Category: Film Review

Writer/director David Cronenberg hasn’t crafted a feature in eight years, last seen on screen with 2014’s “Maps to the Stars,” and 2012’s punishing “Cosmopolis.” He’s a daring, original filmmaker, but Cronenberg ventured away from the darkness he’s usually drawn to, dealing with storytelling that didn’t feel like a natural fit for his sensibilities. He’s back to his obsessive ways with “Crimes of the Future,” which returns the helmer to a world of flesh and fixation, reworking the general mood of his 1970 picture, which shares the same title. Cronenberg revives his interest in the ways of human society and the pollution of mind and body, pushing the material into the worlds of performance art and detective fiction, emerging with a highly original vision for a sinister evolution. Appreciating the imagination of “Crimes of the Future” is easy, but the endeavor requires a bit more patience when getting through Cronenberg’s habitual storytelling coldness, which limits immersion into this peculiar world of surgical ecstasy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Action cinema needs fresh faces. The genre hasn’t been keeping up with the times, recycling heroes (including the apparently indefatigable Liam Neeson) for a small audience, also dealing with basic revenge stories as the inspiration for mayhem. “Interceptor” provides a slightly different setting for its central showdown between good and evil, and it has inspired casting in Elsa Pataky, who’s appeared in junky endeavors before (including four “Fast and Furious” films), but she takes command of her own starring vehicle here, tasked with providing physical power and intimidation while playing a military captain defending a missile station from determined terrorists. Pataky certainly looks the part, and there are moments of inspired bodily destruction in “Interceptor,” which is just frenzied enough to supply an entertaining sit. It’s not a major submission of screen power, but co-writer/director Matthew Reilly has his moments with this B-movie viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Actor/comedian Joel Kim Booster makes his feature-length screenwriting debut with “Fire Island,” working to craft his own take on a romantic comedy using a subculture few have attempted to capture. The material introduces the audience to the ways of a New York island made famous as a vacation destination for gay men looking to experience excitement and human contact while far removed from their everyday lives. Booster provides a vivid understanding of the ins and outs of the getaway, exploring the area and a large collection of characters in the endeavor, which looks to the works of Jane Austin and ‘90’s cinema as inspiration. When it wants to be, “Fire Island” is very funny, utilizing a talented and game cast to detail the social challenges of meeting new people and staying open to different experiences. There’s heart here too, with Booster looking to celebrate the subgenre, and while he has a sharp take on love and disasters, he’s a little too reliant on formula to connect the dots. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The poster for “Double Threat” features three characters holding weapons in a threatening manner, with the star, Danielle C. Ryan, the largest image of all, striking an action hero pose. The actual film isn’t nearly as exciting as its marketing, but a poster showcasing characters sitting in a car discussing their hopes and fears probably isn’t going to attract much attention. The picture being sold to the public isn’t exactly what “Double Threat” is, with writer CJ Walley and director Shane Stanley trapped between making a Lifetime original and something more aggressive, with occasional action sequences. The production goes a different way than the competition, hoping to engage viewers with tepid characterization instead of sheer force, creating an energetically acted but frustratingly restrained movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Unhuman” is introduced as a “Blumhouse Afterschool Special,” and it’s important to keep that description in mind while watching the feature. It’s a zombie movie in some ways, but writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (who also directs) are trying to reach a different level of antagonism with the endeavor, amplifying the everyday horrors facing high school kids just trying to find themselves during a turbulent time of adolescence. The John Hughes-esque approach has potential, but the screenplay doesn’t develop its big ideas, with Melton and Dunstan struggling to find sincerity in a plot that’s mostly about grisly events happening to confused people. “Unhuman” starts off with some degree of mystery and storytelling energy, but the film eventually loses a level of playfulness, spending the last 45 minutes of the effort trying to make sense of the mess it’s created. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Chole Okuno made a strong impression in the anthology film, “V/H/S/94,” delivering the picture’s best segment, which combined a growing sense of mystery with disturbing discoveries, giving the endeavor a needed level of terror. For her feature-length debut, Okuno remains in the same frame of mind with “Watcher,” which also offers a slow-burn investigation of a potentially nightmarish situation. With more time to fill and paranoia to track, the helmer has some difficulty adjusting to the demands of the run time, often taking the longest route possible to fairly elementary concepts of suspense. “Watcher” isn’t a sustained nail-biter, but it does work well at times, delivering a few effective pressure points as the lead character experiences a growing sense of horror and dismissal, left alone to manage a potentially deadly position of exposure, with Okuno trying to stretch the “stranger in a strange land” atmosphere for as long as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“There Are No Saints” comes from the mind of Paul Schrader, who’s certainly capable of making terrible pictures (“The Canyons,” “Dog Eat Dog”), and this is most definitely one of them. It’s Schrader’s version of a revenge movie, and one that teases elements of culture and religion while trying to compete in the marketplace with select action sequences. The feature doesn’t want to be generic, but it can’t fight fate, with director Alfonso Pineda Ulloa basically making an episode of a bad television show here, trapped by weak writing and vague characterization. “There Are No Saints” tries to be ruthless, butching up with salty language and rough treatment of women and children, but as a “Taken”-esque ride of violent interactions, it falls woefully short of VOD cinema