Killer Heat (IMDB)
Killer Heat follows twin brothers who find themselves in a dangerous love triangle on an isolated Greek island. The investigation is given to “The Jealousy Man,” a wounded detective. (IMDB summary)
Killer Heat seems to be aiming at reviving film noir, but comes across as more of a poorly executed parody.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars unconvincingly as Nick Bali, a supposed hardened, wounded private eye. There is nothing in his performance, and very little in the script, to sell that description. His voice-over narration sounds like a drama club table read for their Autumn production. He is generally a reliable performer, so this seems an issue of casting him in the wrong part – and having weak character development.
Shailene Woodley is fine as Penelope Vardakis, the grieving sister-in-law. Again, though, there isn’t much to the character. Whether that is script, direction, or acting? All three? She is believable as the wealthy wife, and in flashbacks to her college days, but Penelope just isn’t interesting and we don’t care why she called in a detective. In the end, we are left unmoved by her tearful revelation
Richard Madden is better as the twins Elias & Leonidas, but he still has little to work with. He is almost comically broody, then randomly “menacing”.
The biggest failing, though, is the lack of mystery in the murder mystery. We know the who & how as soon as we meet the main characters, we know the why about 10 minutes later. The only real remaining questions are;
- why can our detective not solve the mystery since he has seen everything we have?
- why does he involve the local police – and why does that policeman go along?
- why do they keep telling us “the family controls the island” without ever giving us evidence of such or a reason why they or any residents would care?
- why do we have a random, sloppy break in/search for evidence with multiple deaths – and zero repercussions?
- how do they manage to have zero chemistry between any of the characters?
- Why did I waste 97 minutes on this junk?
Then we have a twist ending that we all saw coming about 95 minutes ago, except for one character’s action that is completely against the very little character they gave her earlier in the script. (I don’t want to put a spoiler in here since it was literally the only thing you wouldn’t see coming, but it makes no sense in the larger storyline)
One star for unintentional comedic parts. I would normally give it a higher rating for a beautiful setting, but they really don’t give you much of that….
Killer Heat does involve a killer, but not even a little heat.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 12%; Audience 33%
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Active Shooter (2020)
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Active Shooter
Holed up in an office restroom during an active shooter situation, three women find their trust tested when they start looking for holes in a fellow victim’s story.
No.
Just no.
Ridiculous premise that is so poorly executed it makes it even worse. Not a sympathetic character in the bunch, they are all just horrible people. For some reason, perhaps just to be especially cringe-worthy, we get one of the women throwing a jealous fit because her girlfriend/fling/who-knows-WTF is texting with someone out in the midst of the carnage.
Only positive I can come up with: At just over 1 hour, it is fairly short.
Original Title 8th Floor Massacre
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics N/A; Audience N/A
Vox AZ
Crime, Drama, Thriller
2021/1/3
All Is Bright (2013)
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All Is Bright
Two French Canadian ne’er-do-wells travel to New York City with a scheme to get rich quick selling Christmas trees. Easygoing charmer Rene (Paul Rudd) clashes with misanthropic ex-con Dennis (Paul Giamatti), whose wife Rene just stole. Still, this odd couple must make an honest go of it in this buddy comedy
Two immediate problems with that summary are the words “buddy” and “comedy”, as this mess of a movie contains neither.
I had high hopes, after all All Is Bright is a Christmas movie. It stars Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd, with an assist from Sally Hawkins, all generally reliable performers. The acting is…fine. In Giamatti’s case, it is quite good. Unfortunately, the material is bad. The story is slow & depressing and every time you think there might a bright spot (or even just a little relief from the gloom) you end up sorely disappointed. Definitely not one for your “feel good” movie list.
Giving it half a point for Giamatti’s presence, Rudd’s brown tooth, and Sally Hawkins Russian accent, which is almost as adorable as her.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 49%; Audience 23%
Vox AZ
Comedy, drama
2020/12/27
The Selling (2011)
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The Selling
A too-honest-for-his-own-good real estate agent has to sell a haunted house before its ghostly inhabitants ruin his life.
A movie I went into with the low expectations I usually have for low budget productions. I was beyond pleasantly surprised.
The Selling stars Gabriel Diani, who also wrote the screenplay, as Richard Scarry, a hapless, good-hearted Realtor. Scarry’s life gets even more complicated when the latest home he is trying to sell turns out to be well and truly haunted – and those ghosts aren’t shy.
The twists and turns are creative, the characters are amusing, and there were genuine laugh out loud moments (well, at least chuckle out loud moments)
There are a couple of raunchy bits, but they aren’t bad enough for me to drop my rating: I give it a 4 of 5, just know you may not want to watch it with your mother 🙂
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics N/A; Audience 81%
Vox AZ
Comedy, Horror
2020/10/20
This Beautiful Fantastic (2016)
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This Beautiful Fantastic
A young woman who dreams of being a children’s author makes an unlikely friendship with a cantankerous, rich old widower.
Beautiful, but not fantastic.
This seems clearly to be an attempt to recreate the magic of Amelie, right down to a doe-eyed star. The visuals are lovely, but the story is…predictable. There are several wonderful performances, and a couple that are less so.
If you are looking for a pretty bit of fluff to fill 100 minutes, this would be a great choice. If you love gardening and/or want inspiration for your yard, this could be flick worth renting.
But, it’s not going to win any awards
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 64%; Audience 73%
Vox AZ
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
2018/8/12
East Side Sushi (2014)
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East Side Sushi
Single mom Juana can slice and dice anything with great speed and precision. After working at a fruit-vending cart for years, she decides to take a job at a local Japanese restaurant. Intrigued by the food, she learns to make sushi on her own. Eventually she attempts to become a sushi chef, but is unable to because she is the ‘wrong’ race and gender. Against all odds, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
– Written by Anonymous
Sweet, saccharin, a bit predictable – but charming and quite enjoyable.
East Side Sushi is an ode to dreams for a better life, hard work, determination, and food. Beautiful food. I don’t eat sushi, but I love to watch it made. The rhythm and precision of the sushi chefs while they assemble the beautiful rolls makes for quite a show. Then the rolls are plated with lovely flourish, ready to be enjoyed … by someone other than me.
Anthony Lucero captures this process as Juana dedicates herself to mastering the skills of traditional sushi, despite the roadblocks in her way; wrong gender, wrong ethnicity. She gets varying degrees of support, as well as resistance, from her family and co-workers. And, of course, she steers the traditional Japanese a bit off the ethnic trail by including foods more to her family’s tastes.
There are a few twists & turns on the way to a mostly inevitable conclusion, but it is no less satisfying an end despite its predictability.
I believe most in my circle will enjoy this one, earning it a 4 of 5 on the Word of Mouth Scale. Be prepared for subtitles, unless you speak Spanish, English, and Japanese.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 100%; Audience 91%
Vox AZ
The Immigrant (2013)
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The Immigrant
1921. An innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.
This movie is loaded with atmosphere & mood, but not a lot more. It struck me as an excuse to feature Marion Cotillard in shot after pouty shot of her melancholy face. The story seems assembled around her, not always convincingly.
The surrounding cast was impressive, overall. Jeremy Renner, though, was woefully underutilized in a role that should have been pivotal but instead felt peripheral and superfluous.
From Argemaluco, a reviewer on IMDB:
“The Immigrant isn’t made with enough passion for us to plunge into the main character’s experiences, and it doesn’t have a concrete point besides of being a sample book of human suffering which should have been touching, but it isn’t.”
Worth seeing if you are a fan of the actors, but I wouldn’t say it is something to seek out.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 88%; Audience 61%
Vox AZ