirties trying to envision a future of parenthood for herself, unsure if she really wants to commit to the responsibility as she decides to freeze her eggs. McKendrick touches on a sensitive subject with “Scrambled,” hoping to reach universal concerns about motherhood and loneliness with the picture, using comedy as a way into some heavy feelings about love and loss. It's this tonal juggling act that becomes an issue for the helmer, who can’t manage mood swings in the film, making for an erratic sit with weirdly unlikable characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Snoop Dogg isn’t much of an actor, but his simple screen presence has certainly livened up a few movies over the years. For “The Underdoggs,” Snoop Dogg has created a lead role for himself, also co-hatching the story for the pee-wee football saga, which lifts liberally, as they all do, from the 1976 classic, “The Bad News Bears.” Once again, it’s the hardened, light-headed coach put in charge of rascally kids against his will, with underdog cinema expected to form around all the formula concocted by screenwriters Isaac Schamis and Danny Segal, who have zero interest in adding some originality, or even passable human emotions to the feature. “The Underdoggs” is woefully cliched, but it’s not without a few laughs and some dependable kids sports energy, in need of more inspired leadership, with director Charles Stone III putting in the least amount of effort to boost the endeavor’s appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com