The Night Clerk from director Michael Cristofer (whose last film was 2001’s Original Sin) is a mystery-thriller starring Tye Sheridan, Ana de Armas, John Leguizamo, Helen Hunt and Johnathon Schaech and is available on DVD April 7th.
The Lincoln Lawyer isn’t breaking any new ground in the legal thriller genre. The plot itself is less mystery and more character so those expecting some twist might be disappointed. That being said, as somebody who has never been enamored with Matthew McConaughey, here he’s near pitch perfect for the part.
Sisters had plenty of potential given the cast, writer and director all with impressive resumes. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who don’t have a whole lot to work with and seemed to rely on improvising than anything from the script, do at least share nice comedic chemistry; outside of those two, though, there weren’t a whole lot of genuinely funny scenes.
What started off as an interesting story about the Milgram Experiment turned into a bit of a bore of film in the second half, though Peter Sarsgaard does give a fine performance and director Michael Almereyda certainly didn’t go the conventional route in the story and filmmaking style, so Experimenter does at least stand out in that regard.
American Ultra has some things going for it from an interesting story that combines Bourne with Pineapple Express to fun performances by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart who shows some actual charisma utterly lacking in many of her other movies; yet at the same time, and as outlandish and fun as the story is, it’s not terribly memorable.
John Wick is one of the surprise hits of 2014 and even though Keanu Reeves might not be a great actor, this role was tailor made for his skill sets in fighting and stunt work. Add to that, the story, albeit thin, is good enough to carry the 100-minute running time. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate has great video/audio transfers and OK selection of bonus material.