Evil Things

First thought?  Does this look like another low budget horror flick with the same boring screams and slashes?  At first glance you may think so but it aint!  I had the please to meet the Writer/Director of this in Phoenix last weekend, Dominic Perez.  I had the first instincts of, "sure you did a couple of movies?"  Well, as you know about me, I jumped at the chance to check out a found footage, low budget, horror flick, after all they are my favorite!  I went in thinking, bad acting, bad lighting, boring and drawn out story, and cheesy music.  I was so wrong!  I loved this flick!  So keep in mind the small budget and not having the backing of a Hollywood juggernaut, this played out very well!  5 fiends travel to upstate NY to have a long weekend at a family members secluded home in the woods.  Along the way they are put on edge by an idiot driver during the snow storm.  Once at the home some odd events start to unfold only to put them in harms way.  There were some very unique elements of this film such as a plot that takes you in a few different directions (paranormal, home invasion, Blair Witch???)  The acting was quite good as it seemed very real to me, not "acted".  The actors were very "next door" looking which made the film that much more believable.  Give this one a shot on Amazon Prime.  It may not be fore everyone, but after getting into it at night you may get a bit of the creeps.

FYI:  3 months to write, 7 days to shoot, and 1 month to edit.

***1/2

The Girl on the Train

Ever been so wasted that you cant remember what you did last night?  How about for the last few years?  Oh, c'mon, you know the times when you fill an entire sports bottle with vodka and take it down while hangin on the commuter train.  Really?  Not you?  Uhhhhh, well you might not be able to relate to this movie as much as I did then.  Did I spoil the plot for you?  Here it is:  Raggedy drunk rides the commuter train to NY everyday spying on the homes that are built a little too close to the tracks if you ask me.  Well, she just so happens to see every detail of an important incident in these peoples lives.  Enough to get tangled in their web of lies and deceit.  Oh, another factor.  One of them is her ex-husband with his new wife and child.  Coincidence?  I THINK NOT!  This is a great mystery/thriller along the lines of all the hottest "scorn-wife" books that are taking the world by storm right now.  In the spirit of "Gone Girl", "The Wife Between Us", and "The Girl in the Window" it doesn't disappoint.  Blunt plays a real piece of crap extremely well, and Bennett is an almost doppelganger to Jennifer Lawrence.  They only accent the other great cast members who really give a great performance.  This is a great sit back and enjoy thriller that you wont want to miss.

FYI:  Blunt wore bloodshot contacts and cheek prosthetics for her alcoholic character.

***1/2

Jungle

"It will be fun", they said.  "Lets have an adventure", they said.  "Cancel your plane tickets", they said.  Now look!  I am trapped in the God Damn Amazon Jungle!!!  This is a true hidden gem, and absolutely one of the most underrated movies of last year.  I barely heard anything about it, and the critics weren't all that generous with the film but I thought is was amazing!  I am not a huge Radcliffe fan other than this and "Horns".  He usually is just a grown up version of Harry Potter, but he really shines in this picture having some seriously terrifying moments of being isolated in the jungle.  He plays Yossi Ghinsberg, author of the book in which this story is based.   The story is three friends back-packing in South America find a shady guide who will take them on a true adventure off the beaten path and in to the actual jungle, no tourist crap.  They are reluctant at first and succumb as the sales pitch is just to overwhelming.  They experience first hand the depths and dangers of the jungle only to be separated and having to find for themselves.  There is some great cinematography, unbelievable situations, and gruesome truths as to what would happen after weeks in the trenches.  The best part is, this is a true story!  Definitely give this a shot, it is worth it and will make you think twice about traveling off the beaten path (in the jungle).

FYI:   It would have been impossible for McLean to condense all of Ghinsberg's trials into one movie, which unfortunately left out:

• When Ghinsberg woke up covered in leeches.
• When Ghinsberg slipped down a slope and impaled his rectum on a broken stick.
• When Ghinsberg woke up to find a swarm of termites eating patches of his skin where he'd urinated on himself.

*****

Brawl in Cell Block 99

I've always loved prison movies, not sure why but they have intrigued me as much as terrified me ever since I can remember watching them.  I love the grit and nastiness of not only the environment but the dirty politics and untold stories in each cell.  Here we have a serious throwback to the old low budget "Grindhouse" type movies that center a tough, no nonsense guy just trying to do right but gets mixed up in the wrong game.  He ends up in prison due to a drug deal gone bad and is forced to kill one of the inmates in the hardest cell block with the hardest warden.  Good thing he is an ex-boxer / tough guy who can pretty much take any type of pain and dish it out 10 times more.  I almost absolutely loved this movie.  Story, violence, gore, setting, plot, acting, and Don Johnson as the hard core Warden was outstanding!  What I just couldn't get past the entire time watching was its lonesome star, Vince Vaughn.  Let me explain, I am a big fan of Vaughn, I think he is a great actor.  He just didn't sell me the part of a bad ass in this movie.  They mention how huge he is a number of times, and how big his muscles are, and how he is such a tough guy but it just wasn't there.  In this day and age, there are good actors who are 5 times the size of him that would have made his role so much more believable.  Other than that, the movie was great.  Give it a shot, maybe you will think different but one small casting mistake lost a star on my rating.

