Jeremy Butler

“How many friends did you have growing up? I just had one.”

A member of the cast has described this film as Mean Girls meets Final Destination. I don’t think I could come up with a better summation of the film if I tried. As I watched, I toyed with the idea that the film evoked Kevin Williamson-like nostalgia, but that was the best I came up with. The film is billed as a horror film, but of course there are elements that cause me to see it as more of a black comedy slasher film, like Happy Death Day. OK, that’s enough comparing it to other films; let’s talk about what Séance is. In a nutshell, Séance was a surprise for me.
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“Creeks lead to rivers. Rivers lead to towns.”

With a little more character development, Those Who Wish Me Dead would have been a really intriguing story. The film had a winning recipe: a script written by the man who gave us Hell Or High Water/Sicario (Taylor Sheridan), a cast that include talent like Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, and Aidan Gillen, as well as a rifle-toting pregnant woman on horseback. What more could you ask for? If only adequate time had been spent fleshing the characters out and answering some of the questions that were posed during the film’s runtime. As it stands, the film never gets past the initial intrigue phase, because despite all the things the film did have, it’s what the film was missing that defines it.
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A story about a man so desperate to prove his importance and rub elbows with the elite that he’s willing to kill for the privilege. I can see why Christoph Waltz made this film his directorial debut. Of course, it is also great that he also chooses to act in it as well, because as this film proves, Waltz is not only a tremendous actor, but he is quite capable in as a director as well. Based on the New York Times Magazine article, “The Worst Marriage in Georgetown,” Waltz stars as Ulrich Mott, an ambitious social climber that is willing to go to great lengths to obtain the status that he believes himself deserving of.  Too bad nobody else seems to see him in the same light, that is until Vanessa Redgrave’s Elsa Brecht, his wife as well as his subsequent murder victim. Brecht, who is a quite a few years older than Mott, helps him to discover his confidence and thanks to her own standing in the political community, manages to put him in the orbit of several powerbrokers.
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I like it when films limit themselves to one or two locations. I feel like it puts more emphasis on the acting. Of course when you limit yourself in such a fashion, it is important that the acting is of great quality. Thankfully, the actors of Wildcat are up to the task and deliver sound performances, especially lead actress Georgina Campbell of Krypton fame. Wildcat is a psychological thriller that follows Khadija Young (Campbell), an ambitious journalist stationed in the Middle East who is taken captive after her convoy is ambushed. With her and a young marine the only survivors of the convoy attacked, they find themselves at the mercy of militants led by a cold and calculating leader. The film does not shy away from the ugliness of captivity, establishing the use of torture against enemy combatants from the very first scene. Our protagonist finds herself locked away in a secure room, and the first thing that happens is that her captors remove one of her fingernails. That’s how the film opened up, so you could only imagine what other horrors she was forced to face. However, the trauma is not only of the body, but of the psyche.
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“You see this bulls*%t right here? This is exactly like him … just like Ghost.”

The first sequel series in the Power universe, starring quite possibly one of the most hated characters in the original series, and that’s a long list. Fans of the original series are likely still bearing a grudge against Michael Rainey Jr.’s Tariq St. Patrick for his murder of his father, James St. Patrick, aka Ghost, at the end of the original series. However, I heard tell when it comes to his actions in this sequel series, those are the least of Tariq’s transgressions. Picking up just a few days after the conclusion of the original series, Tariq adjusts to his new life at Stansfield University, where he immediately finds his way back into the drug game in hopes of financing his mother’s trial for the murder of his father, a rap she took for him. This Starz series shows Tariq’s descent from the world of privilege into the gritty street world
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Nothing like being framed for murder to revitalize a dying relationship. Or least that is the premise that fueled this Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani-led romantic comedy. Now in recent years, both Rae’s and Nanjiani’s star powers have been on the rise, interestingly enough as a result of stellar performances in television series (Rai on Insecure, which she also produces, and Nanjiani on Silicon Valley). This has led to more theatrical roles, which have also been moderately successful. I anticipate that their stock will continue to rise, especially given Nanijiani’s induction into the MCU with his casting in the upcoming Eternals movie, and Rae is not slouching, either, with a whopping 17 projects that her name has been attached to produce. As glad as I am that these two are doing great professionally, I don’t see this Netflix-turned-home-media release doing much for either one of them.
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It is a tall order to create a compelling television series with virtually no dialog. However, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal fills that order. Then again, what would you expect from the creator of such entertaining animated series as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This time around Tartakovsky tackles the prehistoric period with this series that follows a caveman and a Tyrannosaurus that were bonded by grief. As unrealistic as the pairing sounds, the themes of the series make it quality television. Normally, I’m not one for shows with minimal dialog; in this series, its absence makes the artwork and storylines resonate deeper as extra time and care was taken to convey the plot’s significance. Of particular intrigue is that fact that though the series is a work of fantasy, all the animals depicted are based on real prehistoric animals.
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Cute show, at least as far as I was concerned. My daughter is a bit of a different animal; then, of course, if it doesn’t show on Netflix or YouTube, she tends not to be all that interested. Unfortunately for my daughter, Victor & Valentino is a Cartoon Network show, so her interest in the series was nonexistent in the beginning. On the plus side, she was coming off a long punishment that included the loss of her TV privileges, so given an opportunity to watch any form of entertainment, she jumped at the chance. As I said, she wasn’t really about the show at first, but over the course of the 18 episodes, I think she started to enjoy it. Don’t let that number scare you. Each episode tends to run between 11 and 12 minutes, so you can watch the entire thing in the same span that it would take to watch a movie and a half. More on the subject: the series follows two half-brothers who are polar opposites; Victor “Vic” Calavera (who is voiced by show creator Diego Molano), an easily bored, hyperactive kid with a penchant for mischief and disregarding rules.
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“I believe that every fascist should be swindled.” 

