Summary A medical practitioner gets himself involved in a crime which happens in a unexpected way. Filled full of guilt, he tries to escape from the cops of Thailand but finally gets captured for a while, then gets a approached to go back to his own country.
Genre : Thriller Country : Laos
Cast : Rossif Sutherland : John Lake
Sare Botsford : Dr. Stephanie Novella Ted Atherton : Patrick Reardon
Director : Jamie M. Dagg
My opinion
“Your face. What happened? I was very drunk last night. I was riding a bicycle, and I fell.”
Can you imagine this. One moment you're standing in an operating room amputating someones leg with a saw. The other moment you're running like a madman through Laos trying to outrun the authorities. This happens to John Lake (Rossif Sutherland), a hard-working doctor, who's sent on a well-deserved holiday after a discussion with the head doctor. At his destination (It surely isn't a five star all-inclusive resort) he's having a few drinks one evening, accompanied by an over friendly bartender. On his way to his humble hut he witnesses an assault on a local girl by a drunken, noisy Australian. And in a split second he makes the wrong decision. Before he knows it, he is a fugitive who's wanted for murdering the son of an Australian Senator and raping a native girl.
The result is an intense manhunt for the guilty western doctor by the local police. And he's guilty. That's a fact. The only thing John has in mind, is not to go on trial in Laos itself. "River" is a film in which desperation, fear and guilt are palpable presence. John, sweaty, bloodied and bruised, is constantly on the run. A boat ride with a local resident. A lift from a couple dodgy looking men. A bus trip which happens to be controlled by a police patrol. It doesn't matter in what way he travels, as long as he stays out of the hands of the authorities and manages to reach a US Embassy. He even has to make a certain decision in the end, that goes against his moral principles. The result of this nerve-racking race, is that the film never pauses for a moment. The pace is blistering (probably appropriate for the climate there) fast and exhilarating.
Rossif Sutherland (son of Donald and brother of Keifer Sutherland) acts convincingly. You can see the desperation and fear on his face. A chaotic flight where he relies entirely on his survival instinct. The intensity is unbearable and because of the sultry environment it's as if you can smell John's pungent body odor in your living room. Although the story is fairly straightforward and obvious, the ending is still surprising. Let me put it this way. It has a high "Oh come on" content. A bit against the flow compared to the rest of the movie. I guess the sense for justice presented itself to John suddenly. It's probably a personal trait. John can't resist to do good for others over and over again.
Summary Fourteen-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca.
Genre : Drama Country : USA
Cast : Alex Neustaedter : Homer Macauley
Sam Shepard : Willie Grogan Meg Ryan : Mrs. Macauley
Director : Meg Ryan
My opinion
“Okay, the faster you deliver messages, the more you can deliver. The faster you pick up outgoing messages, the more we can send. The more we can send, the better our chances of beating western union and staying alive. We're postal telegraph. We get there swiftly. We're polite to everyone. We take off our hats in elevators and above all things, we never lose a telegram.”
"Wow!" I thought for a minute. A drama with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks demonstrating their skills once more. Is it a sequel to the masterful romantic comedy "You've got mail"? Well, it's about sending messages for sure. But Tom Hanks won't send a lot of messages anymore. Or he's sending them from the afterlife. It's the era before the internet even existed. These were the happy days without spam or ransomware. But to deliver the telegram within an acceptable time frame, the telegraph services needed young boys who could ride a bike swiftly enough. And since "Ithaca" is situated during the 2nd World War, with lots of American boys fighting on the European continent, it's no surprise most of the messages brought no good news.
And that's something Homer Macauley (Alex Neustaedter) is facing. He's betting his life on being the fastest courier on bike ever. Despite the fact that he's racing back and forth like a kind of Cavendish the whole movie, the film on its own is rather slow. Biggest surprise was the rather limited contribution by Tom Hanks. Was he doing Meg Ryan (debuting here as a director) a favor? Or was it just to stir up the former movie chemistry? In contrast, the film was hugely predictable. I could guess early on in the film wich fate Homer was quickly sprinting towards. I know it wasn't the intention to create a mysterious puzzle. But I was hoping for a little surprise. Ultimately, it's once again about fear and hope. Left behind families waiting for some news from their sons who are sent to war. And this combined with the story about a boy, who's confronted with the less pleasant events in life, while delivering these messages.
