The Retreat (2021) Movie Review!

A lesbian couple with a rocky relationship goes to a pre-wedding retreat and ends up fighting for their lives when a group of militant serial killers tries to murder them.

The Retreat could have been a terrible low budget horror movie but that’s not the case here! It’s actually a brutal but very good little movie, for starters I really liked Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen both did a great job their relationship was actually quite great. I’m also glad this is one of those movies where it didn’t falsely advertise that a lesbian couple are in the film, I’ve noticed a lot of straight to VOD horror movies tend to do that and the said couple gets like 10 minutes of screen time and that’s it. That’s not the case here luckily, sure the movie does get a bit predictable but it’s still a lot of fun and definitely one of the better low budget VOD horror movies. The acting I thought was all around pretty decent, the writing was decent enough! I recommend giving this one a go!

The Retreat is now available on VOD!

6/10 C+

Blast Beat (2021) Movie Review!

When a family leaves their native Colombia for the United States in the summer of ’99, a metalhead science prodigy and his aimless younger brother struggle to align the American Dream with their new reality.

I’ll say this about Blast Beat I’m glad that it exists as it is a movie that definitely feels like a passion project from the director and some of the cast. What ultimately stops this movie from being anything really great is how it feels very overstuffed, there’s a ton of themes the movie is trying to use but a lot of them end up being very underdeveloped which is quite unfortunate had the movie actually gave each of the themes more development it could have been something very interesting. The acting and writing are actually not too bad, sure there isn’t anything noteworthy but both get the job done and there is that since of passion which is a great feeling. There are some moments I thought were pretty strong and did deliver what the rest of the movie was missing. But overall there really is not that much here, it’s definitely not a bad movie but it’s not something I will ever watch again. If it sounds like your thing give it a look.

Blast Beat is now available on VOD!

5/10 C

Seance (2021) Movie Review!

Camille, a young woman who arrives at the Fairfield Academy following one of the student’s untimely and violent death.

Seance is Simon Barrett who wrote “You’re Next” and “The Guest” directional debut….and it’s not a good one. My main issue with Seance is it lacks identity, it tries way too hard to take so much from Suspiria, The Craft, Sorority Row and a lot of other movies. It becomes a gigantic mess by the time the movie reaches it’s climax with such a predictable ending that you could probably guess if you watched the first 10-15 minutes. It’s a shame because Simon Barrett is very talented it’s just not shown here, the acting is really not great. It’s definitely not the worst but I can’t really name a performance I cared about so there’s that, the writing is in the same boat not the worst but nothing very good either. The setting was at least nice and matched the movie quite well, that’s probably the best thing about this movie. Because everything else is either bad or just forgettable, overall Seance does not a whole lot to it had Simon Barrett not been in the director’s chair I would have probably not checked this out.

Seance is now available on VOD!

3/10 D-

Those Who Wish me Dead (2021) Movie Review!

A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him — and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.

Those Who Wish Me Dead is the next movie of the Warner Bros + HBO Max deal and it’s quite a solid movie! It’s directed by Taylor Sheridan director of Wind River (which is fantastic) and Vile also the writer for Hell Or High Water and Sicario. While I don’t think Those Who Wish Me Dead isn’t as good as Wind River I do think it’s a very solid movie. Angelina Jolie gives her best performance (not including voice acting) in quite awhile, I’ve always been rooting for Angelina Jolie because I do think she is a great actress she’s just been stuck with a lot of garbage. But here she does quite great and really hits it out of the park, everyone else is pretty solid as well Finn Little in particular! The movie is also really fun as well, it takes a genre of movies that are a bit over saturated in this case the survival movie genre. But Those Who Wish Me Dead manages to make it a ton of fun with some very solid action and suspenseful scenes that are quite effective, the movie does take a bit to get going which does ultimately hurt the movie but once it gets going to gets really good. Those Who Wish Me Dead isn’t going to break any ground but it is a very fun time that I highly recommend!

Those Who Wish me Dead is now available on HBO Max!

7/10 B

The Woman In The Window (2021) Movie Review!

An agoraphobic woman living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors, only to witness a disturbing act of violence.

The Woman In The Window was another movie stuck in limbo for awhile mainly due to being re-edited because poor test screenings and COVID-19 eventually the distribution rights were up for grabs and Netflix looked around and asked “nobody wants this? Because I’m going to take it.” So they did and here we are now and I can easily see why nobody else wanted it, Joe Wright’s (Pan, The Darkest Hour) The Woman In The Window is truly terrible but it’s a type of terrible that makes you ask “what went wrong?” The most positive thing I can say about this movie is Amy Adams definitely tried her best with a script that is terrible and does absolutely nothing interesting for the movie. The first two acts of the movie are completely destroyed from slow pacing and being just a very uninteresting Rear Window clone, in fact that leads me to my next point. Everything Rear Window did right The Woman In The Window did dreadfully wrong, the suspense is nowhere to be found, the characters are nowhere near as interesting, the direction has no atmospheric feel to it and the movie is about as interesting as a cardboard cutout. The third act is strangely the most entertaining part of the movie for all the wrong reasons…it goes from a completely uninteresting Rear Window clone to a hilariously bad movie that actually made me laugh quite a few times. This is something I completely did not expect at all, so it caught me off guard which is probably why I laughed as much as I did. But was it really worth to sit through two completely uninteresting acts that feel like nobody cared about? No it definitely wasn’t, but with that said I do have to give it points for making me laugh. Overall The Woman In The Window is a terrible terrible movie, sure it might not be at the bottom of the barrel but that really is not saying much at all. Somebody get Amy Adams a better agent because she deserves it.

