Quick Reviews: Dark Glasses, Dead For A Dollar, Jane and The Good House

Diana, a prostitute who was blinded by a serial killer in a botched attack, takes in a young Chinese boy named Chin, abruptly altering both of their lives forever.

Dark Glasses is Dario Argento’s first film since Dracula 3D (2012) and is yet again another one of his weaker films. Dark Glasses isn’t necessarily bad as it is just very very dull. There’s some ideas here that work and it’s actually decently crafted when it comes to filmmaking, the rest of the movie mainly the script is incredibly lacking and is essentially a very watered down Argento film, the opening is definitely decent and is very promising but everything after that is a mixed bag.

Dark Glasses is available on Shudder.

5/10 C

Veteran bounty hunter Max Borlund heads deep into Mexican territory to find and return Rachel Kidd, the wife of a wealthy businessman. After learning she actually fled from the abusive marriage, Max faces a choice: finish the job he’s been hired to do, or stand aside while ruthless mercenary outlaws and his longtime rival close in on a town that’s been his temporary sanctuary.

I really don’t know what to exactly say here, Dead For A Dollar is terribly put together western revenge movie that is the very definition of predictable. Outside of the cast who tries their hardest with such a dull script there really isn’t anything here that’s any different from other revenge western films, the script is just begging for some sort of substance but instead gets a very traditntal revenge plot that doesn’t do anything in the way of development or character moments. Willem Dafoe is by far the standout but even he is restricted to how much of his talent he can really put in, due to the script giving very little to work with.

Dead For A Dollar is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Olivia is a teen struggling with a recent loss of a friend. After getting deferred from her dream school, she spirals out of control and launches a social media-fueled rampage against those who stand in the way of her success.

Madelaine Petsch and Chloe Bailey are both great here and completely hold this movie together from falling apart, however a lot of this movie really boils down to a PSA about bullying and why using your friend who died Facebook account to get back at people is not a good thing. There’s some fine enough moments here mostly because the atmosphere does have a few thrilling moments, but the movie really tries to shoehorn some psychological thriller elements that come off as goofy mainly due to them not fitting into the story being told. There’s been high school movies that have done a far better job of telling this exact type of story before and there will be plenty more in the future. So Jane really just comes off as something where after you finish watching it you will quickly forget about it.

Jane is available on Creator+

5/10 C

A New England realtor ignites long-buried emotions and family secrets when she rekindles a romance with her old high school flame.

The Good House has a really strong performance from Sigourney Weaver and there’s a few touching moments that have heart, however what seriously kills this movie is the many tonal shifts, often times it treats subjects such as alcoholism as some cute moments and then other times it treats it as a serious subject. It’s very baffling to say the least, there’s also some strange fourth wall jokes here that completely don’t fit into the story the movie is trying to tell. Outside of that it’s a very typical adult romance movie that really doesn’t have anything going for it outside of Sigourney Weaver. The rest of the cast are fine and the family elements aren’t too bad here, but this definitely needed a huge rewrite.

The Good House is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

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