Because of the short playing time, Meg Ryan failed to unravel the fragile personality of Homer in an orderly manner. His leap to adulthood is fairly abruptly after the death of his father and the departure of his older brother. A brother who writes terribly long letters while on his way to the front, in such a prosaic writing style that it seems as if he wants to win a Pulitzer prize. The occasional reading of excerpts from these letters probably was meant to bring drama into the film. Eventually, I thought it was quite disturbing. A short playing time with a variety of storylines results in unfinished and "fast dealt with" pieces. The loss of a father figure, the responsibility as the eldest son, dutifully performing a job as a courier, the disastrous reports, war scenes, the drama of an old telegraph operator and a mother who occasionally experiences "Sixth Sense" situations. And then there are a few minor (but briefly quoted) secondary plots. It's all a bit too much.
The acting isn't really bad. But it seems like everyone is groping in the dark about his character. Especially Homer's boss Tom Spangler (Hamish Linklater) is such a blurred figure. We can be brief about Ryan and Hanks. As brief as their actual playing time. It's negligible. I only enjoyed the performances of Alex Neustaedter (obvious of course), Sam "Midnight Special" Shepard and the cute Ulysses (Spencer Howell) whose cuddle factor is very high. Especially Shepard makes a momentary impression. A brilliant and intriguing character. Eventually this coming of age story during the war makes a fairly comatose impression. It isn't really vivid.
Summary When Nancy is surfing on a secluded beach, she finds herself on the feeding ground of a great white shark. Though she is stranded only 200 yards from shore, survival proves to be the ultimate test of wills, requiring all of Nancy's ingenuity, resourcefulness, and fortitude.
Genre : Thriller Country : USA
Cast : Blake Lively : Nancy
Seagull : Steven Seagull
Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
My opinion
“I'm not totally alone. I've got this little dude, Steven Seagull, here keeping me company.”
When you succeed in attracting more attention as a puny little seagull than a large oversized shark, you deserve an honorable mention at any reputable film festival. Never before was I charmed by poultry. A confident, wounded animal and certainly pleasant company. Not even one silly word came out of his beak. A fellow victim in the same life-threatening situation. Steven Seagull was an ingenious contribution to the movie. That way Nancy (Blake Lively) wasn't compelled to talk to herself a large portion of the movie. Because, believe me, a cozy chat with the bloodthirsty shark that swam circles around her, wasn't part of her schedule.
And so we arrive at the following participant out of the world of fauna. The six-meter long psychotic shark who wasn't satisfied with just the rotting carcass of a whale. Apparently this carnivore doesn't like to be disturbed while eating. The comparison with the famous shark "Jaws" is inevitable. Anatomically it's probably all very accurate. Only in "The shallows" this predator is completely computer generated, while the Jaws model was a mechanical and electronic model. Not that sharky in this film seemed fake or anatomical wrong. But in "Jaws" you got the impression that it was a lifelike trained shark. When I was a youngster, I won a plastic shark at the fair. He had gaping jaws and looked quite menacing to me. Until you shoved him to the ground and his gaping mouth was double folded. This plastic monster looked much less threatening when doing that. Rather laughable. Wait for the denouement in "The Shallows" and you'll understand what I mean.
Between all this fauna there's a female human being in a tiny bikini. Nancy is a ravishing appearance who needs a moment of reflection in her life after the death of her mother. Nothing is more fun than to travel to a Mexican bay where her mother used to go once. Blake Lively was unknown to me, but after seeing her trained body and perfect-looking female parts, I'm planning to watch the other movies she participated in. I'll be honest. Lively lying on her surfboard with a camera strategically focusing on her tightly shaped buttocks, was a breathtaking sight. Kudos to Collet-Sera to make this film in such a way that my attention was diverted from these bodily temptations, even though she was wearing a bikini the whole movie. All praise for Lively as well, because she plays almost the entire movie cavalier seul. Not a simple task and she does it with gusto. And this thanks to the excellent cooperation of Steven Seagull.
