Category: Film Review

“Spiral” is presented as “From the Book of Saw,” which gives it a little breathing room in terms of franchise expectations. It’s the ninth installment of the horror series, which began in 2004 and became a Halloween tradition for some viewers before fatigue finally set in around 2010. The producers tried to restart the machine with 2017’s “Jigsaw,” but the picture was met with audience indifference, putting the brand name back on the shelf. Now “Saw” is back once again, this time slightly reworked as a detective story, with “Jigsaw” screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger huffing “Seven” fumes as they attempt to merge a serial killer story with traditional displays of blood and guts. “Spiral” presents itself as a fresh take on macabre premise, but it’s really just the same old “Saw,” offering a tired tale of suffering and trapping, lacking any inventiveness capable of making the viewing experience exciting again. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Fans of spare filmmaking and developing mood are most likely to respond to the directorial ways of Robert Machoian, who offers a lot of observational time in “The Killing of Two Lovers.” Machoian also handles screenwriting duties, aiming for a small-scale drama about a broken household involving a husband and wife who don’t fully understand how to proceed with their dying relationship, creating a standoff situation of unspoken feelings and fears. This is not a highly charge study of marital distress, with Machoian taking his time to develop the characters and their hidden issues. He also works to create a lived-in feel for the location, adding a wintry chill to a tale about separation, and the helmer’s use of violence is genuinely shocking. It’s assured moviemaking with a compelling crisis to examine, but it’s not for those who demand a steady run of tension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Battles of conscience and culture dominate “High Ground.” It’s an Australian production that confronts the brutal history of the continent, capturing rising tensions between violent British policemen and an Aboriginal tribe struggling to process the senseless slaughter of many innocent people. Screenwriter Chris Anastassiades pulls back from a broad understanding of cruelty with the feature, working to identify the confusion that lingers after violence, also delving into hostilities on all sides of the drama, involving characters trying to make sense of an insane situation of pursuit and survival. Director Stephen Johnson provides a vivid understanding of nature and confusion with the endeavor, overseeing a talented cast that captures moral dilemmas and harsh realities when dealing with the terror of colonialism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Djinn” isn’t trying to be a radically different horror movie. Writer/directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell (who have another picture, “The Boy Behind the Door,” due for release this summer) don’t have the filmmaking resources to mount a menacing, epic tale of a child trying to survive the night with an evil force unleashed in his apartment. The helmers keep things small and intimate with their endeavor, out to generate some scary scenes and find some psychological grooves to explore, hoping to add some significance to what would otherwise be a standard offering of close quarters frights. “The Djinn” is at its best with scenes of silent stalking and offerings of black magic, remaining an endeavor best appreciated by genre fans who enjoy the essentials in terror mixed with a little emotional agony. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Calling on the great spirits of party cinema is director Will Bakke, who made “The Get Together” as a short film in 2015 and returns for a second at-bat with a 2021 version, intending to expand on his original ideas. Instead of troubled teens managing a boisterous evening and relationship distress, the screenplay (written by Bakke and Michael B. Allen) aims to get a little bit older, exploring the confusion of a post-grad existence where future plans are difficult to make and partnerships are threatened by the imposing entity known as adulthood, or “adulting.” “The Get Together” isn’t heavy, but it hopes to reach viewers with its depictions of heartache, with Bakke sending an ensemble to Austin, TX to work through various crisscrossing subplots that analyze what it takes to reach some form of maturity during the chaos of a house party where the alcohol flows, confessions get chunky, and passive-aggressiveness is common. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Desktop thrillers, or “livescreen” movies, are nothing new, recently finding box office success with 2018’s “Searching” (a sequel is due out next year). This wave of screensharing entertainment is primarily limited to thrillers, which help to supercharge the mundane movements and clicks normally associated with computer management. For “Profile,” director Timur Bekmambetov (who co-produced “Searching”) tries to reach beyond escapism and dramatize terrorist horrors, taking inspiration from Anna Erelle’s 2015 book, “In the Skin of a Jihadist: Inside Islamic State’s Recruitment Networks,” which detailed one journalist’s dark exploration of online manipulation. “Profile” commences as a compelling procedural, highlighting the methods used to create a story using social media connections and video conference communication. Maintaining a colder distance to the topic doesn’t appeal to Bekmambetov for very long, soon trying to bend verisimilitude to inspire suspense cinema, turning a real-world nightmare into a cartoon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

