Tag: Thriller

REVIEW: ‘Forever Purge’ fails to outshine predecessors

This movie’s characters throw punches at each other while the script throws hamfisted commentary haymakers at the audience.

“The Forever Purge” opens by basically throwing what happened in “The Purge Election Year” out the window, as the New Founding Founders of America were voted back into office and started the annual event again. This time around, the “Purge” saga follows two couples. One is Dylan (Josh Lucas) and his pregnant wife Cassidy (Cassidy Freeman).The other is Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huera), with the latter having a job at Dylan’s father’s (Will Patton) ranch.

As what’s become usual, the Purge comes and goes with both families hunkering down. However, the killing doesn’t end there. It soon becomes clear that there’s a coordinated effort by extremists to keep the Purge going for as long as it needs to in order to tear the existing country apart. Now, the two families are forced to work together to survive.

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REVIEW: The Devil went down to ‘Conjuring’ and it wasn’t a good time

The totally not con-artist Warrens are back in another movie about a demonic possession that really happened and wasn’t made up.

Yes, there was a lot of sarcasm in that lede.

The eighth film in the “Conjuring” cinematic universe takes place in 1981 with Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) assisting in an exorcism of a young boy. In the process of the exorcism, the demon possessing the boy is transferred to a man assisting in the situation, Arne (Ruairi O’Connor).

During the altercation, Ed suffers a heart attack and is taken to a hospital. When he recovers, he warns of Arne’s possible possession, but it’s too late. Arne commits murder on his landlord and is arrested by the police. Facing a potential death penalty sentence, the Warrens begin an investigation into the possession to try to prove in court that it was a demon that caused the murder.

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REVIEW: ‘Quiet Place’ sequel suffers from poor character decisions

“The Purge” is a great example of kids screwing things up in the middle of a tense situation. Another example is “28 Weeks Later.” The latest example is “A Quiet Place II.”

After a brief opening scene showing the first day of the alien attack, this sequel picks up immediately after the events of the original 2018 film. With their home in tatters, Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and her newborn baby, as well as her school-age children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe), are forced to venture out for a new shelter.

Along the way they meet an old friend from their destroyed town, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), though he’s reluctant to help. With the knowledge that her hearing aid is useful against the aliens, though, Regan has a drive in her to find a way to spread the word.

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REVIEW: ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ brings big sky thrills

Angelina Jolie has taken a break from playing Maleficent to return to the action genre.

This time, though, she plays a character with survival skills, rather than being a master martial artist or super spy.

In “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” Jolie portrays Hannah, an elite firefighter in Montana who’s trying to get over a traumatic event that took place about a year ago. Because of the experience, Hannah is taken off the frontlines and instead is stationed at a fire lookout tower.

Meanwhile, a father and his son Connor (Finn Little) go on the run. The father, Owen (Jake Weber), is an accountant mixed in a situation where he could potentially expose several financial scandals and therefore has a hit on him. Those looking to take Owen out do succeed, but Connor escapes. After doing so, he runs into Hannah, who takes on the task of protecting him.

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REVIEW: ‘Spiral’ is a solid renewal for the ‘Saw’ universe

Not sure why the full title of this film was “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” when “Saw” was never a book, but I digress.

Chris Rock stars as Detective Zeke Banks in “Spiral.” A longtime investigator, Zeke doesn’t particularly get along with the rest of the police force and likes to work alone. This is mainly because others in the department are dirty cops.

When a new investigation regarding the death of an officer is launched, though, Zeke reluctantly teams up with a rookie detective, William (Max Minghella). The two soon come to the realization that the officer was killed in some kind of trap, and later learn that the person responsible is a copycat of John Kramer, who was known as the Jigsaw Killer.

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REVIEW ‘The Woman in the Window’ has too many story woes

This is a film with some good ideas and a strong cast, but unfortunately, it all came together in total mess.

Amy Adams stars in the film as Anna Fox, a child counselor who lives with agoraphobia, something she’s dealt with since a traumatic event took place. She lives most days secluded in her apartment but one day notices a new family moving into the flat across the road. Eventually, she meets the matriarch of the family, Jane (Julianne Moore), and the two have an afternoon with a bit of bonding.

A short time later, Anna sees Jane appearing to be murdered. She calls the police but the detectives and the husband from the new family, Alistair (Gary Oldman) approach Anna telling her she’s wrong. They then bring out another woman who say’s she’s Jane (Jennifer Leigh). With that new information, Anna begins searching through details to determine if she saw what she saw.

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REVIEW: ‘The Unholy’ squanders potential with horror cliches

Here’s a horror movie that actually would have been better off had it not been a horror. At least not such a straightforward one.

“The Unholy” stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Gerry. A disgraced journalist with a history of fabricating stories, Gerry now works as a of paranormal reporter. He travels around to write about UFO sightings and haunting to make some cash. His latest story brings him to a small Massachusetts town, but unfortunately, the supposed subject ends up being dud.

However, as luck would have it, Gerry discovers an interesting artifact near a rural church. Following his discovery, a young girl named Alice (Cricket Brown), who’s been deaf all her life, can suddenly hear and talk perfectly. According to her, she can communicate with the Virgin Mary and begins performing miracle healings. Her miracles begin drawing a lot of positive attention, but while this is happening, Gerry starts to notice sinister signs.

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REVIEW: ‘Run’ is a fantastic rush of suspense

Don’t get on Sarah Paulson’s bad side. That’s one lesson to take away from this movie.

In this film, Paulson plays Diane Sherman, a single mother who’s been raising her daughter Chloe on her own. Chloe (Kiera Allen) is wheelchair bound and has several diseases, requiring a lot of medication.

Chloe is a teen anticipating college, and she’s really excited to get accepted to a university. However, as the film gets underway, Chloe begins to notice her mother is hiding things.

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LAMB Movie of the Month: ‘Host’ review

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t just changed how we watch movies right now, but how we make movies. “Host,” a film focused on paranormal Zoom meeting, is a prime example.

For their regular virtual get-together, the main character Haley (Haley Bishop) brings together her group of friends for an online seance. Haley, who’s hired the medium for the call, is taking the Zoom meeting seriously, but the rest of her friends see it as just harmless fun.

The call does start off innocently enough, with the friends getting settled. However, at one point, something goes wrong and an evil spirit is invited in. As a result, all of the friends are put in danger.

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REVIEW: ‘Shortcut’ isn’t a satisfying horror genre entry

There’s no need to take a shortcut to the theater for “Shortcut,” because it’s not worth seeing at a cinema.

This thriller follows a group of teenage students riding on a bus in a rural area of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately the audience doesn’t get much background on the group, there are only five students which is odd for a field trip. Regardless, this is our crew of protagonists.

Things take a turn for the worse when the bus has to take a back road and, while stopping to move an obstacle out of the way, a criminal with a revolver comes aboard and holds the driver at gunpoint. That’s not the end of the main characters’ problems, though, as the eerie area they’re driving through also seems to be home to an evil creature.

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