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August 2022

Film Review - I Came By

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Thrillers and chillers are everywhere these days. They’re cheap to produce and don’t require star power to attract an audience. And, in these pandemic times, they don’t demand the use of multiple locations, keeping suspense needs to a few select areas. To help break free from the competition, a movie needs a little extra something to be memorable, and “I Came By” offers a bit more edge than most genre offerings. It’s a slickly made endeavor with some notable actors around to handle the writing’s unusual characterization, but co-writer/director Babak Anvari isn’t afraid to bring a little nastiness to the picture, overseeing some genuine surprises to help disrupt formula. “I Came By” doesn’t offer an eye-opening viewing experience, but it does what it does rather well, keeping viewers unsettled as the evil depicted here is genuinely wicked, securing an elevated sense of ruthlessness that makes the feature quite compelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Tiny Cinema

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In 2020, director Tyler Cornack delivered “Butt Boy.” The cult-ready effort tracked the desperation of a man and his battle with the unholy power of his rear end, with Cornack’s production team, Tiny Cinema, creating a detective story about a most unusual event. The endeavor wasn’t without tonal and humor problems, but it managed to find ways to make pronounced oddity amusing, instead of the usual helping of obnoxiousness. Tiny Cinema is back with…er, “Tiny Cinema,” with writers Ryan Koch, William Morean, and Cornack (who also directs) creating an anthology film about the wonders of madness and the pains of trickery, sold with a defined sense of the absurd. “Tiny Cinema” is quite the viewing experience at times, mixing genuine hilariousness with a slow-burn sense of shock value, sold with lively, committed performances and a weird “Twilight Zone” vibe from Cornack, who creates consistent chapters in this tour of crazy ideas and desperate characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - One Way

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“One Way” is being classified as a thriller, but suspense doesn’t actually arrive in the picture. It’s a small-scale endeavor, keeping up with pandemic production times by involving a small number of characters trying to make sense of their lives in limited locations, putting the weight of dramatic success on the actors, who have to come up with the feeling of entire lives while often sitting or standing in a single space. “One Way” is about a crime, but writer Ben Conway uses a dangerous situation to try and explore various personalities and relationships, only really pursuing tension with select moments of confrontation. There’s simply not enough here to carry a feature-length effort, with the material giving off heavy short story vibes, asking viewers to invest in uninteresting players involved in a dull game of trust, theft, and manipulation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

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“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” began life as a short film from Adamma Ebo, with the writer/director taking 15 minutes of screen time to confront certain aspects of megachurch culture and leadership, playing with a mockumentary approach to examine character insecurities and misbegotten behavior. Ebo returns to the material with a feature-length take on the topic, presenting the helmer with a different creative challenge, now tasked to expand on her ideas and generate a larger world for the characters and their raging issues. Those expecting a riff on religious predators with a Christopher Guest-ish approach would be wise to alter expectations for “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” It’s an amusing endeavor with big personalities and strange con games, but Ebo doesn’t go broad enough with the movie, working to find a middle ground between laughs and pathos, which creates interesting moments of friction in a picture that feels a little too scattered at times to hit its intended target. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - The Immoral Three

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Director Doris Wishman had a dream, and after the death of her husband in 1958, she decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, focusing on sexploitation entertainment, hoping to reach an audience with lusty tales of revenge and love. 1975's "The Immoral Three" is part of her colorful oeuvre, acting a sequel to "Double Agent 73," though star Chesty Morgan didn't return for additional spy games. How does one replace such an unforgettable screen presence? By hiring three actresses to take care of nudity requirements, which is meant to make up for Morgan's noticeable absence. Wishman remains committed to a tale of men vs. women with "The Immoral Three," offering bloody violence and acts of savage male behavior, trying to pick up where "Double Agent 73" left off, also working to up her technical game with a bright, more camera-aware endeavor that doesn't live up to its potential, but offers decent Wishman-branded fun for those patient enough to find it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Double Agent 73

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Director Doris Wishman had a dream, and after the death of her husband in 1958, she decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, focusing on sexploitation entertainment, hoping to reach an audience with lusty tales of revenge and love. 1974's "Double Agent 73" is part of her colorful oeuvre, reuniting with "Deadly Weapons" star Chesty Morgan for another tale of danger and desire, this time endeavoring to offer audiences a slight spin on the superspy subgenre, positioning the unmissable star as a 007-type trying to bring down bad guys using many forms of self-defense and assassination attempts that involve a large bosom. Wishman's a bit more ambitious with "Double Agent 73," trying to expand on earlier experimentation with action and suspense, and she lands some decent scenes of low-budget fury. The helmer doesn't provide a sustained level of excitement, but the effort has some memorable moments and genuine craziness to make it an entertaining sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Deadly Weapons

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Director Doris Wishman had a dream, and after the death of her husband in 1958, she decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, focusing on sexploitation entertainment, hoping to reach an audience with lusty tales of revenge and love. 1973's "Deadly Weapons" is part of her colorful oeuvre, with Wishman presenting actress Chesty Morgan to the world (billed here as Zsa Zsa), offering the exotic dancer a chance to carry a movie. "Deadly Weapons" does make the most of what Morgan is known for, keeping pressure off her thespian skills to move ahead as a campy tale of relationship devotion and vengeance, with Wishman working to build an exciting, titillating tale of a busty woman and her thirst to destroy the men who ruined her life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Keyholes Are for Peeping

