Plot: A young mother returns to her estranged hometown of Detroit after the sudden death of her twin brother and immerses herself in his friend group, soon discovering that his death is not what it seems.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Time Now starts when Jenny (Lambert) returns home with her son Andrew, after the sudden death of her twin brother, here she gets to catch up with her mother Joan (Black) as she looks to help clean up what was left behind by her brother.
As Jenny spends more time around the town, he starts to learn more about what really happened about her brother’s death and who else might have seen or known more, putting her own place in this world in danger.
Thoughts on Time Now
Thoughts – Time Now is a thriller that will see how one woman will look to get over the loss of her twin brother, which will see her return home for the first time in years, finding herself caught up in something much bigger than she could imagine. The pacing of this film doesn’t get going quick enough, will most of the film spending more time questioning why Jenny left in the first place, rather than looking into the connections she is trying to make to fix things. It will leave us with a shattered family dynamic needing to be fixed, but nothing is going at the pace it needs to. The performances are solid, without reaching the heights needed to pull us into the intensity of the bigger picture, leaving the film coming off a lot flatter than it could have, without giving us enough meat to grab onto when it comes to the mystery around what happened.
Final Thoughts – Time Now is a slow paced thriller that doesn’t feel like it gets going quick enough.
Starring: Thora Birch, Amy Smart, Paz Vega, Anne Heche, Sofia Vassilieva, Laura Spencer, Peter Facinelli, Will Peltz
Plot: Four families in a Heartland town are tested in a single day when a tornado hits, forcing paths to cross and redefining the meaning of survival.
Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: 13 Minutes starts as we meet the residents of the town, Jess (Birch) and her daughter Maddy (Vassilieva) who is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, she has been keeping to herself. Ana (Vega) a motel cleaner who is dealing with her own problems with her fiancée. Kim (Smart) who helps run the town in emergency management, looking to keep everything together for the town, as they look to make sure they are prepared for any threats coming their way.
With a storm building, Kim calls for the warnings to be put in place, with the community coming together to make sure everyone is safe, when the story comes their way, as any differences they might have will need to be put aside to survive this storm.
Thoughts on 13 Minutes
Characters & Performances – Jess is one of the members of staff at car mechanics, she has raised her daughter, waiting for her to go off to college, she knows everyone in town, looking to help them in if they need it. Kim runs the emergency planning team in the town, she will do everything she can to make sure the town is prepared for what might be coming there way with the storm potentially coming their way, knowing when to not panic react, but give the town a chance with warnings. This character is put into one of the hardest positions around, knowing she needs to not overreact, but also want to protect her own child, who is deaf, one she can’t be with during the storm. Maddy is the teenage daughter of Jess, she is trying to figure out what to do after learning she is pregnant, finally getting to turn to her mother for advice, while still being stuck trying to make her own decision, caught in the middle of the storm babysitting Kim’s daughter. Ana is one of the maids at the motel, she is hoping to move into the area with her fiancée, if he can find work, making the drastic decision which will save many lives during the storm. We do meet many more characters who are within this community, that show people can come together. The performances in this film come off natural from everyone involved, with a big mention needed to be said for the casting of the young deaf actress Shaylee Mansfield in the role of the daughter unaware of the alerts.
Story – The story here follows a small community that are always prepared for a storm, how they work together when one comes and the work they do if one does hit them. The story does an excellent job of putting us into the different lives of the characters, showing us how these people could see their lives turned upside down by tornadoes, focusing more on the community than the big disaster happening. This is refreshing, as we have complex characters dealing with many different issues, be it remaining professional, understand and accepting people who are different and looking to put differences aside. This will show the bigger aftermath of a tornado on a community, something people would go through and struggling with in the aftermath.
Themes – 13 Minutes is an action thriller that will give us the mega storm, but will reframe from going into anything detail with the destruction, putting more focus on the community. The small town helps shows the community how each business will work together to do favours and will come together in the aftermath.
Signature Entertainment presents 13 Minutes on Digital Platforms 1st November and DVD 17th January
Final Thoughts – 13 Minutes is a shocking look at the devastation a tornado can leave on a community.
Starring: Neil Maskell, David Hayman, Tamzin Outhwaite, Elizabeth Counsell
Plot: Bull mysteriously returns home after a 10 year absence to seek revenge on those who double crossed him all those years ago.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Bull starts when Bull (Maskell) returns to town, looking for answers about his son Aiden. Bull looks up his old connections from when he worked under ruthless mob boss Norm (Hayman), Bull starts working through the former friends.
Norm who has kept his life in order since an incident 10-years ago, needs to figure out how to clear up the problem before too many people in his crew get killed, scared that his past might finally catch up with him.
Thoughts on Bull
Characters & Performances – Bull is the former hard man for local mobster, married to his daughter, who has returned after years away, looking for answers, releasing his revenge on the people that wronged him. Bull is a relentless figure that isn’t stopping till he gets what he wants, he will hurt people in the most violent way possible. Neil Maskell gives us a haunting performance, one that shows just how cold his character has become. Norm is the ruthless mod boss that has complete control over the town, he is left shocked when it comes to the return of Bull, wanting to stop this before it spirals out of control. David Hayman is excellent again, following up his frightening performance in The Ballad of Billy McCrae. When it comes to the supporting cast, we will get the typical former mobster who have tried to move away from that life, know the regret they have been through.