standards, offering a steady display of tension-free scenes and flimsy filmmaking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Directors Scott McGhee and David Siegel haven’t made many films over the course of their career, with “Montana Story” their sixth production since 1993. They’ve taken their time when developing projects, and the endeavors typically focus on human behavior during challenging times of familial strife or relationship fractures. Through titles such as “Bee Season” and “What Maisie Knew,” McGhee and Siegel have proved their commitment to telling stories about intimate connections and unresolved feelings, and “Montana Story” is no different, with the helmers using the wide-open spaces of the state to examine internalized pain, offering a tale of sibling communication after years spent apart. As with other McGhee/Siegel efforts, their latest is in no hurry to get anywhere, offering a slow flow of feelings and developing conflicts that doesn’t always translate into compelling cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) and Mod Sun (aka Derek Ryan Smith) are musicians attempting to transition into filmmakers. The men have made music videos, even collaborating on a long-form endeavor, 2021’s “Downfalls High,” but “Good Mourning” is their feature-length debut, and to ensure they have some type of hit on their resume, they’ve elected to make a stoner comedy, which always seem to end up profitable no matter the quality. They aim to create a new “Up in Smoke,” but they end up with another “How High 2,” and their lack of practice when dealing with the nuances of a big screen comedy is abundantly clear during the run time (about 85 minutes, but it feels three times as long). “Good Mourning” has no tricks or treats, marching forward as a dumb guy experience with dismal improvisation and generic plotting, putting a lot of faith in Baker and Mod Sun’s fans to be patient enough to sit through what’s essentially a joke-free endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Producers certainly tried to pull together a continuation over the last 36 years, but it remains awfully strange that a “Top Gun” sequel didn’t materialize right after the release of the 1986 film. After all, the original was a monster box office success, becoming the highest grossing feature of its release year, and the picture became a pop culture phenomenon, launching a hit soundtrack, creating a sunglasses craze, and it even became a potent recruitment tool for the military. “Top Gun” was massive, but star Tom Cruise kept his distance from a follow-up, finally returning to his high-flying ways with “Top Gun: Maverick,” which picks up the saga of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he returns to the scars of his past while tasked with training the next generation of fighter pilots. Director Joseph Kosinski (“Tron: Legacy,” “Oblivion”) takes command of the endeavor, which is acutely aware of audience expectations, forcing the production to ride the line between nostalgia and high-tech thrills, presenting a movie that’s incredibly successful as an offering of entertainment, with barely tolerable levels of corniness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019’s “Downton Abbey” wasn’t a financial risk, but it provided a clear creative challenge for writer Julian Fellowes, who was tasked with bringing his hit television show to the big screen without losing the small-screen essentials of the show. Melodrama remained, but Fellowes attempted to upgrade character tensions and aristocratic stakes, coming up with a very comfortable and appealing victory lap for his creation, gathering the cast for another go-around with wealth, class, and British matters of heart and manners. The film turned out to be a huge hit, forcing Fellowes to rethink finality, returning to the franchise with “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” which offers another reunion of familiar faces and places, with the new picture out to give the fanbase what they’ve come for, but also move the story forward in a way that could inspire additional sequels now that the Crawley gang have proved their theatrical appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While many attempts to put a sequel together were made over the years, a true follow-up to 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” never found its way into production, robbing audiences of a chance to return to a world where pieces of animation history and detective fiction fit together with a comedic tilt. Writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand seem to have this feisty spirit in mind for “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers,” which offers an update of the 1989 animated series for ardent fans who’ve missed the crime-solving chipmunks, but also gives the whole thing a self-referential makeover that weaves the beloved characters into a world of cartoon heroes, villains, and monstrosities. Director Akvia Schaffer (“Hot Rod,” “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”) isn’t interested in reviving the show’s sense of playfulness, going hipper and louder with this mosaic of animated styles, brands, and history, hoping to huff some “Roger Rabbit” fumes while reintroducing the “Rescue Rangers” concept to a younger audience…in a film that’s not really for kids. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2018, writer Paul Myers decided to put his fandom to the test, assembling interviews and undertaking research for the book, “The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy.” It was his valentine to the Canadian comedy troupe, looking to provide some insight into complicated relationships and creative efforts, exploring the formation and rise to fame for The Kids in the Hall, filling pages with anecdotes, information, and tributes. It remains a vital biography of the group, reaching into the strange magic shared among members Mark McKinney, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, and Scott Thompson. “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks” isn’t the film version of Myers’s book, but it tries to cover the same ground, examining how these strange stage performers found one another in the 1980s, combining forces to generate a wave of idiosyncratic comedy that was cult-ready and fabulously bizarre. “Comedy Punks” doesn’t have the deep grooves of “One Dumb Guy,” but as a visual summary of career highs and lows, it’s a compelling sit, offering fans some necessary intimacy with the performers as they walk down memory lane. