Category: Film Review

Two years ago, director Lorcan Finnegan and screenwriter Garret Shanley collaborated on “Vivarium,” putting together a highly weird picture that handled with “Twilight Zone” energy, exploring a special unreality tied to the demands of domesticity and relationships. It worked to a certain degree, with the duo putting together an unusual feature with a distinct visual approach, enjoying the creation of a cinematic puzzle for more adventurous viewers. Shanley and Finnegan are back with “Nocebo,” and they haven’t shaken their storytelling interests, returning with another mystery of motivation and possible insanity with this tale of a medicinal journey involving two shattered women. “Nocebo” shares many of the shortcomings that kept “Vivarium” from greatness, but there’s much here to appreciate, including an original take on menace and discomfort, and performances are always compelling, adding to a sense of threat the production occasionally struggles to maintain. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Mel Gibson’s career as of late hasn’t inspired a lot of faith in his ability to pick scripts tailored to his talents as an actor. There was one notable exception in 2020’s “Fatman,” but the last few years have been strange for the performer, as he’s mostly pursuing forgettable parts in mediocre-to-terrible films, looking to make big bucks for a minimal amount of effort. There’s nothing technically wrong with paycheck gigs, but it’s been disheartening to watch Gibson flounder with crummy projects. “On the Line” initially promises to be more of a thespian challenge for the star, tasked with playing a curdled radio host dragged through a torturous evening by a mystery tormentor, and the first hour highlights an alert and eager Gibson, who seems invested in the material. Writer/director Romuald Boulanger doesn’t reward such dedication, pursuing a specific conclusion to “On the Line” that’s guaranteed to irritate most viewers, offering little reward after a reasonably tense introduction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2020’s “Enola Holmes” became a big hit for Netflix, entertaining family audiences with its semi-spirited take on the YA book franchise by author Nancy Springer. Cinema history is packed with detective stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, but Enola permitted the production to approach sleuthing from a younger POV, with “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown accepting the challenge of portraying a wily teenager trying to find her own way as a detective, looking to get out of her older brother’s sizable shadow. “Enola Holmes” had issues with pace and overlength, but it did eagerly launch a franchise, and now there’s “Enola Holmes 2,” which continues the story of the kid detective, giving her a new case to solve and personal relationships to sort out. Nothing has been radically altered here, as the sequel is built to delight the same viewers who approved of the first chapter, delivering a serviceable game for the eponymous character and her more famous sibling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Daniel Stamm has made this movie before. In 2010, Stamm guided “The Last Exorcism,” a low budget found footage picture about demonic possession, with the helmer trying to make something terrifying out of a format that generally repels scares. “The Last Exorcism” was a box office hit, preparing Stamm for bigger things in the industry. There was a thriller in 2014’s “13 Sins,” but nothing else of note, inspiring Stamm to return to the genre that provided his greatest success, delivering “Prey for the Devil” (shot over two years ago), which is another round of innocent things being tormented by the Devil and his dirty tricks. It’s not exactly a creative challenge, but Stamm strives to make a more emotionally grounded, character-based take on the violence of the situation and how it touches on the lives of those committed to the mission to cast out Satan whenever he appears. Unfortunately, “Prey for the Devil” is more of a T.V. pilot than a cinematic event, with Stamm keeping the endeavor in neutral, skipping chances to make this dull effort more frightening, or at least more gripping. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the Halloween experience comes to a close, it’s now the Christmas season, and what better way to celebrate than time with a picture about a tree that becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead serial killer, allowing the murderer to resume his rampage. Indeed, “The Killing Tree” is literally about a malevolent plant hoping to make Christmas miserable for the person who finally put a stop to their carnage, with writer Craig McLearie and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield (the upcoming “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey”) presenting a highly amusing idea in search of a watchable movie. “The Killing Tree” has the foundation for a camp classic spotlighting a wonderfully bizarre screen menace, but the production strangely avoids any sort of spirited engagement, lumbering along as a half-speed chiller that’s weirdly focused on characterization, and not the engrossing kind. Tree activity almost becomes an afterthought for