The Woman In The Window is now available on Netflix!

3/10 D-

Quick Reviews: The Djinn and I Am All Girls (2021)

A mute boy is trapped in his apartment with a sinister monster when he makes a wish to fulfill his heart’s greatest desire.

The Djinn is another one of those “careful what you wish for” movies, what’s interesting about this one is it does try to at least do something a bit different, having it all in one location is definitely interesting and worked for the most part. The acting and writing were both solid enough and had some genuine creepy moments as well, what holds this movie back however is the ending. The ending really felt like the movie ran out of steam and went with something far weaker than the rest of the movie, I also do wish the main character Dylan Jacobs had some more actual development. But what for The Djinn is it’s not bad at all, it’s a decent horror movie if you can get past the ending.

The Djinn is now available on VOD!

6/10 C+

A special crimes investigator forms an unlikely bond with a serial killer to bring down a global child sex trafficking syndicate.

I appreciate what I am All Girls is doing (bringing attention to a real life child trafficking case) however the movie itself is just not that good. It starts out as a very run of the mill thriller but then gets better as it goes on which is nice but it’s too little too late by the time it starts getting good. There really isn’t anything noteworthy here in terms of acting and writing it’s all just simple average, I will say this is definitely better than Marsh’s previous movie “Hunter Killer” I suggest looking up the real story and skipping this movie.

I Am All Girls is now available on Netflix!

5/10 C

Oxygen (2021) Movie Review!

A woman wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of how she got there. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

Alexandre Aja has seriously been making a comeback and it’s absolutely glorious to see! While he did direct High Tension and the Hills Have Eyes remake (both of which I love) he did direct some not so great movies Mirrors, Piranha 3D, Horns and The 9th Life Of Louis Drax. He then came back in 2019 with Crawl which was quite fantastic and definitely one of the far batter killer alligator flicks. Oxygen is quite fantastic in several different ways, for starters Mélanie Laurent is absolutely fantastic in the leading role, her performance is incredibly raw and does sound like someone who is stuck in a small space who’s running out of time. Her performance really does bring chills down your spine, the writing from Christie LeBlanc is quite great as well although it’s a Sci-Fi movie LeBlanc’s writing keeps things surprisingly well grounded and makes a Sci-Fi scenario into something that feels very real. The direction is quite fantastic Aja really hit it out of the park when it comes to diving into Laurent’s character making the audience try and figure out what’s going on. The movie is very claustrophobic which really makes Oxygen all the more of a nightmare that you certainly do not want to find yourself in, it’s really effective when it makes the viewer feel what Laurent’s character feels mainly with different camera angles to add the claustrophobia effect. Overall Oxygen is a fantastic film that I highly recommend, it’s one of my favorite films so far this year and truly a Sci-Fi nightmare worth experiencing!

Oxygen is now available on Netflix!

9/10 A

Together Together (2021) Movie Review!

When a young loner becomes the gestational surrogate for a single man in his 40s, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.

Together Together was one of the movies I originally was going to see at Sundance but had to cut it out of my schedule due to being way too cramped. So I was pretty excited to see it and it’s pretty solid! Easily the best thing about this movie is the chemistry between Patti Harrison and Ed Helms, without them I don’t think this movie would have worked nearly as well. Both of them just share so much while on screen together, your invested in both their characters and care what they do and how they act. There’s some genuine great humor in here as well (sometimes it can go a little too overboard) the writing is really sweet and has this certain charm to it that’s really nice to listen to. The movie does have a very abrupt ending that I do feel does take a bit away from the movie when it comes to potential areas the movie could have explored, but the rest of the movie is incredibly solid and very well put together! I definitely recommend giving this one a watch!

Together Together is now available on VOD!

7/10 B

Benny Loves You (2021) Movie Review!

Jack, a man desperate to improve his life throws away his beloved childhood plush, Benny. It’s a move that has disastrous consequences when Benny springs to life with deadly intentions.

Benny Loves You is another one of those “killer objects, animals who wouldn’t normally kill or killer holiday icons like Santa Claus (Santa slay)” movies and it’s a pretty humorous one as well. What helps this movie is that it knows what it’s trying to be and doesn’t sugarcoat it, it doesn’t try be anything more or anything less. It’s a killer toy causing mayhem and it’s just so much fun to watch! It does have parts where the movie does have some awful pacing (mostly the first act) but otherwise everything else really works to bring a very entertaining movie. The acting and writing aren’t actually that bad, they aren’t good but I definitely expected a whole lot worse and they could have easily been worse. Very decent movie.

Benny Loves You is now available on VOD!

6/10 C+

Fried Barry (2021) Movie Review!

Aliens take over the body of a drug addict and take it for a joyride through Cape Town.

Fried Barry is definitely a very weird acid trip that’s quite entertaining! There’s so much going on in this movie between some very strange scenes and camera angles that feel incredibly raw it almost weirdly feels like a personal film, the acting was quite great Gary Green does a very solid job as the leading role and actually creeped me out quite a few times. The film itself heavily reminded me of Rolf de Here’s Bad Boy Bubby but Fried Barry is much different I just got the same vibe, there’s some humor that I thought strangely worked in the film. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air to see a recent very solid horror comedy, the direction from Ryan Kruger is really solid as well. He puts a lot of focus on the characters and dives into Barry’s character so that the audience can know more about him. It’s definitely one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen so far this year definitely check this one out.

Fried Barry is now available on Shudder!

7/10 B