In terms of story, it actually wasn't that big of a deal. Exotic blonde visits a beautifull beach and surfs in azure blue water. According to a shark, she looks like a snack. And she ends up on a piece of rock situated too far from the beach and a buoy. Her task is to get to safety, while the highly intelligent shark is patrolling nearby. Not very original. What remains are the beautiful images. Both the slow motion footage of the waves, as the underwater clips, look sublime. Perfect images that would fit in a "Bounty" commercial. And then there's the steadily increasing tension. It's waiting for the shark to show up, the fatal attack and whether Blake Lively will manage to stay alive (again an appropriate name) and escape. All in all a lot of positive things in this film (except the totally whacked ending) with a simple story. Yet Steven Seagull remains the brilliant highlight of "The Shallows".
Summary In the year 2154, a group of young men and women awake in a dark claustrophobic maze. They don't remember who they are or how they got stuck in this labyrinth. The group must learn to decipher codes, understand the signals and beat the tests in this mysterious and bizarre place. Out of necessity they struggle to form a bond to survive, while the outside world watches and wagers on their fate.
Genre : SF Country : Italy/UK/Malta
Cast : Skin: Anita
Alec Baldwin : Adam Danny Glover : Cancellor Gordon
Director : Francesco Cinquemani
My opinion
“10 must enter the challenge. The goal is the conquest of freedom. Welcome to the season premiere of the redemption games.”
There are bad movies. There are horribly bad movies. And there's "Andròn: The Black Labyrinth". Normally I succeed in finding something positive in a movie. But no matter how hard I looked for it, I couldn't find anything positive in this one. Whatever aspect I even looked at. The conclusion is that it's in each case a failure. It's nothing new that nowadays a moderate version of a successful Hollywood product is being made once and a while. They try to ride the waves of success of those blockbusters, of course. You would expect them to be at least a bit more creative with the stolen concept. Even this film doesn't bother about that. It simply copies the stuff shamelessly.
Ultimately, this looks like a kind of "The Hunger Games". It's set in a maze as in "The Maze Runner". And all of this is happening in a post-apocalyptic, overcrowded world, as you could admire in "Elysium". In "Elysium" the poorest population lived on earth in deplorable conditions, while the happy few floated in an orbit on an artificial paradise. In "Andròn" they keep the worldpopulation in balance by organizing bets on a contest organized in the black labyrinth. At stake are the lives of the wretched population itself. So, if you bet on the wrong person, it's goodbye glorious life (that's meant sarcastically). A kind of "Bet to Win". So it's better you don't lose.
Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover weren't really picky in terms of movies recent years. That's a fact. Baldwin starred briefly in "Still Alice", but I can't remember any film after "Lethal Weapon" with Glover in it, which was actually worth a watch. But what got into them to collaborate on this project, is a mystery to me. Not that they play such a weighty roles. And they aren't very excited about it either. The ten unfortunates who get caught in this maze where they have to struggle for survival, are all unknown actors to me. To be honest, this was noticeable. Sometimes it seemed like they were waiting for the prompter, so they could remember their next dialogue line. Even the battle scenes with terrible looking Ninja Turtles were poorly coordinated. It seemed sometimes like an ordinary game of tag. Mostly they just waited for their opponents to attack them.
The only one I recognized was Skin, better known as the lead singer of Skunk Anansie. I'm not a big fan of this band. And I won't become a big fan of her as an actress either. It all felt pretty forced. Although the characters sometimes seem really stupid and meaningless, the actors themselves aren't to blame. It's because of the worthless and confusing story. Most of the time you're wondering what on earth it's all about. The victims run around in a circular maze. But I guess it's pretty hard to walk in a circle when you look at the geometry of the walls. And that's the only thing you can expect. A group of contestants plagued with amnesia, stumbling through this maze (although it looks more like a factory building by the way) all distraught and confused. Alec Baldwin controls the show using high-tech gadgets. And Glover's contribution can be called ridiculous.
For those who have reached the end without falling asleep, the closing scene was really disappointing. Unprecedented one of the worst movies I've seen this year. A meaningless story, pitiful performances and also quite cheap-looking special effects. It wouldn't surprise me this will be a new way of torturing, used in a dictatorial country somewhere. Mandatory watching "Andròn : The Black Labyrinth" for hours. Painful!