The Last Vermeer truly was a worthwhile film experience for me, worthy of the silver screen. Granted, I doubt it would have been big at the box office domestically, but I don’t question that critics would have enjoyed just as I did. The film is based on the 2008 book The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan Lopez, and tells the story of Dutch folk hero Han van Meegeren (played by Guy Pearce), an art forger who swindles millions of dollars from the Nazis. Following World War II, van Meegeren become widely known as one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century, when it was revealed that he had sold a forged painting to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. These events were revealed after a sensational trial in which he was being charged as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis, a capital offense. Facing potential death by firing squad, Van Meegeren confessed to the less serious charge of forgery. It is estimated that Van Meegeren swindled buyers out of the equivalent of more than US $30 million, including the government of the Netherlands. But that is enough with the history lesson; let’s talk about the film.
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Ammonite was a very hard movie to stay interested in. In its defense, I don’t believe that I was the target audience for the film; I’m not really interested in period dramas, and the only things I know about paleontology I learned from Ross on Friends. There is also the fact that as a film it is very slow and dry, and the most interesting angle was the relationship that developed between characters Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison. Granted this was an intriguing development, but before we are treated to this, we have to survive an hour of poignant silences broken up with very little dialog. There is also the fact that my research has shown that their historical accuracy of the characters’ relationship in the film has been called into question. So now as a audience member I am forced to question the only truly interesting thing about the film. Kate Winslet and Saiorse Ronan are top-level talents, but I fear that even they weren’t enough to make the film worthwhile for me. Essentially, Ammonite is only for those who enjoy slow-building period dramas.
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“You will survive Christmas in the mountains. I promise”

Someone should have told that character about making promises that you can’t keep. In this horror film, which felt more like a dark comedy if you ask me, a newly formed blended family and their au pair find themselves doing battle with a group of evil toys. That’s right, you read correctly, I said toys, and on Christmas no less. Now, the premise of evil toys is nothing new. I for one still can’t look at a Chucky doll without internal feelings of dread; however, where those films were able to instill fear, Toys of Terror just doesn’t do it, largely due to the film’s overall pacing. It just takes too long to get off the ground. Plenty of sizzle, but by the time we get to the steak, much of the runtime has been depleted and all the intrigue has bubbled out. While it is not the horror film that I expected, there were still some elements of the film that were worthwhile despite a bit of a lackluster conclusion.
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I was very much impressed with the quality of this film. Of late the quality of horror films that I’ve reviewed have not been great, and this film helped to restore my faith in the genre. While I am past the era of these types of movies scaring the bejesus out of me, I still admire a creative story that isn’t completely predictable. There are some elements of the film that were somewhat predictable, but overall the premise and story quality kept the project from being stale. The film reminds me of what Terrence Howard said in Four Brothers: “Keep knocking on the Devil’s door long enough and sooner or later someone’s going to answer you.” Great line and sound advice, which this film appears to expand upon. While the film is probably still falls into the B- movie category, the production quality and diligent work of the cast ensures that it falls into the higher spectrum of the B-movie category. The film features Ryan Guzman (television series 9-1-1) as a priest specializing in exorcism for his many followers on social media.
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Well despite being typecasted, Liam Neeson delivers an entertaining film with Honest Thief. The film depicts the story of a prolific bank robber who after falling in love, decides to turn himself in exchange for a reduced sentence. A caveat of this deal is that he must also return the money he stole; all nine million dollars of it. It isn’t hard to figure out where the story goes from here. Naturally, the FBI agents assigned to the case immediately get greedy upon seeing the money and make plans to keep it for themselves. Where the film deviates is when they agents try to kill him, they are caught by their boss and forced to kill him and frame Neeson for the crime. I was prepared for the greed, but not the murder of one of their own, so that provided a decent twist, or it would have had it not been one of the big selling twist featured in all the promotional trailers for the film. Sometimes Hollywood ruins a good twist by providing too much information in the trailer. Rounding out the cast is Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Robert Patrick, and one of my favorite actors, Jeffrey Donovan.
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As a directorial debut, I’d rate the film as average. There’s intrigue, but it is light on explanations. The film is also a bit of a slow burn, as I was a quarter through the film before anything of substance began to happen. When it comes to the horror genre, that is a bit long to wait. The film appeared to be focused on trying to get the audience to invest in the characters in the beginning more than moving the plot along. Once things began to happen, the intrigue began to build more, and the story was able to maintain my interest. That said, I’m still confused as to the overall setup for the film. Despite its 88-minute runtime, the film had more of an indie-student-film vibe to it. It has a talented cast that included Liana Liberato (Light as a Feather) and Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead), but with the exception of Liberato’s character, the cast is a bit one-dimensional. All in all, while intriguing, the film felt a bit underdeveloped.
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If you were hoping to see if this film would get the Nalyce stamp of approval, I must apologize, because this was one that she just flat out did not want to watch. I mean, she didn’t even want to give it a chance. In her defense, I do believe that she has aged out of this type of content. Kids, they grow up so fast. So I’m afraid you will have to rely solely on my commentary about Thomas and the Magic Railroad. In all honesty, I think Nalyce made the right call by opting out of this movie. Not only is she likely no longer in the age bracket for this type of film; the plot is so all over the place that I had trouble following it. While the film does have some familiar faces that include Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda, there is nothing about the story that really reaches out and grabs you. The location changes so much that after a while I started to feel like a ping pong ball being knocked back and forward. Also, given that the film is a re-release (having originally been released in theaters in 2000), the low quality of the special effects are not likely to captivate a younger audience that has been spoiled with the high-definition quality that they get today. In a nutshell, this is one is probably not worth your time.
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