Quick Movie Reviews

No One Lives

Starring: Luke Evans, Adelaide Clemens
Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura
Rating: R
Run time: 86 minutes
Synopsis: A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnaps a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to shockingly discover that things are not what they seem.

I wavered on how to rate this one. Ryuhei Kitamura was a director I admired around the time of Versus. The film has an actor that I like. Luke Evans has potential in a lot of ways. He did well as the villain in the latest Fast and Furious installment. He's great as Bard the Bowman in the Hobbit trilogy. So...you're probably wondering what happened here. The long and short of it was that the plot and cast were wasted. I'm not entirely sure whose fault it was. It was very predictable in a lot of ways, then there were no real answers to a big question that was raised. Who is this person? Why are they doing what they're doing? That tends to be the biggest downfall for the film. However, I'll give it an extra half a point simply for Luke Evan's bare ass.

Rating: 1.5/5

The Call

Starring: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Michael Eklund

Directed by: Brad Anderson

Rating: R

Run time: 94 minutes

Synopsis: When a veteran 911 operator takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.

The first half of the film was decent at building suspense. Halle Berry handled being a 911 operator dealing with difficult calls day to day believably in the beginning. It was easy to be empathic with her character and the people she was dealing with calls from. Once she gets the call from the abducted girl, things continue on a course that seems like it will lead to a typical ‘cops get the bad guy’ resolution. However, the deviation from that potential ending is where the film begins to falter. I simply couldn’t fathom the 911 operator making the choices that she did. Regardless of my feelings on that choice, I do believe that both Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin did well in their roles with the script they were given.

Rating: 2.5/5

Occupant

Starring: Van Hansis, Thorsten Kaye

Directed by: Henry Miller

Rating: NR

Running Time: 85 minutes

Synopsis:  25-year-old Danny Hill's grandmother just died giving Danny the chance to move into her enormous rent controlled apartment in Manhattan. Danny must lock himself in for twelve days before he can take over the lease. There's just one problem -- he may not be the only occupant.

To put it simply, don't waste your time on this one. It was 80 minutes too long. The premise was simple. A guy has to stay in his dead grandmother's apartment for twelve days in order to take over her lease. It sounds like the setup to a little ghost story. Instead, it devolves into a weird, half fulfilled psychosis story. While that could have been interesting, you're left wondering how a seemingly healthy man could end up in the position he was in after twelve days.

Rating: 1/5

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

Starring: Amber Heard Michael Welch, Anson Mount, Whitney Able

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

Rating: R

Run time: 90 minutes

Synopsis: A group of high-schoolers invites Mandy Lane, "a good girl" who becomes the object of everyone's affection after returning from summer break, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to mysteriously drop one at a time.

Originally slated for a 2006 release, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane did rounds at film festivals before finding a distribution source. It wasn’t long after that the distribution firm went under leaving the film shelved for seven years. If it had gotten its original intended release, this might have been a huge hit in 2006. We’ve come a long way since then. Mandy Lane is a formerly unpopular girl who got ‘hot’ before junior year. She’s reserved and sheltered by her family. All the boys want her and the girls seem a bit interested too whether it’s simply for friendship or budding rivalry. The movie is set up like a typical teen horror. They all go away for a drunken, sex-filled weekend only to have terrible things happen. The difference in this film is the cinematography and direction. It’s easily reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s style and films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). I did guess the twist ending, but it was still well done enough that I wasn’t disappointed when it came.

Rating: 3/5

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

Starring: Eric Bana. Olivia Munn, Edgar Ramirez

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Rating: R

Run time: 118 minutes

Synopsis: New York police officer Ralph Sarchie investigates a series of crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest, schooled in the rites of exorcism, to combat the possessions that are terrorizing their city.

Aside from an attractive cast, Deliver Us From Evil has little going for it. It lacks as a crime thriller with little emphasis placed on the everyday gruesome things Sarchie would have encountered as a detective. These are conveniently used as a plot device to explain why he yells at his wife and snaps at his daughter. The religious horrors are lacking as well. There's a haze cast over what might have made for an entertaining view. Exploring more about the priest and the things that led him to investigate the paranormal could have helped. As it stands, Deliver Us From Evil has about the same amount of demonic presence as your favorite reality haunting show. Things go bump in the night, but you're never fully unsettled. Chalk this one up as a bad re-enactment with a poor script. Don't believe the tagline. Inspired by actual accounts means they took the name of the cop, Ralph Sarchie, but none of the cases from his book, Beware the Night and crafted their own original story.

Rating: 1.5/5