French filmmaker Alexandre Aja has managed to form an interesting career since he started making movies 21 years ago. He’s remained in the horror genre, working with formula and pure fury to create some magic in features such as “High Tension,” the “Piranha” remake, and 2019’s excellent gators-on-the-loose chiller, “Crawl.” Aja hasn’t always knocked it out of the park (“The 9th Life of Louis Drax,” “Mirrors”), but he’s done well with panicked characters and tight spaces, and it doesn’t get more claustrophobic than “Oxygen,” which takes place entirely inside a small cryogenic capsule, which becomes a prison for the lead character. It’s a directorial challenge in many ways, but also a storytelling test as well, with screenwriter Christie LeBlanc attempting to work through three acts of anxiety and discovery while remaining inside a single space for 100 minutes, making a buried alive-style picture with a high-tech spin. And Aja’s right there, working to keep the whole thing visually varied enough to hold attention. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After crawling through a trilogy of creative misfires, including the 2019 remake of “Aladdin,” director Guy Ritchie found his footing again with 2020’s “The Gentlemen.” The picture played to his strengths, depicting bad guys doing bad things with icy demeanors and paragraphs of dialogue, but “The Gentlemen” offered a newly energized Ritchie, who was eager to flex his tough guy muscles again after dealing with Hollywood studios and massive budgets. His return to leathery filmmaking continues with “Wrath of Man,” which is a remake of a 2004 French thriller (“Cash Truck”), bringing a tale of armed robbery and revenge to the streets of Los Angeles, also reuniting with star Jason Statham, marking their first collaboration since 2005’s cinematic chess match, “Revolver.” Ritchie has another puzzling game to play with his leading man, dealing up bad attitudes and brawny dialogue in “Wrath of Man,” and while the movie isn’t an offering of big screen bedlam, it provides an intriguing level of darkness, and Ritchie has a way of bringing out the best in Statham, wisely playing up his mastery of silent intimidation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Silo” isn’t a horror film, though it details a frightening situation involving panicking characters. It’s not exactly a suspense picture either, but it contains some of the most effective screen tension in recent memory. Director Marshall Burnette and screenwriter Jason Williamson embark on an unusual odyssey of survival, examining the real-world danger of grain entrapments, which isn’t something that’s usually seen on screen. Perhaps 1985’s “Witness” is the last major feature to detail the dangers of silo life. Burnette doesn’t have a significant budget to fulfill all of his helming dreams, but he arrives with a committed cast that works extremely hard to make every line meaningful, and there’s the central idea of “Silo,” which offers an original take on a disaster move, also exploring layers of community connection in rural America, giving the crisis a powerful emotional push at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

At the very least, “Above Suspicion” deserves a participation ribbon just for finally finding its way to a U.S. release. Films experiencing a few delays are usually considered damaged goods, but this particular picture was shot in 2016, giving it five long years to build up a bad reputation. While watching the endeavor, it gradually becomes clear why the movie was kept on the shelf for so long, as director Phillip Noyce (who last helmed “The Giver”) hasn’t made a particularly strong or memorable effort. “Above Suspicion” is actually a bit trashy, unexpectedly so, registering as a basic cable production with slightly more R-rated content. While “based on a true story,” the feature doesn’t retain a gritty true crime feel, going more simplistic with betrayals and seduction, becoming more cartoon-ish as the story unfolds. It’s not quite the disaster one might expect it to be, but this is far from Noyce’s finest hour. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Paper Spiders” looks at the challenges of living with delusional disorder, highlighting a mother and daughter wrestling with a slow development of destructive paranoid behavior as they both enter new stages in their lives. It’s a story about change and family from co-writer/director Inon Shampanier, who works to create distinct worlds of distress for the lead characters, understanding how they work together and apart in a world seemingly loaded with degrees of mental illness. Shampanier isn’t out to hammer audiences with violent emotional activity, but “Paper Spiders” isn’t light, endeavoring to craft some level of authenticity when it comes to human decay, but it also welcome viewers into the central relationship, which was founded in love and struggles to remain there as the unimaginable arrives to destroy everything. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Benny Loves You” is the latest addition to the killer doll subgenre that found its way to box office success with 1988’s “Child’s Play” and has recently enjoyed a supernatural revival in the “Annabelle” films. People seem to love these knee-high threats, and writer/director Karl Holt is more than happy to take such unexpected violence to the extreme for his feature-length directorial debut. “Benny Loves You” isn’t just a thriller about a stuffed bear with the spirit of a mass murderer, it’s a bloodbath featuring all sorts of graphic content, sold with a darkly comic tone by Holt, who teeters into pure silliness at times. Working with an exceedingly small budget and limited technical achievements, Holt elects to make his mark by going crazy with the endeavor, creating a Troma Entertainment-esque viewing experience that’s limited in scope but enjoyably macabre as Benny, the plush monster of the movie, unleashes his cute version of hell. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Carlos V. Gutierrez isn’t making life easy for himself with the setting for “Locked In,” which takes place inside of a storage facility during the dead of night. He’s not David Fincher, but he takes on a “Panic Room”-lite premise, following a desperate woman’s attempt to keep herself alive as thieves enter the building to collect a secret fortune. It’s a small production dealing with limited space and casting, and one would think such creative restraints would push Gutierrez to try as hard as a could to make the movie as breathless as possible, hitting viewers with pure suspense as bad ideas evolve into dead bodies over the course of the film. “Locked In” doesn’t arrive with that level of inspiration, instead taking the leisurely route to violence, with banal conversations, not games of survival, dominating the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