the feature, which is certain to gift disappointment to anyone electing to spend time with a seriously unadventurous endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Tobias Lindholm made a name for himself as the helmer of “A Hijacking” and “A War,” working with a restrained yet powerful sense of emotion while exploring the procedural experience of terrorism and military combat. They were excellent features with outstanding performances and a rich sense of tension, and now, after years working in the Danish film industry, Lindholm goes Hollywood with “The Good Nurse,” where he teams up with stars Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne for another suspenseful understanding of character and mystery. Screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917,” “Last Night in Soho”) adapts a true crime book by Charles Graeber, endeavoring to transform the details of possible murder and an ensuing investigation into more of a human story while still tending to the tightness of discoveries and suspicion. “The Good Nurse” isn’t quite as gripping as Lindholm’s previous efforts, but it remains deeply compelling as it finds its way through a disturbing story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The story of “Call Jane” would be of interest anyway, but the timing of the feature is fascinating. Reaching screens in 2022, the film shares the tale of the Jane Collective, which, in its early days, provided safe abortions for women hoping to find some help during dark times of legality and gender equality. The screenplay, by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, returns viewers to the pre-Roe v. Wade time of 1968, following the main character as she moves from the numbness of domestication to the awareness of liberation, embarking on an eye-opening, life-changing education when a pregnancy threatens to end her life. Director Phyllis Nagy (who wrote 2015’s “Carol”) handles the sensitive subject carefully, making sure to keep “Call Jane” approachable for a wider audience, but she doesn’t sacrifice complexity. It’s not always an easy sit, but “Call Jane” delivers a potent reminder of fear and empowerment during a time when women began to comprehend and gradually reject a feeling of disposability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Neil Marshall’s career took a major hit when his do-over of “Hellboy” attracted disdain from the critical community, while audiences also maintained their distance from the picture (a film even Marshall would eventually disown). He’s retreated to the ways of low-budget productions, working exclusively with his girlfriend, Charlotte Kirk, and their first endeavor, 2020’s “The Reckoning,” didn’t inspire much of a reaction outside of hope they wouldn’t team up again. Marshall continues his Kirk collaboration with “The Lair” (a third movie from the pair is due out next year), which is basically a remake of James Cameron’s “Aliens,” only without the style, acting, and ferocity. Marshall can’t do much with his limited resources here, occasionally working up some monster mayhem in small settings while also managing a cringe-inducing screenplay (co-written by Kirk) that leaves no cliché behind. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1980, “Terror Train” was released during the Halloween season, and it was…okay. The Roger Spottiswoode-directed picture did moderate business, attracting audiences with the strange visual of a Groucho Marx mask used by the killer, and there was the appeal of Jamie Lee Curtis, who spent the year building on her “Halloween” success and cementing her reputation as cinema’s most recognizable scream queen (also appearing in “Prom Night” and “The Fog”). The feature wasn’t big on frights, but it had mood and an unusual location for slasher movie activity. It took 42 years, but a remake has finally materialized, with “Terror Train” returning to life, out to capture attention from older genre completists and younger viewers who have no clue there was an original version of this story. The 1980 offering was no great shakes, but it was odd enough to pass. The 2022 take is a faithful remake, only lacking a more tempting sense of mystery to successfully keep fans and first timers invested in rail-based terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As Bruce Willis winds down his acting career, he still has a few more duds to share with the world as predatory types hope to make a few bucks off his waning marquee value. For “Detective Knight: Rogue,” Willis makes occasional appearances in a weird crime movie that hopes to transform into an epic as it unfolds. Such ambition is not going to happen under co-writer/director Edward Drake, who’s been in the Willis business for the last few years, guiding bottom shelf offerings such as “Apex,” “American Siege,” and “Gasoline Alley,” and his habitual blandness returns in “Detective Knight: Rogue,” which is yet another cop vs. criminal tale of murky morality, though Drake and co-writer Corey Large do manage to sneak in one bizarre turn of plot before succumbing to the punishing sameness of all these Willis-branded VOD time-killers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a D.C. comic book character, Black Adam has been around for a very long