Summary Set in a near future, technology-reliant society is creating killing machines. Against this backdrop an elite army unit is helicoptered in to a remote, off-the-grid island training facility, to test the capabilities of the latest prototypes. They set up positions and make short work of the AI targets in the killing field. However, overnight their sentry goes missing, and when they find the corpse the next day they find themselves in the killing field and the tables have turned.
Genre : SF Country : UK
Cast : Vanessa Kirby: Mills
Thure Lindhardt : Captain Bukes David Ajala : Drifter
Director : Steven Gomez
My opinion
“Turn off that shit. I do not want to be scanned, is that clear?“
Occasionally you encounter a low-budget film with overwhelming visual looks. Like "Kill Command". And that despite the limited budget. Besides that, you can also enjoy some successful performances and a narrative which is entertaining enough. Allthough it's not very original. We've seen enough films with sophisticated technologies doing crazy things because of a short circuit. The first thing that came to my mind is "Robocop". And recently something went terribly wrong in "Ex Machina". The only thing I could cite as a minus was the design of the robot causing mayhem. A bit too bombastic for my taste. And especially the practice-androids looked rather slightly dated.
Everything revolves around Mills (Vanessa Kirby), a kind of half-android who got a chip implanted into her brains that cured her paralysis at the same time. Working as an engineer at the firm that applied this technology, she receives some disturbing data from a training robot working with that same technology. It's suspected that the robot acquired a consciousness and operates independently. Mills goes along with a platoon of marines on a mission. It's a training session that takes place on the island from which this data originates. Despite being a well-oiled unit with a solid training behind them, slowly but surely they need to realize that those strategic androids (normally they just serve as innocent targets) are much stronger.
The relationship between Mills and the marines is similar to that of Rupley and Bishop in "Aliens". They don't trust her at all, which in turn creates some hostile reactions. Especially Captain Bukes (Thure Lindhardt) doubts her sincerity and suspects she's withholding certain information. In essence, that's also the case. But Captain Bukes also comes to the conclusion that without Mills, they have no chance against the artificial intelligence of the raging robots.
"Kill Command" definitely was a pleasant surprise. A simple SF that sails an exciting course. Most actors were relatively unknown to me. Not that they all had an influential part. Most of the cast served only as victim. The clashes were limited to the battle between humans and robots on the one hand. And on the other hand a dispute between Bukes and Mills. What impressed me the most was the used footage and visual effects. For a low-budget film this section was surely impressive. You can start whining about the fact that this not the first movie about a battle between man and machine. But despite that it was a fascinating film. And once again one can start debating about whether or not a thorough automation is not life-threatening to human civilization. That's also a very old debate.
Summary The story of Porter Wren, a New York City tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy and anything that passes for the truth. At home he is a model family man, devoted to his loving wife. But when a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband Simon, he can't resist.
Genre : Mystery/Thriller Country : USA
Cast : Adrien Brody: Porter Wren
Yvonne Strahovski : Caroline Crowley Campbell Scott : Simon Crowley
Director : Brian DeCubellis
My opinion
“I'm always running to the place where the bad thing just happened, arriving just after the danger has passed, watching from a safe distance, searching for an angle, that little wrinkle, the kick to the heart that makes you want to put down the dollar and pick up the paper.”
After seeing two not so good films with Adrien Brody ("Backtrack" and "American Heist") I noticed that sad look of him on the cover of "Manhattan Night". It might sound weird, but every time I see Brody's facial expression on a cover, at once a sense of gloom and sadness overtakes me. Examine once again the cover from "Backtrack" and that of, lets say, "Wrecked". Every time you see a person filled with melancholy. With those sad puppy eyes and a grim facial expression. He stares at you with a helpless and beseeching look. The man exudes melancholy.