An actor with sometimes strong instincts (“Selma,” “Queen of Katwe”) and strange career choices (“Gringo,” “Chaos Walking”), David Oyelowo makes his feature-length directorial debut with “The Water Man,” which pairs powerful moments with odd creative decisions. It’s his attempt to replicate the young adult adventure films of his youth, only with more of a psychological pull provided by screenwriter Emma Needell, who’s also making her first major picture. “The Water Man” has ambition to be mysterious and eventful, exploring the power of small-town myth and the frustrating pain of reality, with Needell capturing the inner working of a young mind who’s taken to fantasy to deal with his punishing life. Oyelowo intends to find the heart of such a crisis, and he almost gets there, but the endeavor isn’t quite as imaginative or gripping as the first act promises, potentially underwhelming the family demographic the production is aiming for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Quoc Bao Tran doesn’t want to generate the usual martial arts movie with “The Paper Tigers.” He’s looking for ways to make the viewing experience deeper with richly detailed characters who have issues beyond simple fight skills, also dealing with aging, parenthood, and the aches and pains of regret. Tran’s created a unique film with “The Paper Tigers,” and that’s strong enough to maintain interest in where it’s going, but it’s not always an easy ride to the finale. Editorial issues are troubling, with the picture often beating ideas and themes into the ground between scenes of characters beating one another up, and such slack pacing is difficult to endure at times, especially when a tighter, more direct cut of the endeavor seems right there for the taking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For many people, the world of “Star Wars” only exists in television form these days. The movies make big money and wow the masses, but small screen serialized storytelling with the George Lucas creation has attracted a devoted fanbase, as seen with shows such as “The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars: Rebels,” and “Star Wars: Resistance.” And then there’s “The Clone Wars,” which offered fans a deep dive into characterization and world-building, with over 100 episodes produced to give the faithful a rich understanding of the universe beyond the big screen. “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” is a spin-off of “The Clone Wars,” bringing back a collection of “genetically defective” clones, exploring their tussles with authority figures and near misses in battle, offering a return to previous storytelling tonality and psychological profiles, only now there’s a more ragtag collection of brutes to follow. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are a lot of characters and conflicts to work through in “Things Heard & Seen,” which is an adaptation of Elizabeth Brundage’s 2016 novel, “All Things Cease to Appear.” It’s certainly obvious why the material was transformed into a movie, as pictures like “The Conjuring” have collected a massive audience eager to see homestead hauntings, preferably in a period setting. “Things Seen & Heard” has ghosts and the year 1980, pitting anxious and corrupt personalities against strange spirits who won’t leave them be, and the material provides writer/directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (“American Splendor”) with a challenge to balance the supernatural elements of the story with its domestic disturbance subplots, finding a middle ground for an assortment of real and unreal frights. Berman and Pulcini can’t keep up with the story, but they find some areas of ruinous human behavior that are far more interesting than any ghosts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

31 years ago, “The Hunt for Red October” brought the world of author Tom Clancy to movie theaters. It was a masterpiece, giving audiences a chance to experience the writer’s gift for crafting taut military thrillers on the big screen, launching the exploits of CIA analyst Jack Ryan. A lot of money has been spent trying to keep Ryan a household name, detailed through five pictures and a television series that’s about to enter its third season. Jack Ryan has always been the star of the show, but now its time to see what John Clark can do. A fixture of the “Ryanverse,” Clark has been featured in previous film adaptations, but with “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” the character is handed his own revenge story, with actor Michael B. Jordan looking to make his mark with a part that’s been played in the past by William Dafoe and Liev Schreiber. Stripping away most of Clancy’s original story, screenwriters Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples aim for more of a blockbuster mood for “Without Remorse,” delivering a weak tale of vengeance to support extended action sequences. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Outside Story” is a different New York City tale, eschewing crime and noise to explore the events of a single day as an anxious man tries to reenter his apartment after locking himself out, forced to experience the world around him for the first time. It’s amazing the feature wasn’t created during quarantine times, as it deals with many of the issues people are facing today, exposed to a different POV as home becomes the new normal. Writer/director Casimir Nozkowski deserves extra credit for his prescient screenplay, but he also manages a charming dramedy about reflection and community interaction. “The Outside Story” also offers a change of pace for actor Brian Tyree Henry, who’s normally cast is moodier roles, presented with a challenge to play lighter in a picture that demands an elastic, emotive performance he’s more than capable of handling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Four Good Days” takes on the dark subject matter of drug addiction, but the picture isn’t completely interested in just the user’s perspective. There are more sides to this story, with the film taking inspiration from a 2016 newspaper article writer by Eli Saslow (who also co-scripts), giving the endeavor some foundation of reality to help examine troubled lives pushed to their breaking point. Co-writer/director Rodrigo Garcia (“Albert Nobbs,” “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her”) attempts to dramatize a distinctly tortuous relationship shared between a paranoid mother and her junkie daughter, and “Four Good Days” certainly captures the hopelessness of such a union, which has been destroyed through years of lying and betrayal. Emotions are strong in the feature, but melodramatic scenes throttle the intended power of the material, keeping a well-intentioned movie struggling to remain authentic with real-world horrors. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com