Amazon Prime Video

“The Mad Women’s Ball” (2021)

Treatment of mental illnesses has never been straightforward. Through prescribed medicines, it keeps the insane mind in control, but only temporarily, until the sanity goes away completely. There is always the question, whether doctors do everything possible to help the patients before releasing them back to society, or it’s […]

Film Review: “The Mad Women’s Ball” (2021)

Crime

Marathon Man

As I continue revisiting my favorite movies of the past, the next one up is Marathon Man, from 1976. This isn’t one of the small number of films that I’ve seen countless times, but I have seen it several times. I’d guess this most recent time was the fourth or fifth time I’ve watched it […]

Marathon Man

Drama

Turkish Thriller Only Gives Up its “Grudge” at the End

The Turkish police procedural “Grudge” toys with the idea of really saying something blunt and chilling about Turkish justice, Turkish policing and the powerlessness of The People, and only loses its nerve in the third act. The ending is the final “cop out” of this decently-plotted Around the World with Netflix thriller, titled “Kin” in […]

Netflixable? Turkish Thriller Only Gives Up its “Grudge” at the End

Crime

The Guilty

Well damn. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, a disgraced cop who’s been busted down to dispatch duty, manning the 911 desk until he can clear his name. On his last shift before he’ll get his day in court, he takes a call that will change his life. On the other end of the phone, Emily whispers […]

The Guilty

Movie Reviews

Encounter

Well that was unexpected. Director Michael Pearce takes a sci-fi action thriller road trip movie and subverts your every expectation, giving us panicky thrills of another kind. Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a Marine who’s been working back to back top-secret missions, too busy saving the world to see his sons, who live with their […]

Encounter

Horror

Candyman

I think one of the horror films that has really stuck with me the most has been Candyman which was released in 1992. It was directed by Bernard Rose and was based on a Clive Barker short story called The Forbidden. Clive Barker of course made Hellraiser, which I have not fully gotten into yet. […]

Candyman

Drama

Glasshouse

I am a fan of a post-apocalyptic/dystopian nightmare done well, and I wasn’t sure that’s what Glasshouse promised, but boy did it deliver. Glasshouse is an official selection of the Fantasia Film Festival 2021. The Premise: Living in a glasshouse in total isolation, a matriarch helps her family survive The Shred, a dementia-like virus that […]

Glasshouse

Action

Blood Red Sky

2021 Foreign (German?) horror This starts with a boy getting out of the ‘back’ of the plane (or was that a cargo hold?), while someone climbs into the pilot seat. Once the boy is in custody we get to see the what transpired. The mom Nadia is sick in someway, at first look you think […]

Blood Red Sky

Action

Jolt

The Premise: Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) suffers from Intermittent Explosive Disorder, which causes her anger, and indeed even mild annoyance, to turn into deadly violence. When provoked, she snaps, and good luck surviving her wrath as the extra cortisol makes her stronger and faster than any mere human. After a childhood spent as a lab rat, […]

Jolt