Movie Reviews Archives | Page 39 Of 241

The Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Are Feuding in Alien Country, It’s Just A Hoot and a Hollar!

When Utah is more known for its barren landscape than its lush pine forests, this state can be Alien Country for those UAPs often seen high in the sky.

Alien Country Movie Poster Now available on VOD (Google Play, YouTube)

It should come as no surprise that UFOs seen in the State of Utah are more visible than elsewhere. It should be known as Alien Central than Alien Country–the title of this film. Whether that’s because it’s where free famous ecological landmarks converge–The Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau–or something else, it seems the fictional town of Blue River is the focus. In this film directed by Boston McConnaughey, I get the sense he wanted to deal more with the rednecks drama going on here than the aliens, which are often kept away at arms length until those moments matter.

That’s because of the drama that’s happening between Jimmy (K.C. Clyde) and Everly (co-writer Renny Grames), whose on-again/off-again relationship is very front and centre. She’s pregnant, and he can’t figure out what she wants. When she wants to make it big as a singer-songwriter, all he cares about is to survive the next crash and burn. Also, he has abandonment issues. His father disappeared when he was young.

These days, he’s a demolition derby driver and considering he’s putting his life at risk every-day, I’m sure his girlfriend wants him to change careers. It took a while for me to get invested in their drama, but once that’s in place, that’s when the fun starts. They accidentally open a portal to some world, and when the aliens come busting out, it’s up to them to save their town from this invasion! Continue reading “The Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Are Feuding in Alien Country, It’s Just A Hoot and a Hollar!”

It’s Often Best Not to Let “The Beast Within” Run Wild

Halloween doesn’t have to be about ghosts and vampires, but also The Beast Within, and what must not be let loose! But the metaphor is clearly there, should viewers want to believe it’s also a story about cursed lineages.

The Beast Within Blu Ray Cover — Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Well GO USA

Kit Harrington is an amazing actor, and while not every film he’s in can spotlight just how beautiful his voice is, that will depend on the director to bring it out. With The Beast Within, a dramatic thriller, whether his character Noah is really a werewolf. The signs are there, and as for this personality, perhaps there’s much to fear. But for 10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall) the real question is if she knows who her father really is.

That’s where the tension gets tested. I’m never too sure what’s going on in this parent’s mind. His actions spoke louder than words, and while how wife (Ashleigh Cummings) is very protective of their child, the elder member of this family, a grandpa (James Cosmo) is doing his best to keep everyone safe. The selling point of this film is in seeing the lengths the adults are doing to keep the kid safe. However, there’s some pagan world which isn’t as well-defined to explain some past this individual is obviously a ruler of.

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In Guy Maddin’s Rumours, What’s Amazing is That There’s No Secret Societies At Work Here

There’s lots of absurdist moments in this polticial satire set during the apocalypse in Rumours. What’s offered is more than just a movie review here, but also an analysis about what it all means!

Guy Maddin's Rumours Movie Poster Now playing at select theatres
Spoiler Alert

When Guy Maddin’s Rumours gets heavy with absurdist humour and presents a group of world leaders as inept, this movie may well be his most bizarre to date. That’s because of the setup: these folks have gathered to deal with some unknown global crisis. And as for whether the mud people they discover is part of it or not, that’s a mystery they’ll have to figure out, if they don’t kill each other first! I suspect these subplots had the help of co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson during filming, and reminded me of the classic soap opera, Dark Shadows.

By the time everyone agrees on how to enact a plan against some strange mauraders, it’s too late. Here, we meet German premier Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett) trying to keep it together, but I suspect she’s ready to crack. And the people who are there to represent other extremes include Antonio Lamorle (Rolando Ravello) from Italy; Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis) from Canada; Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet) from France; Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) from Japan; Cardosa Dewind (Nikki Amuka-Bird) from the UK, and US President Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance). While most of them are caricatures of certain leaders we know in our world, the folks who don’t get lost in the shadows.

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That’s No Kung Fu “Panda Plan” When Jackie Chan is Involved. At Least the Fun is Amped Up!

When Jackie Chan has a Panda Plan, that’s all fans need to know with this movie now playing at select theatres near you.

Well GO USA

Quite often, the roles Jackie Chan plays are not unique. He hasn’t played some notorious gangster or a bad guy yet. As far as I know, he’s been a random thug, but these were uncredited roles. In his latest, Panda Plan (熊猫计划), he’s simply being himself much like in the cartoon, Jackie Chan Adventures. Since it really is this animated series brought to real life, minus the grandfather and kid side-kick. The only difference is that in this toon, he’s an archaeologist with connections with a secret agency and in this film, he’s an actor/stuntman. Although most of the scenes with the cub are CGI, I bought into the illusion since to have a real one on set would bring out the activists.

The humour is classic; the stunts are over the top, and the situations he ends up in are gonzo! Hu Hu is the star of a local zoo and this cutie pie steals the show (even though most of the scenes are digital). His caretaker is Xiao Zhu (Shi Ce) and although she doesn’t quite get the screen time she deserves, thankfully she isn’t forgotten.

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In Doctor Who, Just How Many Lives Does The Master Have Left?

One of Doctor Who’s greatest foes needs more than a makeover. Instead maybe The Master just needs writers who cares to give him what he wants for once, and show how The Doctor attempts to reverse the damage.

The Master throughout the Years The Master was once an exceptional villain in the Doctor Who series, but after revisiting some recent material during the Canadian Thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but consider one unsettling fact. Just how many lives (regnerations) does he have left? Lately, ever since this series returned to the airwaves back in 2005, he’s been burning through his regenerations quite fast and he’s no longer the Wile E. Coyote he once was.

After stealing the body of Tremas, he basically was at his last regeneration until this full on material swap broke the mold. The Time Lords offered a new set to take advantage, but what has changed? How have the rules been altered? While everything has evolved for The Doctor now in his/her 15th incarnation, I got curious and had to revisit past episodes, consult a few guides and figure out what went wrong.

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Steven Kostanski’s Frankie Freako Wants to Party, and We Know How to Find This Crazy Dude!

Frankie Freako is the type of guy who means well, even though at first glance, he’s all punk all the way.

Coming to VOD beginning on October 25
(iTunes and Amazon Prime)

Although four years seems long in between projects, the team of Astron-6 deserves all the credit in a Steven Kostanski led movie, simply titled Frankie Freako. This movie shows just how wonderful puppet gore movies are. As much as I like to use the word puppetcore, that’s the name of a company who produce just as equally wacked out films. Also, they make mostly all puppet productions

When this film includes live-action as part of the equation, what’s presented is very Muppet-like, especially in how they move around the screen. But in this case, instead of revelling in slapstick, the concept delivers the horrific and humour in droves. The last film I saw was Frank and Zed.

That’s because somewhere in space, hobbit-sized characters who want to be like DC Comics’ Lobo insist that they bring their party anywhere in the cosmos. There’s a broadcast where the title character (voiced by Matthew Kennedy) offers to livin up anyone’s doldrum life. When Conor (Conor Sweeny) is an office employee with no gumption to succeed, not even his fellow workers seem to be fighting for inter-office promotions to get a better job. I suspect that before becoming such a Stephen Fry (from Futurama) he had not much of a social life. As for what his wife, Kristina (Kelly Wordsworth) saw in him back when they first dated, not even her sexual advances can stir him up.

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