Day: November 3, 2018

Director: William Kaufman

Writer: Benjamin Shahrabani, Derek Kolstad (Screenplay)

Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr, Dolph Lundgren, Claudia Bassols, Andrew Bicknell, Catalin Babliuc, Louis Mandylor

 

Plot: A seasoned assassin plays both sides in a Russian gang war and becomes the target of an unknown enemy.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Dull Actioner

 

Story: One in the Chamber starts as we follow Ray Carver (Gooding Jr) an assassin for hire working in Eastern Europe for the Russia mobs as two families wage war. When Ray doesn’t get the job done, he finds himself getting hired by the other side while the original job gets given to Aleksey Andreev The Wolf (Lundgren).

As the battle continues between the Russian gangs we wait to see just which one of the assassins will get the job done quickest but soon the battle will get too close to home for one when the work is in his home town of Prague.

 

Thoughts on One in the Chamber

 

Characters/Performance – Ray Carver is a hitman for hire by the Russian mob, he is good at his job but seems easily distracted and not the best at his job. Aleksey Andreev is the second assassin in this story, he comes off like a tourist and quick with his lines. Janice is a woman that Ray watches over who also has been running from her past.

Performance wise, well here you have an Oscar Winner in Cuba that gets out performed by Lundgren who is always a brilliant choice for the action man, he might not be the greatest choice but he knows what he can do. Claudia is fine without getting much time to show her skills. The rest of the cast is fine but very averagely performed.

Story – The story is by the books with nothing original going on here. We have painful stereotypes that have no development and scenes which you would expect to unfold as we follow gangs of normal gangsters who will be created only to be killed.

Action/Crime– The action is what you would expect, big and gun filled but nothing interesting going on here. The crime world is nothing new either.

Settings – The settings play into the making the film fit the budget better, once again not being memorable.

Special Effects – These all come off easy to achieve and not important to the main story.

Final Thoughts – This is easily one of those direct to DVD forgettable movies with falling stars in.

 

Overall: Forgettable action film.

Rating

 

 

Director: Nae Caranfil

Writer: Nae Caranfil (Screenplay)

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Mark Strong, Harry Lloyd, Anton Lesser, Andrew Buckley, Joe Armstrong

 

Plot: A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of old friends from the World War II Jewish Resistance to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.

 

Runtime: 1 Hour 52 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Quirky Comedy

 

Story: Closer to the Moon starts as young man Virgil (Lloyd) sees a bank robbery being filmed, only it was a real robbery, stumbling into the world of film Lloyd becomes a natural behind the camera and is hired to work with the robbers to tell the story of these once heroes of the Jewish Resistance in World War II and why they turned to a life of crime.

The crew are led by Max (Strong) works to produce the film about the robbery, which is used to try and explain just what the motivation behind his crime, poor Virgil ends up in the middle of the authorities wanting the truth and the criminals looking for an escape.

 

Thoughts on Closer to the Moon

 

Characters – Max is the leader of the Jewish Resistance group from the war, he is now high up in the police only to turn his back on the law for a robbery. He is sentenced to death but before he is executed he must help create a propaganda film about what will happen if you commit crime. Alice is the only lady on the crew, she has a history which shouldn’t put her near this world Alice fills in most of the gaps in the story for Virgil. Virgil is the young man inspired to became involved in film after witnessing the robbery, he ends up being the cameraman on the film about the robbery finding himself caught in the middle of everything.

Performances – Mark Strong and Vera Farmiga are great actors and this film shows them at their best without being the most memorable, they enjoy the comedy side of the story while playing the powerful side needed. Harry Lloyd is the new coming to the film and he is good through the film too.

Story – The story looks at how different countries with communist beliefs behind how things are run and how the people were wanting to be against the controlling system would go about changing things. While this does look at how a heist could get out of control and covered up to be what the government want to see happen with the story. in the end we do try to have too much balanced here, so we lose focus at times to where the film wants to story to be told though.

Comedy – This is mostly quirky comedy, it hits more often than it misses but doesn’t do enough to make everything memorable.

Settings – The film is set in Romania which is meant to show how the different sides came together to make this event happen with post world war II rules.

Scene of the Movie – The heist is fun to watch.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – We jump between the characters too often to understand who the lead is meant to be.

Final Thoughts – This is an interesting comedy drama, it tells an interesting story as it focuses on wanting to be remembered more than anything else.

 

Overall: One for the comedy fans to try.

Rating

 

 

Director: Richard Lowry

Writer: Richard Lowry, Gregory P Wolk (Screenplay)

Starring: Ryan Quinn Adams, Kevin Alain, Sitara Attaie, Havon Baraka, Amber Boone, Jose Rothe, Korbin Miles, Lys Perez,

 

Plot: Days before the November mid-term Elections, three young girls who are a Muslim, Mexican and Haitian, are stalked by a deranged killer dressed as the POTUS.

 

Runtime: 1 Hour 21 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Parody Fun

 

Story: President Evil starts when Presidential serial killer, David (Adams) escapes from the mental home, heading back to his home town of Libertybelle, where he starts stalking minorities around the neighbourhood, with Lana (Attaie), Medine (Boone) and Blanca (Perez) being his main targets.

On the night of the debate, Dr Lutin (Sing) unleashes David on the community and the three students must outsmart the deranged killer.

 

Thoughts on President Evil

 

Characters – Lana is the Muslim daughter of the local real estate agent, she has been dealing with the pressure of racism for years and is always searching for the positive solution to the problems she is facing with her friends. The characters need to have their religious or country background made clear because of the point behind the story. Blanca is the Mexican student that cares for her younger brother who is dealing with the fresh number or racial hate towards them. David is the serial killer who possess as different Presidents, with his first crime being in a Ronald Regan mask, now he has adopted a Donald Trump mask, he stalks like Michael Myers where he is targeting the minorities in the neighbourhood.

Performances – Sitara Attaie in the leading role works, even if her character does need to go through the preaching moments. Ryan Quinn Adams is good in the stalking side of the film, he doesn’t need to do any facial expression because he is behind the mask. The cast understand how they are enjoying in the parody style they are in.

Story – The story is set to be a parody of Halloween, with a spin that it is against the current President of the United States of America. Now this movie does need to be watched with the right mind set, you need to be able to laugh at the idea of Trump’ behaviour to get a laugh, if you are a supporter of him, you will only get offended by this movie. The story does follow the traditional slasher stereotypes which is fine, we don’t need things to become overly complicated, the idea that we are facing the problems of racially behaviour does come clean here. In a weird way the story does play out like an episode of South Park as we do get to have an important message.

Comedy/Horror – The comedy in the film is going to be a complete hit or miss depend on how you view the situation with Trump. The horror isn’t scary, but plays out in the comedy levels required.

Settings – The film uses the settings which are similar to everything you need to see in a Halloween movie.

Special Effects – The effects are simple and effective for the kills, we have moments which do look bad and others that are fun to the film.

Scene of the Movie – Mexican wall.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The preachy moments are too in your face.

Final Thoughts – This is a fun parody movie, it has important message that does get thrown down our throats at times, though you can have a laugh out loud moment or two.

 

Overall: Fun parody film.

Rating