Madhouse maybe has a modest following, but being this my first viewing, I found it awfully tedious with little to no thrills not to mention no scares whatsoever, and add in some below average performances, even by 1980s slasher standards, it makes for just a bad movie.
To say I was disappointed in this Beauty and the Beast live action adaptation would be an understatement. Although the technical aspects were impressive, the performances, particularly for Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, were underwhelming, and the new music was rather forgettable.
Altitude is the latest in a long line of bad direct-to-video releases, and the newest from Grindstone Entertainment. The plot, and effects for that matter, seemed to come straight from a SyFy original movie.
Often funny with plenty of gore for horror-hounds, Brain Damage is plenty of fun though I felt it got on the lengthy side in many instances — the sex scene in particular went on forever — yet the film was entertaining enough.
Max 2: White House Hero is a safe movie for families and in particular, kids probably 10 and under as the jokes and violence are Disney-esque. No, it’s not very good and if you’re an adult, this might be tough to sit through.
Kill ‘Em All could’ve been a fun little film but instead it has choppy editing, lousy writing and lazy performances (Autumn Reeser at least wasn’t bad) and a story that became overcomplicated, or came across as such, jumping back and forth in time.
Sky on Fire had potential but the execution I felt was on the sloppy side though Daniel Wu did well in a lead role and some of the action scenes were shot pretty well while the visual effects were mostly laughable.
The Man in the Moon is a well made coming-of-age story that’s probably most memorable for being Reese Witherspoon’s introduction but also features a nice supporting cast.
Cops vs. Thugs is a well made, finely acted crime-drama (with some genuinely humorous moments), that anyone interested in foreign releases would enjoy.
Snitch is an entertaining suspense-thriller vehicle for Dwayne Johnson and while there were stretches that were unbelievable yet I still bought in to enough to make it a worthwhile watch.
Aftermath is a surprisingly well done drama featuring a few solid performances, most notably, Arnold Schwarzenegger showcasing some tenderness and honorable mention to Scoot McNary.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter was a surprisingly effective horror-thriller, and one I felt was actually better than the much praised The Witch, from Oz Perkins and features some solid performances led way by Kiernan Shipka with honorable mention for Emma Roberts.
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 has some very interesting movies though honestly, I didn’t find them very engaging, but I can appreciate them on a technical level. For hardcore film historians out there, this is well worth picking up as most of these are no doubt hard to come by.
The Assignment had an interesting premise and starts off well, if not weird, enough before devolving into familiar territory for the remainder of the film. On the plus side, Michelle Rodriguez isn’t bad once she’s rid of the hilariously bad fake beard and you can never have enough Sigourney Weaver in a movie.
Ben is the sequel to cult favorite Willard and as with its predecessor, marks its debut at least in North America and while I wasn’t as enamored with this as some, it does make for a fun double feature.