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Director Doris Wishman had a dream, and after the death of her husband in 1958, she decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, focusing on sexploitation entertainment, hoping to reach an audience with lusty tales of revenge and love. 1972's "Keyholes Are for Peeping" is part of her colorful oeuvre, with the helmer aiming to create a farce starring Sammy Petrillo, a comedian best known as a Jerry Lewis imitator, and one Lewis didn't enjoy. Once again, Petrillo brings his strong "we have Jerry Lewis at home" energy to the endeavor, portraying a marriage counselor trying to connect with his first patients. "Keyholes Are for Peeping" is barely a movie to begin with, with Wishman finding ways to recycle or utilize old softcore footage, conjuring a comedy that's big on broad antics and lusty visuals, with Petrillo in the middle of it all, hamming it up to the best of his ability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Love Toy

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Director Doris Wishman had a dream, and after the death of her husband in 1958, she decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, focusing on sexploitation entertainment, hoping to reach an audience with lusty tales of revenge and love. 1971's "Love Toy" is part of her colorful oeuvre, with Wishman doing away with any dramatic interests, charging ahead with a full-on fetish picture that plays to taboo desires. Wishman doesn't have anything more than a to-do list of sexual adventures, trying to transform "Love Toy" into a strange psychological and physical display of bedroom experiences. There's no feature here, just an assortment of kinks handed screen time, tied together with the thinnest of plot, buttoned with a true B- movie ending. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Me Time

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In “Me Time,” star Kevin Hart does what he usually does when carrying a comedy, offering all the panicked reactions and screaming he can muster. It’s his thing, recently on display in “The Man from Toronto,” and he shows no sign of rethinking his acting choice, always equating loudness with hilarity. Writer/director John Hamburg (“I Love You, Man,” “Why Him?”) finds ways to work with Hart’s agitated state, creating a character in the midst of parenthood, playing up the panic factor of a man trying to be the best for everyone in his life, neglecting his own needs. There’s nothing radical about the work, and it eventually loses its way, but “Me Time” has some behavioral clarity during the first half, touching on the stress of responsibility while playing everything broad for the widest possible audience. There are laughs to be found in the endeavor, just not enough of them, and no amount of Hart hysterics is capable of covering some painfully mediocre writing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - The Invitation (2022)

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A common complaint from movie fans is how theatrical trailers often give away too much of the films they’re promoting. It’s a common Hollywood marketing tactic, showing off the good stuff to help bring paying customers to theaters. In the case of “The Invitation,” Sony Entertainment elected to literally give the entire feature away with their preview, walking viewers through the whole plot and even the resolution of the endeavor, exposing all of its twists and macabre touches. Of course, one can’t blame the production for such a suspense-killing decision, and “The Invitation” is a tricky picture to explore without touching on some potentially spoilery material (if you haven’t seen the trailer, don’t read reviews). However, even with the effort’s tricks carefully hidden from view, such surprises don’t magically make it a better film, with writer Blair Butler and director Jessica M. Thompson (“The Light of the Moon”) stumbling through the chiller, which plays a fairly rickety game of misdirection before it becomes ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Samaritan

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Where do superheroes go when they decide to retire from the pursuit of justice? That’s the premise of “Samaritan,” which offers Sylvester Stallone as an aging man of steel, working to live a quiet life on his own before an excitable teenager starts putting the clues to his true identity together. Writer Bragi F. Schut (“Season of the Witch,” “Escape Room”) doesn’t have a particularly unique take on the masked avenger genre, but he does bring a certain grit to the endeavor, generating a tale of redemption and guardianship that works well with Stallone’s older screen presence. “Samaritan” is boosted by crunchy action scenes and broad villainy, with director Julius Avery (“Overlord”) handling formula to the best of his ability, investing in harder edges and a sense of discovery with the feature, which connects as a short story-esque take on comic book relationships and acts of stained honor. And it knows when to end, which is a rare event with superhero cinema, hitting its dramatic beats and concluding. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Three Thousand Years of Longing

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George Miller is an accomplished director with a strange filmography. He doesn’t work very often, taking time to craft his endeavors, and he always tries to generate something special when he finally gets around to making a movie. His last release, 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” was one of the most electrified offerings in his career. He went deep to create an often astonishing vision of environmental doom and dystopian war, triumphantly reviving the franchise that helped to introduce his creative interests to audiences. After dealing with the epic scale of “Fury Road,” Miller tries to make something slightly more intimate with “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” which examines the waves of myth and storytelling while striving to generate a powerful romance along the way. Miller provides arresting visuals and attention to editorial detail, but he can’t shake the coldness of the material (co-written by Miller and Augusta Gore), which doesn’t reach the level of profundity the production is aiming to achieve. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Maneater

