Posts by Jeremy Butler

“You have the skills of a cop, and the constitution of a cold-blooded killer. What better combination can there be.”

There are clearly no heroes in this revenge tale, making it kind of hard to decide who to root for. If anything, it is bad versus slightly less bad. Dean Cain stars as Mason Danvers, a once-honest cop who gets himself locked up on to seek revenge against the criminal who murdered his wife. Revenge, now there is a subject that never gets old; however, in the case of Vendetta it is likely it will get old very fast. I had high hopes, as the premise had my interest, but the overall presentation was a lot less cerebral than I had hoped, coming off more cause-and-effect rather than cat-and-mouse.

I’ve heard whispers about this series for quite some time but never really knew much about it. Given that Hallmark is not really a channel I frequent, I suppose not being knowledgeable about it is understandable. I was slightly confused when this disc came across my desk; I was sure if it was a television series or if it was a made-for-television special. Turns out it’s a series which follows a city girl from a prominent family that relocates to a small town and accepts a position as a schoolteacher. Upon her relocation, she catches the eye of a young Mountie. Now given that I’m coming in at the middle of the story, I’m going to ask the readers to bear with me as I get my bearings with this series.

If you don’t watch the series from the beginning, it may take you a while to get your bearings, as from the moment I pressed play, I was thrust into the story. As a new audience member, this was a bit disorienting and off-putting for me, as I was not required to play catch-up and try to familiarize myself with the already established story. Now, admittedly, not all that responsibility falls on the series; however, a brief recap at the beginning could be beneficial on two fronts: first, it will allow anyone new to the show a better understanding at what has already happened as well as the characters within the universe. Second, it could serve as a hook to bring in more people. No one likes being brought in at the middle of the story, so a brief recap would have definitely helped me get comfortable as I watched the show.

Petty crime and literature: makes you wonder how often the two coexist. In the case of Phantom Halo, the two coexist quite often and very successfully. The introduction of the literature through the guise of street theater sets the stage for the criminal activity and provides elegance to what would possible been a dull story. However, in my opinion, the two need one another to provide a compelling story. Though admittedly there are times when one aspect seems farfetched or pulls focus from the other, in the long run it is these two themes together that make the overall film exceptional.

Beckett and Samuel are brothers and petty thieves; Samuel is the distraction, acting as a street performer and delivering famous monologues that captivate an unsuspecting audience while Beckett moves within the crowd and pilfers whatever he can. Now, I know what you are thinking: these don’t’ seem like good people; however, this is simply what is required of these two characters to survive. Their father, a drunk and a degenerate gambler, rules over the two despite the fact that he provides no stability for them, forcing them to commit these crimes in order to keep a roof over their head while he takes whatever they earn (even resorting to stealing money that they attempt to save) to maintain his own habits.

Jokesters takes a long time to get to the point. The plot is extremely long-winded to the point that I questioned if the long awaited gruesome stuff would ever come. More time was spent on the setup, specifically the wedding reception sequence, than on the actual climatic events of the movie. Some of the setup was entertaining but it didn’t take long before I was considering hitting the fast-forward button just to get to the good stuff. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I put the disc in, but it didn’t take long for me to put together all that was going to happen (well, maybe not all; don’t want to come off like a know-it-all).

Speaking of the good stuff, that was a lot of preparation for a very predictable and disappointing climax. Not to beat up on it too much, but there were several things that needed to be done in order to elevate the overall experience. Half of the runtime dedicated to the setup should have been dedicated to the climax to better level the film. More time was spent on the events leading up to the killing than the actual killing itself. That is another aspect that needs to be addressed; by the time the blood and gore starts, the film is pretty much over. I would have loved to see more of a chase going on; it would have made things more suspenseful. Besides, the draw for a horror movie is the chase; there needs to be panic as well as the drive to escape.

I have often wondered how blood feuds got started in the western times. The Hatfield and McCoy feud is the most legendary, of course, except before long how the whole ordeal started just became a bunch of he said/she said. In the case of Echoes of War, it turns out that the feud that is sparked between the McCluskeys and the Rileys began over a just cause; however, the battle was bit one-sided and slow-paced for my liking. Not the mention the film does a bit of a 360 on me that really turns me against the person I spent the entire movie sympathizing with.

The McCluskeys and Rileys are neighboring families who both have suffered tragedy recently. The McCluskeys lost a son in the war, and their business has been reduced to near nothingness; most of their cattle were commandeered by soldiers, leaving them with next to nothing. The Rileys lost a mother to illness, and the return of her brother Wade (James Badge Dale) provides another mouth to feed when food is already scarce. The Rileys make their living trapping animals and selling their pelts. One day while out with his nephew, Wade notices that the McCluskeys have been poaching from their traps without even offering to share the spoils that rightfully belong to the family. His brother in law Seamus knows what the family is doing and has no intention of speaking of or taking action.

I’m really over parody movies, and this one is no exception. The cheesy dialog and recycled storylines from more popular movies fail to strike a chord with me. Is it just me, or does it seems like parodies are nothing more than the bullies of the film industry? Makes sense, right, seeing as their sole purpose is to poke fun at other movies with no originality or real substance to them. Well, in the case of Tooken, it appears that we have run out of movies to parody and are resorting to people. Well, not people per se, merely characters brought to life by the same actor; I won’t mention which actor. However, that part should not be that difficult for you to guess once we dive a little deeper.

Tooken centers on Brian Millers (your first clue), a retired CIA operative whose life has life has taken a decline. He works as a mall security guard, his wife has divorced him and is shacking up with a new guy, and his daughter is at the full mercy of her hormones. Let’s hit pause for a second; now, from the provided information you should be able to piece the together who the target of this parody is, that is if you were unable to decipher it from the title. Brian finds himself entangled in a plot involving a group of Albanians, all the while attempting to win back his wife and protect his daughter from essentially herself. Truth be told, too much time was spent on the family dynamic rather than the overall plot. The first half of the movie is a long drawn out version of what the original movie summed up in like fifteen minutes. Watch Brian attempt to win back his wife, and the unprovoked beatings of his daughter’s boyfriend are mildly entertaining but become tedious with each repetition.

Interpretation, that’s pretty much all a true crime story is. The thing about interpretation is it does not guarantee an accurate account of the facts, just one person’s perspective of transpired events, meaning what you see could either be true, partially true, or a complete fabrication.  When it comes to We are Monsters, what you believe will be entirely up to you, because it definitely doesn’t pull any punches whatsoever. Told from the perspective of the killer, the story shows his decline into madness as well as a multitude of flashbacks that simply left me questioning how this guy wasn’t locked away sooner and why the key wasn’t encased in a concrete slab.

The story starts with Rob Stewart entering what seems to be a minimum-security facility for juvenile offenders. Through some kind of error, the guards do not have all the details about this offender at their disposal, such as his psych records and prior offenses. Believing him to be a non-threat, he roomed with another offender who is due to be released in a few weeks. What the guards miss is Stewart, a delusional psychopath with racial violent tendencies. Throughout the film, several instances illustrating the threat Stewart poses are brought to the attention to the superintendent of the facility, ranging from racial explicit letters to an inmate relocation request, all of which are ignored due to the facility’s overcrowding as well as what can only be viewed as a general lack of motivation and caring on the part of the staff.  The continuation of Stewart’s delusions as well as the inaction of the guards all culminate in an act that will leave a family devastated.