Monthly Archives: March 2021

Ed Helms and Patti Harrison star in this one, which opens April 23. An Ed Helms comeback?

It’s Sean Patrick Flanery vs Nicolas Cage’s son in “Assault on VA-33,” a half-hearted, half-assed “Die Hard” in a VA hospital shoot-em-up. “Boondocks Saints” alumnus Flanery, emerging as the ginger-haired B-thriller (sometimes C) rival to Frank Grillo, plays a battered, … Continue reading →

“The Sound of Identity” makes its way to streaming June 1.

“A Week Away” isn’t the most original idea for a movie. A summer camp comedy? At church camp? But making this a musical and thus one of the most ambitious “faith-based” films in years, mark this “Week” down as a … Continue reading →

“Voices” opens with a moment of what looks like torture porn — two women, strapped down or strung up, trapped by some unseen tormentor. But that fictive present is abandoned for most of the rest of this sleepwalking, sleep-inducing thriller. … Continue reading →

She’s almost certainly expecting too much when she makes that first call. “Hi Dan. I just wanted to say that I’m OK and that I’m back now.” Knocking on his door just confirms it. You can’t “just show up,” Dan … Continue reading →

If you remember your documentaries, you’ll recall that a certain Detroit singer was huge in South Africa in the late ’70s and onward. It’s still a little jarring for a 1981 period piece to confirm that, soldiers cleaning their rifles … Continue reading →

A broken-hearted guy not quite getting over a breakup lets us see his pain, his world and what’s funny about it in this April 30 release from Samuel Goldwyn.

“Moffie” is a South African “Full Metal Jacket,” a drama about the dehumanizing nature of combat training, the need to turn “soft” conscripts into unquestioning killing machines and an arm of foreign policy and the psychic cost that can have. … Continue reading →

Young love is tested by illness and honesty issues in “Caught by a Wave,” a scenic Italian romance set against a sailing backdrop. The leads are pretty and the locales romantic, but the scenario is generic and the pacing funereal … Continue reading →