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If it’s low budget, shot in Georgia, and co-stars Bruce Willis, it must be a revenge story. The subgenre is all VOD cinema is usually about, and “Vendetta” is no different, with writer/director Jared Cohn (2021’s “Die Hard” rip-off, “Deadlock,” which also co-starred Willis) trying to pretend he’s the first filmmaker to touch on the physical and psychological violence of vengeance, attempting to conjure a mighty sense of fury with dramatic working parts seen in hundreds of other movies. “Vendetta” is predictable until it comes to explaining what’s going on, with Cohn committing a few unpardonable errors with his storytelling choices, offering true surprise with all the confusion the production generates. He also doesn’t have a big enough imagination to bring something passably novel to the endeavor, which is in desperate need of something more than tough guy posturing to remain even the slightest bit interesting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Two years ago, Brea Grant directed “12 Hour Shift,” a nifty thriller about a corrupt nurse trying to make it through a long night where everything goes wrong. Grant proved herself skilled with dark comedy and strange material, and she’s back in the same creative situation with “Torn Hearts,” which examines a bizarre encounter between a country duo and one of their inspirations. Writer Rachel Koller Craft cooks up a pleasingly unusual plot for Grant to detail, examining the stresses of partnership and the demands of the music industry. There’s also some horror worked into the flow of the feature, giving it a handful of charged moments that go beyond emotional violence. “Torn Hearts” isn’t an overwhelming study of pent-up feelings and malevolent therapy, but it contains some interesting hostility and a unique idea for confrontations, highlighting the dark side of music business ambition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Eugenio Derbez is a comedic actor who recently found success with a slightly different role in the Oscar-winning film, “CODA,” making a rare appearance in an emotionally charged endeavor that asked him to tone down his natural pull toward slapstick behavior. Derbez isn’t staying still for very long, quickly returning to sillier material with “The Valet,” which is a remake of a 2006 French comedy, directed by Frances Verber. The premise of a modest man caught up in a messy Hollywood situation seems to play to Derbez’s thespian strengths, but there’s something strangely off about the work, which has the star laboring to play a nice guy. It’s a vanilla approach in a feature that’s aiming to be as benign as possible, despite a story that welcomes an edgier approach to the ways of adultery and nervous breakdowns. “The Valet” finds Derbez basically taking a nap in the part, contributing little to an absurdly overlong effort that lacks charm and especially pace, going about its business often in the least memorable way possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Emergency” began life as a 2018 short, which attracted attention to writer K.D. Davila and director Carey Williams, who decided to expand the premise of a dangerous discovery made by three vulnerable college students into a feature film. The strain of such a move is evident while watching the movie, as Davila has her central idea about possible exposure to lethal force when young black men deal with the police, struggling to come up with an extra 90 minutes of material to support the expansion. “Emergency” isn’t a potent comedy, often fumbling through scenes of playful engagement before a crisis kicks in, and Williams struggles to find a level of interplay with his characters, as most of the endeavor involves people arguing, which isn’t all that interesting to watch. There’s periodic thematic clarity worth waiting for, but Davila and Williams show little command of comedic and dramatic escalation, keeping the effort at arm’s length from enlightenment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019 was a busy year for comedian Rebel Wilson, who appeared in four movies intended to send her career soaring. It didn’t quite work out that way (one of the offerings was “Cats,” which didn’t make magic for anyone involved in the production), and Wilson soon disappeared, taking the next three years off from filmmaking. She’s back with “Senior Year,” which is built to play to her sellable strengths of improvisation, dancing, and goofball antics, remaining in line with pretty much every picture she’s made during her career. Unsurprisingly, “Senior Year” is sincerely lacking a developed sense of humor, with the screenplay trafficking in millennium nostalgia and R-rated raunchiness, occasionally stopping the effort to deal with tender feelings. It all feels very programmed and unimaginative, and it keeps Wilson front and center, with producers once again asking her to carry a feature without thinking things through, and she barely puts in an effort to do anything different here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Eskil Vogt (who previously collaborated on efforts such as “The Worst Person in the World” and “Thelma”) looks to update the “Bad Seed” formula with “The Innocents.” It’s a story about four children who each deal with certain mental powers, giving them the thrill of discovery and the challenge of self-control. There’s a certain graphic novel atmosphere to the endeavor, which largely remains a silent study of behavior and choices, occasionally dipping into some pitch-black events involving sudden violence. Vogt remains in observational mode with “The Innocents,” which gives it tremendous cinematic power, forcing viewers to process the strange magic and antagonism that emerges from these young characters, which provides some of the finest suspense sequences of the film year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Operation Mincemeat” is based on a book by Ben Macintyre, who explored the story of a secret World War II mission to provide a “deception plan” used to help the Allies invade Sicily in 1943. It’s an extraordinary tale of teamwork and talent, and there’s a special addition to this slice of wartime history, with author Ian Fleming part of the planning, using his military knowledge to help inform the eventual creation of his most famous character, James Bond. The saga of Operation Mincemeat has been explored in previous productions (including 1956’s “The Man Who Never Was”), but screenwriter Michelle Ashford (“The Pacific”) brings a more immediate sense of suspense to the endeavor, working with the strange details of the mission and the inner lives of the players in the game, while director John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) brings a tight pace to most of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com