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Shark movies are still being produced. The market certainly feels saturated, but perhaps audience interest in the killer instinct of deep water creatures remains high, with “Maneater” the latest offering in aquatic horror, pitting a collection of partygoers against the hungry might of a great white hunting warm waters for sport. There’s nothing new in the feature, which offers basic characterization to help define future victims, while shark activity is created with woeful CGI, putting writer/director Justin Lee (“Final Kill,” “Hunters,” “A Tale of Two Guns”) in a position to come up with some inventive ways to subvert expectations and deliver at least moderate suspense. He fails to do anything with the screenplay, which doesn’t supply a growing sense of danger, and he has trouble disguising the vacation vibe of the production, as Maui is basically the star of the endeavor, offering sun and fun for cast and crew as a tale of terror about a shark with a grudge is gradually forgotten. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Adopting Audrey

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“Adopting Audrey” is based on a true story, and such a claim seems plausible during the viewing experience. Writer/director M. Cahill (who hasn’t been credited with anything since 2007’s “King of California”) aims to create a modest overview of people trying to work through their issues, keeping the feature as low to the ground as possible, reflecting the reserved nature of the characters. It’s a story about a woman searching for connection during a period of isolation, and while the title hints at something a bit more playful, “Adopting Audrey” is more of a meditative exploration of relationships, especially between children and parents. Cahill extracts nuanced performances out of his talented cast, and the ensemble remains the primary reason to stay with the endeavor, which isn’t quite as wise or touching as the helmer believes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - The Phantom of the Opera

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There's so much to appreciate about Dario Argento's work in the 1970s and most of the '80s, with the helmer in full command of his moviemaking powers, still burning with youthful creativity and audacity when it comes to shocking audiences with mysteries and horror. The 1990s welcomed the beginning of a creative decline for the helmer, who struggled with a changing film industry and audience tastes. 1998's "The Phantom of the Opera" is a prime example of Argento's desire to create something extraordinarily bizarre and lavish, only to be held back by budgetary issues and a blurred vision for romanticism. It's an oddball endeavor, with occasional flashes of inspiration, but the overall effort is often confused, poorly cast, and a bit too random with its ideas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century

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Dino De Laurentiis actually did it. The famous producer hyped the stuffing out of his 1976 remake of "King Kong," making sure audiences everywhere knew the film was coming and it was going to be an event. He worked his publicity magic to the extreme, managing to turn the feature into a major hit – number four on the list of top-grossing movies of the year (sandwiched between "Silver Streak" and "A Star is Born"). De Laurentiis willed his production into tremendous profitability, and when there's money to be made, knockoffs aren't far behind. 1977's "Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century" is one of many cranked out during the late 1970s, with the Italian endeavor hoping to inspire their own "King Kong" energy with the tale of a recently thawed Yeti who can't handle the pressures of modern life, with his soul soothed by the beauty of a young woman. De Laurentiis had a top shelf cast and agreeable special effects, while "Yeti" frequently struggles with crude technical achievements and an overall lack of property destruction, concentrating on heart instead of horror, which makes this howler all the more ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - Videophobia

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2019's "Videophobia" is co-writer/director Daisuke Miyazaki's attempt to address the lack of privacy in the digital age, with those looking to cause harm capable of doing so rather easily, putting the burden of justice on the victim, and options are limited. It's not a statement picture, but an atmospheric one, with the production turning to the surreal and the mysterious to understand a psychological erosion happening within the lead character, who endures a shocking event in her life she doesn't fully understand. "Videophobia" arrives in the midst of rising revenge porn and deepfake cases, and while Miyazaki doesn't directly address the mental health and legal crisis, he hopes to provide a more internalized journey of horror through filmmaking artfulness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Blu-ray Review - King Car

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"King Car" is a Brazilian production looking to combine elements of a horror film with social commentary concerning many issues facing the country, including class divide. It's co-written and directed by Renata Pinherio, who strives to make an artful picture filled with displays of shock value and general weirdness, which includes scenes of a female character having sex with a car. If you thought "Titane" was the only movie interested in the carnal cravings of automobiles, you'd be wrong, but Julie Ducournau's feature was something to behold, with a level of insanity that invited a deeper inspection of artistry. "King Car" is mostly a mess of ideas, with Pinherio too caught up in the madness she's creating with this riff on Stephen King's "Christine," unable to form a story out of the screenplay's borderline random assortment of images and incidents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com


Film Review - Beast (2022)

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It’s interesting to see how the blockbuster success of 1975’s “Jaws” remains in play to this day, with producers occasionally returning to the people vs. nature formula to give audiences a wild ride of killer creature formula. In recent years, sharks have been used as the demons of the deep, offering aquatic adventures with ferocious antagonists. For “Beast,” a lion returns to power as the focus of horror, with screenwriter Ryan Engle (“Rampage,” “Breaking In”) cooking up a struggle for survival in the heat of South Africa, pitting a father of two against a predator who’s not in the mood for mercy. “Beast” is simple in many ways, and Engle hopes to secure some level of emotional engagement to help power up audience involvement. However, as these movies tend to go, the sheer force of a lion tearing after prey is what carries the viewing experience, and director Baltasar Kormakur (“2 Guns,” “Everest”) respects the hunt, delivering a fast-paced thriller with occasional bursts of violence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com