Despite his distinctive physical traits, he reminded me of Jake Gyllenhaal hunting for sensational news in "Nightcrawler". The same profession, the same eagerness and the same melancholy look. The only major difference is that Porter Wren already had his victory moment in the past when a young girl was found after his journalistic work. Hence, he still takes care of a daily column in the New York Daily News. Even though the new owner of this newspaper isn't very enthusiastic about it. At first you might say that Porter is a boring and rational person. But then again, he hasn't taken Caroline Crowley (Yvonne Strahovski) into account. The moment he sees her at a party, he's lost and he becomes entangled in the seductive web of this blond vamp. Caroline's interest in Porter is also of a practical nature. She wants to use Porter's "Sherlock Holmes" skills to investigate the suspicious death of her husband Simon Crowley (Campbell Scott).
You'll experience something similar like "Basic Instinct" with Brody acting as a sort of Poirot who's persistent in solving a case. In addition, he has to deal with a case of extortion, so the whole thing gets even more complicated. A story full of intrigue and erotically charged scenes. Brody's daily column is about other people's misery. It looks like he's becoming the main character in such a column. Although all my attention should be drawn to the stormy affair between Porter and Caroline and the complicated developments gripping Porter, my attention went to the rather extravagant personality of Crowley. A slightly deranged movie producer with some absurd traits. A real weirdo with a weird sense of humor. Such a person who pretends to having commit suicide after swallowing a large number of pills. And then he gets up calmly and says it was just a joke. And a highly attractive, breathtaking erotic blonde falls in love with such an eccentric who looks like a bum? Women are unfathomable and inapprehensible. But the acting of Campbell Scott was beyond dispute extremely brilliant.
All in all not a bad movie. Not bad at all. But not a high flyer either. Turn it into a black and white film and you can place it between other Hollywood classics which are shown on a pay-per-view television-channel. It won't be noticed. You can call this film stylish though. "Manhattan Night" pretends to be a neo-noir film with a mystery build into. But in the end it isn't really mysterious.
Summary In the fictional town of Grace Arbor the answers are never clear.Who is underneath the mask? It's the story of a group of high school kids who amuse themselves by pulling pranks on unsuspecting students and teachers. They are all popular, good looking, the kids voted most likely to succeed. But at their core lies a cruelty and shallowness which comes with the territory of privilege. One night, a prank goes horribly wrong and a teenager is killed. The gang covers it up as a drowning accident but five years later, their lives are turned upside down when Jimmy Edwards, is killed by a serial killer wearing a haunting Marilyn Monroe mask.
Genre : Horror Country : USA
Cast : Pierson Fode: Ryan
Laura Ashley Samuels : Courtney Michael Galante : Liam
Director : Robert Mearns
My opinion
You know the saying "What goes around, comes around" ? That really applies to seven friends who graduated together and share a terrible secret with eachother. Until the group of friends slowly starts to shrink, because they are murdered one by one. Now, when hearing the stories of these annoying bullies, you're inclined to think they had it coming. Because the tricks they played upon their fellow students (and even teachers), wasn't something to be taken lightly. Those jokes were so radical, a fellow student got killed. And now there appears to be someone who wants to take revenge on this gang of clowns. And the way they are killed, is linked to a particular joke they've pulled.
"Kill Game" isn't an unbelievable good horror. But it tries to honour the traditions of the better hacker / slasher films from the 70s (for instance "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th"). So this means that a group of stupid and arrogant teenagers is gathered again to serve as cattle for slaughter. And the mysterious serial killer wears a grim mask, of course. In this case, it's a Marilyn Monroe mask. Also a list of all candidate murderers is needed. This list may turn out to be exceptionally long. After counting all fellow students and teachers who were victims of a malicious prank, you'll get a significant number of candidates. And as a highlight, the twin brother of the poor devil who didn't survive a joke appears.
But beyond these few similarities with older slasher films, this is a film that effortlessly will sink into oblivion. Anyhow, the lousy acting (inherent to this kind of films) and the not so original storyline are also present. What remains is a typical game of guessing who's the perpetrator, what's the motive and who'll eventually survive. And there's also someone whose profile complies with the characteristics of the perpetrator. Obviously that's a wrong assumption. How surprising! Indeed, a stack of known clichés. The only thing that remains is how the victims were killed. So, it isn't exactly breathtaking cinema. The only thing I've learned out of this movie, is that it isn't very smart to bully others.
Summary 