FYI:  Vaughn gained 15 lbs of "muscle" for this film???

***1/2

Bright

Remember the last time you said, "I wish they would combine Training Day with Lord of the Rings"?  Well your wish has come true, thanks to Netflix!  Classic story of a Central Los Angeles loner cop with a new partner and they have to learn to get along and work together as a team.  Facing a dangerous situation in the midst of a feud involving dirty cops, gang members and the Internal Affairs.  There is a bit of a twist though, the new partner is an Orc, the dirty cops are after a magic wand, some of the gangs they are facing are other Orcs, and the Internal Affairs is lead by an Elf.  Sound dumb?  I thought it would be as well, but nope, this movie rocked!  They do a great job of making the mystical things seem appropriate and normal in our everyday, crime ridden world.  The acting is pretty good and they don't go completely overboard with the nerd stuff.  I cant believe how bad the critics trashed this movie, it was extremely enjoyable and had a really good story with obvious racial problem undertones.  I would absolutely watch this flick, besides its free on Netflix.

FYI:  Netflix most expensive movie with a budget of $90,000,000

****1/2

The Disaster Artist

First question is, has anyone actually seen the movie titled "The Room"???  I remember hearing about it back in the late 90's and never giving it any more thought until seeing the preview for this film.  Now, I am utterly intrigued to see it!  The Disaster Artist is basically about the making of this movie, the relationships that came to be beforehand, setting things in motion, and the complete disaster the entire project becomes.  This, only to end up bringing people together, achieving the dreams that seemed so far out of reach, and creating one of the biggest cult films of all time.  Ahhh, what an endless pot of money can do for you!  James Franco plays Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director and star of this film.  Dave Franco plays his friend Greg Sestero, who is really the one who inspires Tommy to make the movie in the first place.  Both want-to-be actors, both terrible, find each other and form an unusual friendship in which Tommy makes everything possible.  Watching James Franco play the part of the broken English speaking Tommy is genius!  This guy definitely deserves an Oscar nod, as painful as it was to watch.  The casting was outstanding, although you dont really get the full capacity of how great it is until the end when they show side by side the actual film next to the recreation.  Its outstanding!  Definitely watch this, and keep in mind it is a movie that is meant to show you how ridiculous the entire situation was in the first place.

FYI:  James Franco stayed in character throughout directing and the entire making of this film.

*****

Killing Gunther

Ever heard of this one?  I hadn't either, other than digging deep into the imdb trailers one night.  What an awesome concept, with a pretty good cast!   Basically this movie shows 7 of the worlds (most deadly leftover) hit-men joining forces in order to find and kill the most notorious assassin of all time!  Well, he is better than them, much better, and they end up falling flat on a number of occasions.  Then, putting Ahnold at the helm as a quirky, hit-man with all the confidence in the world, perfect right?  Hardly!  This film was about as flat as it gets, a complete dud other than the last 15 minutes.  The wasted the talent of the actors in this film with really bad dialogue writing.  Great ideas gone due to not even being utilized, and the slap-stick routine just didn't fit.  Then to top it off, Arnie isn't even in the damn movie until the last 15 minutes, and that is when it gets really good and funny.  He own's this role and carries the entire first 1 1/2 hours with his short performance.  I feel like they wrote this entire movie without Arnold, and then when they realized it sucked, they added on an extra 15 minutes with him in it just to sell tickets.  Who knows, but just watch the trailer, its as good as the film itself and you wont waste time trying really hard to like the flick.

FYI:  Apparently they are trying to make a part 2 to this titled "The Gunther Who Loved Me".

*1/2

It Comes at Night

Well, here we have it, another post-apocalyptic world thriller.  Only a few souls left, are they just desperate travelers looking for some sort of relief, or sinister villains who want what you have?  I finally got around to watching this after long anticipation, and it didn't disappoint!  It was certainly a slow burn with more suspense of what was going to happen rather than what is actually taking place.  In my opinion it was perfectly done to create how life would be in that type of environment where paranoia, and seclusion takes over.  The story takes place in a remote woodsy home where a man is doing everything he can to protect his family.  Along comes a stray trying to break in, another man looking for supplies to help his family.  The two families end up shacking up to avoid the sickness that has taken over the world only to create a tense and suspicious household.  Great acting and a real depiction of what you think would take place.  If your looking for a ton of action and non stop dialogue, look elsewhere.  This is a very well made movie that gets a bit disturbing and will touch your last nerve.

