02 | December | 2020 | Movie Reviews 101

Director: Eric Schultz

Writer: Eric Schultz, Justin Moretto, Thomas Torrey (Screenplay)

Starring: Sathya Sridharan, Paton Ashbrook, Dana Ashbrook, Purva Bedi, Alex Breaux

Plot: Attempting to surpass his father’s legacy, a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own experiment, pitting ten fragments of his consciousness against each other.

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Minor Premise starts as Ethan (Sridharan) has started to continue his father’s research into neurological behaviour, one which is looking to imprint memories for everyone to relive, with the person getting a chance to experience the memories again.

As the experiment continues, Ethan find himself questions his every movement in life, with Alli (Paton Ashbrook) being the one who is watching over the changes in his life, as he looks to get to the bottom of the truth on whether everything works or has he just made it all up.

Thoughts on Minor Premise

Characters – Ethan is the scientist that is trying to follow in his father’s footsteps with his work trying to build on what was once proposed, he does start to see results, but they come at a cost for him as he starts to get caught up in what is real and what is reality. Alli is the partner who is helping Ethan maintain control on reality, being the only one who truly knows what is going on with the experiment, rather than knowing how Ethan is feeling through the process.

Performances – Sathya Sridharan in the leading role does a great job, showing how he is always feeling uneasy with what is happening, never confident in who he really is. Paton Ashbrook brings the grounded character to life, as the two work well showing the different mindsets they are going through during the film.

Story – The story here follows a scientist looking to experiment on himself, which will see him needing to go through a process that will test his own version of sanity, needing to be grounded to learn the truth. This is a clever idea for a story, which will leave us wondering what will happen next, with the way that Ethan is experiencing different moments during the procedure. This is a story that isn’t going to go down the simple path, instead getting into the deeper concepts behind everything that is happening within the process, though the pace could be seen as slow if you are looking for an all action assault on the area.

Sci-Fi – The sci-fi side of the film comes to us through the mindset of what is going on with Ethan and how he needs to unlock the truth in a science we are not aware of.

Settings – Most of the film is set in the singular locations, the lab where the experiment is happening, it keeps everything contained for the best results.

Final Thoughts – Minor Premise is a thinking sci-fi film that will keep us guessing to the truth behind the reality of what is going on.

Director: Stephen Durham

Writer: Mary Ann Barnes, David Dittlinger, Stephen Durham, Ellen Hollman (Screenplay)

Starring: Ellen Hollman, Matt Passmore, Stephen Dunlevy, Barry Hanley, Gary Kasper, Kendra Carelli, Cameron Bowen

Plot: Out hiking, Special Forces Brenner Baker stumbles onto a Cartel’s compound. Her husband’s killed and she’s left for dead. The Cartel made two mistakes, killed her husband and left her alive. They won’t live to make another.

Tagline – They Left Her For Dead, Big Mistake

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Army of One starts when Brenner (Hollman) and her husband Dillion (Passmore) head away for a camping vacation to get over Dillion recent injury on the job, the pair stumble upon a Cartel run by Mama (Singer) whose redneck crew kill Dillion and leave Brenner for dead.

Brenner a special forces soldier isn’t going to let the rednecks get away with murdering her husband and sets out on a bloody rampage against them to bring down their enterprise.

Thoughts on Army of One

Characters – Brenner is a special forces soldier who is on a vacation with her husband, when he is murdered she goes out for revenge, which will see her using all her skills to take on the people responsible, bringing them down with her military training. Dillion is Brenner’s husband, who has been through a traumatic experience, leaving him injured, using his time to recover still caught with nightmares of what happened. Mama runs the organisation that she covers with her friendly diner chef, while behind the scenes she is ruthless leader. We have countless number of redneck figures, each one will see Brenner showing off a different skill to defeat.

Performances – Ellen Hollman in the leading role is great to watch, being the action heroine that makes the film stand out, with the physical performance needed during the fights. Matt Passmore along with the support cast all give us strong performance, even if some of the redneck figures might not have the strongest death reactions.

Story – The story here follows a special forces soldier that is left for dead that looks for revenge against the people who killer her husband and she won’t stop until everyone pays. This might well be a story we have seen many times before, which works keeping everything simple in the strategic attacks planned by Brenner. The one weaker side to the story does come from the cartel group, it is late before we learn what they are involved in and when it comes to the locals, it leaves little to the imagination to who to trust.

Action – The action is the highlight in the film, with fights Brenner gets involved in trying to get her own revenge. Each fight will put her through a different experience and set of fighting skills, with a wonderful one-shot moment too.

Settings – The film is set mostly in an off the grid compound where the operations take place, you can see how secure the people think it will be until they come under attack.

Scene of the Movie – The escape one-shot fight.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The randomness of seeing Dillion’s flashbacks.

Final Thoughts – Army of One is an all out action assault where Ellen Hollman shines as the action star.