Story – The story here follows a man returning to his home town to get revenge on the people that wronged him in the past, a return that will see him relentlessly look for the answers. This is a story that will play out from the opening sequence to the final shot in a violent way in what is a simple idea, one man wanting to find out where his son is. This doesn’t want to stop letting us know the complete outcome of why Bull has returned too early, with us seeing how he will hurt people when he is the right hand man for Norm. the whole tracking down, will give us a serious of intense sequences, played hand in hand with the flashbacks to the connection between the people.
Themes – Bull is a mystery thriller that will bring the action in the revenge actions Bull does to the people he knows wronged him in the past. The violence involved is brutal to watch, with the special effects team needing all the praising for making everything look so realistic.
Signature Entertainment presents Bull exclusively at UK Cinemas from 5th November
Final Thoughts – Bull is a truly relentless revenge thriller, never holding back.
Disappearance at Lake Elrod – Twist Filled Mystery
Director: Lauren Fash
Writer: Lauren Fash, Susan Graham (Screenplay)
Starring: Michael Trucco, Robyn Lively, Bethany Anne Lind, Shanola Hampton, Judith Ivey, Kerry Cahill, Katrine Norman
Plot: A year after Charlie’s daughter disappears, another girl from Elrod, Georgia goes missing. Convinced there is a connection, Charlie draws suspicion and contempt from local law enforcement and townspeople as she stops at nothing to expose its most devastating and darkest secret.
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Disappearance at Lake Elrod starts when outsider Charlie (Lively) has found herself getting no help in the search of her own daughter sudden disappearance, when a year after, Trip Carmichael’s (Trucco) daughter goes missing with the whole town searching for her, starting to point the fingers at Charlie.
When Charlie is joined by journalist Amy (Hampton) they two look to try and get to the bottom of the bigger story going on within the town, looking to expose the secrets that could well give away the answers she has been searching for.
Thoughts on Disappearance at Lake Elrod
Characters & Performances – Charlie is the disturbed woman that is considered an outsider by most of the town because of the older unsolved disappearance of her daughter leaving her constantly questioning what happened. When she becomes the prime suspect in the latest disappearance, she teams up with a journalist to try and solve what happened in both cases. Robyn Lively does give us a strong leading performance, one with the narration of the sequence being the thing which will let us know more about her mind. Amy is the reporter that joins Charlie is trying to uncover the truth about what has happened, strong an independent, she uncovers the most to solve the mystery. Shanola Hampton brings us the nonsense figure to this film, which is needed to make the investigation feel more real. Outside of these two, we get to meet the host of different people from the town, including the rich family of Trip and Mama Carmichael, who are the latest victims of a missing child, none of these character do seem to get enough of a spotlight to make them feel like they are a major part in the main story going forward.
Story – The story here follows a woman still grieving the disappearance of her own daughter, who becomes the prime suspect in the latest case of a missing child, where she looks to solve the mystery, while learning about herself. This is a mystery that will offer up one discussion about how the rich will be treated differently, only for it to not dive deep enough into this discussion. When it comes to the mystery, we go through the basic questions, which take us to the latest potential suspect, without going too far with everything. The story does have a bigger idea which will come to bring a twist in how the story is revealed.
Themes – Disappearance at Lake Elrod is a mystery thriller that will look to keep us guessing, while being brave enough to throw a bigger curveball into everything we are seeing. The small town setting shows how the secrets can be kept quiet and that people will know other people’s secrets despite them trying to hide things.
Disappearance At Lake Elrod will be available to download or stream from AppleTV, Sky Store, Virgin Media, Amazon and Google Play, and available on DVD from Morrisons, Amazon and HMV from 1st November
Final Thoughts – Disappearance at Lake Elrod is a mystery that has a twist you won’t see coming.
Plot: A young woman confronts the serial killer that murdered her husband.
Runtime: 9 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Tortured Soul starts as Tamara Nolan (Stam) sits facing a man covered in a bloodied bag, before she reveals the story to why we are in this position. She has hunted down this man, a serial killer, waiting to face them for taking her loved one, changing her life forever.
Thoughts on The Tortured Soul
Thoughts – The Tortured Soul brings us what feels like is becoming a trademark for director Andrew de Burgh, putting us into a discussion, where somebody is suffering from an emotional change in their lives, that this conversation will see things change, without needing to rely on any sort of action sequence. Bianca Stam does keep her delivery calm, prepared and determined, with a sense of relief coming through each word and finally getting to unload her characters grief on the killer. The way I like to look at shorts, has always been whether the story could be expanded and with this story, we have certain lines that imply we could go a lot deeper into the hunt for the killer. This is another excellent entry into the filmography of Andrew de Burgh, where he will continue to bring his unique idea on how to keep the story simple, but compelling.
Final Thoughts – The Tortured Soul is a compelling vision of revenge.