FYI:  Many of the cast members stayed secluded to truly get into their parts.

****1/2

Bushwick

If you want a racial, political and religious genocide, look no further than the not so distant future in the Bushwick district of NY.  The only way to escape is to cast a Barden Bella, an Ex-Wrestler, and rookie director and boom!  You get yourself one hell of a mindless Netflix gem!  This is a great simple movie that has a great idea of a somewhat relevant situation for the countries political divide.  The film of course takes this to the extreme, with some of our few southern states taking it upon themselves to exterminate lesser humans starting in NY.  An unlikely pair (Wrestler and Bella) find themselves fighting for their lives in order to gain refuge at a distant location.  I have to give it to the Meathead, Bautista, he has some pretty good acting chops.  Not to mention he is pretty cool.  Snow is typical Snow, and does a great job of being frantic and an "ok" actor, plus she is pretty hot.  This was pretty non stop with the action and I was very surprised at how much I liked it.  There is no Oscar in the future for this one, but I would highly recommend.  You will be shocked at some of the outcomes.

FYI:  This movie was filmed almost entirely in one take.

****

Nerve

What would you do for $$$?  Are you sure?  Even make a really crappy movie staring a bunch of "almost there" actors living in the shadows of their more successful family members?  In this wanna-be morality and judgement modern existence tale, we follow a young mousy high school girl who finds herself immersed in an online game being judged by thousands of anonymous watchers.  Sound cool?  Well just watch the trailer and you will have saved yourself from the agony of this film.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, and I (guilty pleasure) actually enjoyed it as it was an easy watch for my 10 year old and I.  The bad, Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Juliette Lewis, all terrible.  Just Bad.  None of them have ever been good actors, (only exception is Natural Born Killers) and cant believe they still have a place in Hollywood.  The concept was actually pretty cool and relevant in today's society where people will do just about anything for instant, non earned fame.  People will also watch just about anything as long as it keeps their attention for more than 7 seconds.  The game is run by fans giving dares to people for money, which I think is pretty cool and would probably do, but after a while it gets a little dumb.  The end fell flat, and was completely predictable but hey, if you have some time to spare, I dare you to watch!

FYI:  A secret "dark and weird" sex scene was cut from the film and only rumored of the content.

**1/2

American Assassin

Here we go with yet another "Super Assassin" movie, where the best of the best of the best are put together to train the impossible.  The completely generic film takes all of the classic cliche elements of a film and throws them all together to make this "Blockbuster".  I took the liberty of listing them for you here:  1. Veteran actor who recently regained his A list status as the legendary bad-ass, check!  2. Coming of age heart-throb who obviously went through a three month P90-X routine in order to look the part of the undiscovered, troubled best in the world fighter, check!  3. Brash, hard nosed director who will do anything to make sure the mission is complete, along with a history to go along with her relationship with legend bad-ass, check!  4. Former best of, turned to the other side who becomes the top villain, check!  5. And not least, throw in an emotional backstory for the lead so that pent up emotions get in the way to possibly compromise the mission at hand, check!  So there you have it, a step by step guide to making an action movie, and this one took em all, and failed.  The only good parts are that the fighting scenes were pretty cool, the chicks were pretty hot, and I have a weak spot for Keaton, otherwise this movie was a complete dud.  Give it a shot if its free and your bored, otherwise forget it even exists.

FYI:  Dylan O'Brien won the lead roll over many veteran actors due to his young look for a possible 8 future films! 

**

Happy Death Day

With the never used-up reference to the classic Bill Murray film, this is the new age "Groundhog Day" with a twist!  Young self-absorbed, sorority girl, hottie wakes up after a night of black out drinking and it just so happens to be her birthday, maybe her last.  She continues her selfish life not caring about anyone but herself, only to wind up dead.  Then, same morning, another death, over and over again.  She basically has to put together the suspects and solve her own murder before it happens and until then, live the carnage each and every day.  Since she is a total bitch, everyone is a suspect!  Okay, so not the most original movie of the year, but there are some cool twists that help it along.  Not to mention the deaths are pretty cool, and all of the alleged suspects are modern and refreshing in this "Clue Like" thriller.  The acting was not bad, and of course the main character isnt to hard on the eyes.  This movie takes the typical stereotype college scenario and gives it a fresh makeover with some horror that doesn't take itself too seriously, but not overdone on the goofiness.  Give this one a shot, its an easy watch and fun.  Happy Birthday!

FYI:  The Baby Mask worn by the killer was designed by the same guy who designed Ghost-Face for Scream.

***1/2