time, with his first appearance dating back to 1945. He’s enjoyed extensive development over the decades, turning him into a complex character with limited allegiances and patience. He’s now ready for the big screen in “Black Adam,” with Dwayne Johnson taking the part of an all-powerful “Champion” who’s been imprisoned for centuries, finally unleashed in 2022, where he receives a strange education on the ways of heroism and authority. The role plays to Johnson’s strengths, giving him a tight costume to wear and limited dialogue to share, but director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Jungle Cruise,” “The Shallows”) feels the need to generate a superhero film as big as his star. “Black Adam” is drenched in CGI-laden battles and loaded with character connections and backstory, creating a tiresome, repetitive picture, and one that really doesn’t do much with Black Adam, who spends most of the endeavor blandly scowling and swatting opponents, making for a deflated viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After three straight years of low-fi, low-budget horror anthology hellraising, the “V/H/S” series ran out of steam in 2014, seemingly sent to the genre entertainment afterlife. Of course, nothing horror-related ever really dies, and a revival of sorts was cooked up in 2021, with “V/H/S/94” looking to restart a franchise engine with a fresh offering of macabre events from a variety of filmmakers, ending up one of the better installments in this uneven journey of bite-sized terror. Turns out, the last effort did what it was meant to do, and a year later there’s “V/H/S/99,” which serves up another collection of twisted tales, this time inching the setting to the Y2K era, though the adventures here fail to do much with the potential for a millennium nightmare. “V/H/S/99” has periodic oddity, but not enough to sustain the creative excitement found in the previous endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Rodrigo Garcia is usually drawn to stories of personal strife. He’s interested in the human experience, focusing on how characters react to challenges in their lives, delivering often deeply flawed but reasonably felt endeavors such as “Albert Nobbs,” “Four Good Days,” and “Mother and Child.” He’s no stranger to melodrama, which makes the relative stillness of “Raymond & Ray” something to celebrate. Garcia cooks up a tale of half-brothers facing the death of their father, tasked with managing last requests from a man who never cared about them, sending them on a journey of self-inspection, processing their worth. “Raymond & Ray” features magnificent performances from the cast, but it also brings something special out of Garcia, who offers career-best work here, remaining patient with the players and their often inner odyssey of self-esteem and forgiveness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Star power still carries weight in 2022, and while the film industry is working to understand how to market to the current fragmentation of pop culture, they’re still capable of powering a picture solely on the longstanding appeal of the veteran actors. In the case of “Ticket to Paradise,” there’s Julia Roberts and George Clooney, who were paired two decades ago in “Ocean’s Eleven,” making some screen magic with their chemistry, and they try again with their latest release, which is solely dependent on the innate charms of the talent. There’s not much else to savor in Daniel Pipski’s screenplay, which attempts to revive romantic comedy formula, adding a slight acidic touch with the journey of a divorced couple trying to play nice for their daughter’s wedding in Bali. There’s a vacation movie element to “Ticket to Paradise” as well, joining Clooney and Roberts as potential distractions once the comedic offerings of the feature start to wither and the drama feels wholly insincere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Characters in dire situations in need of escape to a world of hidden magic. A secluded castle that serves as an educational facility for those who require special support for their gifts. A battle between forces of light and darkness for control of the realm. Perhaps you’re thinking Harry Potter is back in action after all these years? Well, he’s not, but that’s the general idea behind “The School for Good and Evil,” which offers another immersion into YA dramatics featuring school year challenges, complete with a quirky staff heavily involved in the lives of their pupils. The material was originally a novel by Soman Chainani, published in 2013, and now it's a franchise-starter from director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call”), who’s in charge of developing the material into a series of movies. “The School for Good and Evil” is the first installment of the saga (Chainani has created multiple sequels for his literary empire), and the production works hard to arrange friendships, romances, antagonisms, and magical hierarchy. What the picture doesn’t have is charm, with Feig’s iffy sense of humor and love of broadness smothering the world-building meant to be the star of this enormously derivative show. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been quite some time since Henry Selick directed a movie, with 2009’s “Coraline” his last effort, playing to his strengths as a helmer interested in darker tales of empowerment for older kids. His pictures tend to enjoy a more haunting worldview, searching for magic in the middle of trauma, and his return to the screen, “Wendell & Wild,” remains in line with his creative pursuits. The difference here is Selick’s primary collaborator, with Jordan Peele taking co-writing, co-producing, and co-starring credits, bringing his own appetites for strange situations and unreality to the mix. The feature provides a pleasant return to stop-motion animation and lively voice work, with “Wendell & Wild” enjoying moments of real creative inspiration, finding Selick and Peele trying to let their imagination run wild with this exploration of life, death, and guilt, resulting in an enjoyably weird endeavor, and one that tries to give viewers something a little different. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor Todd Field received critical acclaim, Oscar attention, and promising box office for his directorial debut, 2001’s “In the Bedroom.” He received the same treatment (minus the promising box office) with his follow-up, 2006’s “Little Children,” which cemented him as a filmmaker worth paying attention to, capable of extracting tremendous performances and capturing strange, deeply personal moods. Cineastes eagerly awaited the next project from Field, and they kept waiting, with the helmer walking away from moviemaking for a whopping 16 years, finally returning with “Tár,” which is another presentation of abyssal character examination and appreciation of trauma. To his credit, Field remains determined to provide itchy cinema featuring diseased personalities, and “Tár” is perhaps his most unapproachable offering, going cold and stern with this study of power and ego in the orchestral world, gifting Cate Blanchett yet another chance to showcase her stunning capabilities as an actor with this challenging, exceptionally detailed feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Slash/Back” is a story about an Inuit community fighting back against an alien presence in the land, emerging as a rare indigenous tale from the region, recently detailed in the 2019 film, “The Grizzlies.” Co-writer/director Nyla Innuksuk endeavors to balance an understanding of the community and preserve genre elements, hoping to bring a little John Carpenter to the Arctic Circle, with the feature freely referencing the influence of “The Thing.” “Slash/Back” has a unique setting and distinct cultural observations, and it’s an engaging picture, but only in short spurts, finding Innuksuk struggling with the basics in escalation and suspense as she makes a horror-tinged effort with a largely untrained cast. There’s plenty here to appreciate, with a lived-in feel for town interactions and frustrations, but this is no nail-biter, often making full stops between attack sequences. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The success of 2019’s “Escape Room” appears to have inspired the making of “Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders,” with the new film hoping to achieve the same sense of confusion and panic in a puzzle house-style setting. Screenwriter Brian Buccellato looks to go beyond a basic survival situation, endeavoring to bring a strong sense of family animosity during a reunion event, offering a more potent sense of motivation when it comes to saving lives. Entanglements are present, but a noticeable level of horror isn’t, finding the picture almost unsure if it wants to horrify viewers or make them laugh, with the cast either contributing bizarre acting or going completely over the top with their takes. “Dangerous Game” opens with a mild sense of enticing mystery, but it quickly veers into absurdity, and not helping the cause is Sean McNamara, the helmer of “Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite” and “Baby Geniuses and the Treasures of Egypt,” who isn’t a seasoned genre director, but a guy known for grinding out inexpensive features quickly, living up to his reputation with his latest B-movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2018’s “Halloween” was intended to be the resurrection fans were waiting for, bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back to (once again) battle Michael Myers, providing a do-over of sorts as co-writer Danny McBride and co-writer/director David Gordon Green created a new path to franchise finality, promising a cleaner journey to an ultimate resolution for Laurie Strode and her boogeyman. The first feature delivered an uneven but undeniably effective set-up for a final battle, but 2021’s “Halloween Kills” (also hit with creative issues) disrupted the mission, with Green trying to inflate a simple idea of catharsis into a trilogy. Instead of satisfaction, “Kills” didn’t add up to much, and now the screenwriters try something different to close out Green’s trilogy, removing Michael Myers from much of “Halloween Ends,” electing to give loyal fans more of a thematic, character-based conclusion than a visceral one. It’s a bold choice, especially with all the expectations in play, but “Ends” intends to do its own thing, picking the worst time to do it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com